A Coffee "to go" or a Coffee "to stay and do business"

According to Research quoted by the i newspaper this week ( 18/01/11) Robertson's Golden Shred Marmalade has discovered that

50%+ of Brits don't have time for breakfast

16% of busy Brits buy Breakfast on the move with most spending between £3-£5 a day. ( £8 million a day during the working week)

Of those who do squeeze in breakfast 60% use the time to prepare for the day ahead:-

- catching up on emails,
- social media sites
- texts
- and news

What are the implications for professional selling ?

Coffee houses have re-established their place as a centre of trading.

Of course the UK has a long history of Coffee and business.

The first coffee house was set up in Oxford in 1650 which led to a growth to the three thousand in England by 1675.

In Steven Johnson's book titled Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. From Darwin to YouTube, Johnson asks three questions:-

• What kind of environment fosters the development of good ideas?
• What sparks the flash of brilliance?
• How does ground breaking innovation happen?
He says that if you want to foster innovation - your office should look like a coffee shop!
Steven Johnson says in the video that he looks for the’ signature behaviours’ that underpin creative environments and goes on to explain why.
Click for Video of Steve Johnson on where good ideas come from


Perhaps to those of us in Selling that is not so surprising.


Where we conduct business has an effect on a meeting with a buyer.
From the Tack Buyers' survey of

Salespeople 39% of the respondents had met with a supplier in a Coffee Shop.

Andy Bones in the section in his book The Jelly Effect on networking says successful networking is a matter of Coffee and fish. ( see book review section of this blog)

By this Andy means grading potential contacts met at a networking event ( Big fish and small fry ) and coffee - going for an informal no obligation first meeting in a relaxed atmosphere for first contact

The UK has more than 3,000 branded coffee shops.

Research group Allegra Strategies predicted that Starbucks alone will keep growing at 9 per cent a year, rising above 6,000 outlets by 2017.


With Wifi available in the likes of Starbucks, Macdonalds , Café Nero with their alliance partnerships with Cloud and BT Openzone the Coffee Shops / Cafes have become our satellite offices.

Steven Johnson might suggest the coffee shop is the environment where ‘Chance favours the connected ( business) minds” fuelled by a skinny soya latte with a double shot or whatever.

Good luck and Good Selling when you are next in the Coffee shop doing business.

Click for free executive summary of the Buyers Views of salespeople research study