About five years after we began our business, we were asked by Stonewall Kitchen to give a proposal to be their exclusive coffee roaster. We were nervous nellies going into that audience full of eager, young, enthusiastic people. Having never really presented to a group of that caliber before, we called Gussie’s oldest brother to get some pointers on how to make our pitch. Al had a lot of years of negotiating under his belt, so we figured he’d have the skinny on how to make the deal. We had a rather long call with him a few days prior to the meeting. The take-away from that call was to always be closing the deal.
We felt woefully under qualified for the task, but we packed up our samples and sales packets and cream and sugar and cups and stirrers and put on our idea of business wear and went to meet the assembled group. We think there were about a dozen of them constantly entering and departing the conference room. We laid out all the air pots and coffee paraphernalia. The group descended upon the coffee and began animated discussions about the quality, aroma, where they had seen or had our coffee, the look of the brand. We stood back and let them taste and sell to each other. Every so often someone would direct a question to us about production, and turn-around times, and payment terms, and about our ability to accommodate a new business of their size.
Our business philosophy has always been that we don’t actively pursue new business until we are sure that we have fully incorporated any new account into our existing business. We have never been interested in over-promising and under-delivering. We tend to run in the under-promise, over-deliver side of things. After about an hour into our “meeting” when things started to quiet down, Jane asked, “So, when would you like us to start and where should we make the deliveries?” or something of a close-the-deal tenor. We packed up our professional looking tote of air pots, and sugars and creamers and stirrers and shook hands with everyone as they insinuated that by their business by-laws or whatever, they had to entertain three different vendors, but that it looked pretty good for the two Goddesses in North Berwick. We lumbered back to our van and asked each other if we thought we had just closed the deal. We had a few more meetings to work out the packaging, blends, and delivery specifications, but essentially, we did close the deal.
Nearly twenty-five years later, we are sad to announce that Stonewall Kitchen has purchased their own coffee roastery and our long stretch of happy business has come to an end. We have always been very proud to have been a part of the Stonewall Kitchen family. We thank them for trusting us with their exceptional brand.
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About five years after we began our business, we were asked by Stonewall Kitchen to give a proposal to be their exclusive coffee roaster. We were nervous nellies going into that audience full of eager, young, enthusiastic people. Having never really presented to a group of that caliber before, we called Gussie’s oldest brother to get some pointers on how to make our pitch. Al had a lot of years of negotiating under his belt, so we figured he’d have the skinny on how to make the deal. We had a rather long call with him a few days prior to the meeting. The take-away from that call was to always be closing the deal.
We felt woefully under qualified for the task, but we packed up our samples and sales packets and cream and sugar and cups and stirrers and put on our idea of business wear and went to meet the assembled group. We think there were about a dozen of them constantly entering and departing the conference room. We laid out all the air pots and coffee paraphernalia. The group descended upon the coffee and began animated discussions about the quality, aroma, where they had seen or had our coffee, the look of the brand. We stood back and let them taste and sell to each other. Every so often someone would direct a question to us about production, and turn-around times, and payment terms, and about our ability to accommodate a new business of their size.
Our business philosophy has always been that we don’t actively pursue new business until we are sure that we have fully incorporated any new account into our existing business. We have never been interested in over-promising and under-delivering. We tend to run in the under-promise, over-deliver side of things. After about an hour into our “meeting” when things started to quiet down, Jane asked, “So, when would you like us to start and where should we make the deliveries?” or something of a close-the-deal tenor. We packed up our professional looking tote of air pots, and sugars and creamers and stirrers and shook hands with everyone as they insinuated that by their business by-laws or whatever, they had to entertain three different vendors, but that it looked pretty good for the two Goddesses in North Berwick. We lumbered back to our van and asked each other if we thought we had just closed the deal. We had a few more meetings to work out the packaging, blends, and delivery specifications, but essentially, we did close the deal.
Nearly twenty-five years later, we are sad to announce that Stonewall Kitchen has purchased their own coffee roastery and our long stretch of happy business has come to an end. We have always been very proud to have been a part of the Stonewall Kitchen family. We thank them for trusting us with their exceptional brand.