Coffee crops up in a lot of stories about Michael Bloomberg.
In his autobiography he claims his very first action after starting the company in 1981 was to buy a coffee pot for the tiny office he rented with several partners.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how he often offers to personally serve coffee to people who visit him at his desk in his office in New York and how it helps break down social barriers to better connect with employees and visitors.
There’s another story about coffee however that captures the company’s sales culture.
I’ve personally heard him tell this story and it also figured prominently in a book about entrepreneurs written by Gillian Zoe Segal that’s called Getting There: A Book of Mentors.
It goes like this: In the early years the company was building a system for Merrill Lynch’s fixed-income trading desk and Mike wanted to get feedback.
He said he would go over to Merrill’s office early in the morning and stalk the hallways looking for senior executives to pigeonhole and ask about the product.
Sometimes it would be hard to get their attention so one day he hit upon the idea of buying a coffee at the deli across the street and bringing it with him.
According to Segal’s book, he would say: “Hi, I’m Mike Bloomberg. I bought you a cup of coffee. I’d just like to bend your ear.”
In the version I heard, Mike said that one day he came across someone who didn’t take their coffee black so the next day he came back with two cups, one black and one with cream. Later, he added tea to the mix to cover every base.
In sales, that is known as “objection handling.”
Whenever Mike Bloomberg talks about his career, he attributes a good part of his success to just showing up. But often he specifically cites the benefit of arriving at the office early.
That’s because it can give you a better chance to interact with senior executives.
And, as he learned, they have a hard time turning down a cup of coffee.
(Part of a series about leadership lessons I learned from three decades at Bloomberg.)
Ted Merz 