The unexpected windfall
By Momoko
Throughout this process, something that struck me over and over was the importance of relationship building and communication.[…] I strongly feel that our honesty and transparency helped in our ability to connect, and most importantly, build a relationship of trust with our client.
Things were feeling stuck. While we had managed to have a very informative interview with a coffee expert, this was only one interview. We did have a much clearer idea on the supply chain, especially in terms of understanding how much time can be involved when shipping internationally. But we needed to know more, considering we had gotten feedback from our client that they wanted us to research further the potential partners mentioned in our updates. What were these potential partners looking for when purchasing coffee? How did their operations actually work? And while we had some great information, it wasn’t enough. So, we constantly came back to the main question: would this be useful/helpful to our client? And can we do more?
We had found additional interesting roasters and importers who seemed right up our client’s alley – a dedication to supporting farmers, transparency on the origin of the coffee, and, in some cases, specifically supporting women coffee farmers. Would they respond to us? We sent out many emails and had not gotten responses for over a week. We resigned ourselves with what we could glean from their websites, hoping that perhaps our client might have better luck in directly contacting them.
But then, a smattering of responses came within days of our final presentation date. We excitedly set up interviews, eager to hear what these experts could tell us. One of the best parts was that each person we talked to was involved in a different part of the process and supply chain – one was specifically an importer from a larger company, one was part of a startup business who was currently in Central America, while still another provided consulting services in Spanish. All three gave great details on what customers were looking for and what importers were looking for, in ways that had not been mentioned in our other research materials.
Perhaps best of all, the importer was incredibly interested and excited about our client’s product. While our initial scope was to suggest possible partners, we were thrilled that a possible business partnership could be born. In fact, after we finished our final presentation to our client, they mentioned that they have started talks and were planning to send a sample out. While still very much in its initial stages, we are hopeful for our client’s future.
Throughout this process, something that struck me over and over was the importance of relationship building and communication. How do we connect to people? How does our client get access to the right partners? How do we broker these initial relationship developments and connect with those right partners? I strongly feel that our honesty and transparency helped in our ability to connect, and most importantly, build a relationship of trust with our client. I hope that I can visit their farm some day and see how their cooperative is doing in person!