Imagine: You find someone you’d like to connect with on LinkedIn. You email the person to ask if you can pick his or her brain. A coffee date is set. You’ve just become part of the phenomenon that’s taking over industrial sales: zombie coffee. This no-frills networking strategy, fueled by a lethal combination of LinkedIn, caffeine, and brain-picking, is transforming the way industrials start business conversations.

Not a week goes by at our industrial marketing agency without me (CEO and chief spokesperson) or our managing director participating in zombie coffee chats to pick brains or have ours picked in turn. These meetings have transformed the way we recruit, network, and generally get our company out into the wild.

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