For the majority of us however, we are not versed with this skill, and thus the reason why I decided to pen down these simple tips to act as a guideline for that successful business lunch.
1. Know what a business “lunch” is
We need to recognize that the business “lunch” we talk about is not confined to the traditional mid-day meal we all are used to. In the business world, lunch is not that heavy meal at 1pm the general public often refer to. The term business lunch has been used by the business people to mean tea break, coffee, breakfast or even dinner. So when a client asks you for a business lunch date, you shouldn’t confine yourself to the 1pm meal at all, you need to understand that it represents a variety of meals.
2. Agenda and goals
Often when we suggest food in a particular situation, people tend to lose focus of the intended purpose of the meeting. No matter how much our cultural conditioning has ingrained in us a concern for food, we must however always remember this simple truth about a business lunch: it is simply a meeting, and should be like any other meeting. For this reason you shouldn’t forget that when you go for a business lunch you must have an agenda for what you want to discuss and the defined objectives for what you want to achieve from it.
3. It’s Just business, so don’t make personal
Matters of food usually bring a warm feeling of comfort within us, and this sensation may make us to lose track of our set goals. This is when, we often relax to a point during lunch where we end up having a more personal approach with the person we are having the meal with. For interpersonal communication, small talk of a personal in nature is expected, but try to avoid it, and instead try and steer away of those deep personal talks and revelations. This is about business where you have your agenda and you have your goals. Unless revealing personal information assists you in achieving one of your goals don’t do it.
4. Absolutely no alcohol
If you would like to erode the confidence in your professionalism faster, than having a couple of drinks in the middle of a week day should do it. Alcoholic drinks generally impairs one’s ability to make sensible decisions, and even worse is the dependency it has on an individual. I doubt anyone would want to project the image of being dependent on alcohol, and especially when you are working on a project with the client. No, definitely not. It just makes more sense to just say no.
5. Pick up the bill
As a general show of common courtesy, the individual who requested for the meeting should, in normal circumstances, be the one to pick up the bill. No matter how much the person insists on taking care of the bill, if you are the one who requested the meeting, never allow the other person to pay for it. After the meeting is over and you have both parted ways, never remind the person that you paid for the meal, even jokingly. You may mean it in a joking manner, but high chances are that the person might take it as an attempt to remind him he owes you one. This will definitely reduce the chances of you dining with him again in the future.
This may not be all that is required to make a business lunch date successful, but at least this will throw in some pointers on how to do it.
