Lunch For Success

Reports of My Demise are Greatly Exaggerated…

Posted on 04. Mar, 2009 by Richard Chen in Uncategorized

The economy is sucking badly. There’s no way to sugar coat that. I don’t live in a fantasy world where things will magically get better and unfortunately, neither do you. If we wait for the Government to bail us out, we’ll be waiting a long time. If we want our circumstances to improve, we have to get dirty and start doing it ourselves.

I know you’re not afraid of hard work. That’s why you’re here, looking at our site. You want to find some way to improve — to give you an edge over your competition. We want to help you with that. We want to give you ideas and methods that allow to you progress forward and improve your situation.

We’re not going to mire you in a long list of “don’ts.” While interesting, a long list like that is functionally useless. Knowing what not to do doesn’t help you with action. It more often leads to paralysis.

An understanding of Social Capital—the way we define it—is the single biggest advantage you can get in this economy.

Why? Because now, when financial capital is more closely guarded, Social Capital matters even more.

Power

I want to talk a bit about “power.” It’s a loaded term. Good or bad, nobody is ambivalent about “power.” In our usage, it’s a meta-term. It’s post hoc ergo propter hoc; you can only point to it after it’s been used effectively. For our purposes, power is simply the ability to achieve your goals through the influencing of other people.

Consider our current leader, President Obama. Perhaps no one in our generation has used his Social Capital as effectively to achieve actual political power. A man with very little actual governmental experience has risen to the highest political office in the land through the force of his Social Capital.

Simply put, Social Capital is the fuel of power. The more Social Capital you have, the more power you’re able to apply. And with less financial “power” floating around, your social “power” becomes even more important.

Power Lunch is Dying?

Let’s look at the power lunch. There’s been a lot of talk about how this particular custom is dying, most recently in an ABC article by Michelle Goodman “The Death of the Power Lunch.”

Forget about the power lunch. These days it’s all about the power latte.

With expense accounts on the wane and even the upper crust guarding their wallets, “Let me get the check” has been replaced with “Let’s go Dutch.”

She’s talking about the conventional conception of a power lunch where it’s more about showing off than creating a useful relationship. Defined like this, I’d agree with her. Power, used in this way, is why “power” has a bad name.

The old days of Power Lunch

In the old days, the Power Lunch was meant to cow a lesser business adversary to gain an advantage. It was more a display of power than anything. It took its roots in political posturing where ceremony and ritual are meant to convey a sense of wealth and authority. While Bourbon-esque displays are now considered gauche, any visit the White House — ostensibly the “people’s house” — will show that political power has not abandoned this custom completely.

Today’s Power Lunch is about creating productive relationships

Modern business is conducted differently. Rather than cow an adversary into submission, we try to create productive relationships. We recognize that doing business with someone we trust is better and ultimately more profitable for both parties. It doesn’t really matter where this relationship building takes place as long as it’s out of the office.

There are all kinds of activities you can use for this purpose. In her article, Michelle talks about coffee or manicures.

“Instead of a meal, I’ve been meeting for manicures,” said Tory Johnson, CEO of Women for Hire and workplace contributor for ABC’s ” Good Morning America.” “It’s $9 plus tip throughout Manhattan. Can’t beat that.”

If you’re not the nail salon type (or not a metrosexual), swap “meeting for manicures” with strolling through the park or getting together at your favorite museum or bookstore.

Fundamentally, I have no problem with those ideas but recognize that they are limited in scope. You might be doing business in Asia where many don’t drink coffee. Or maybe I’m pitching an older investor whom I do not have a prior relationship with. In that case Starbucks probably isn’t a good venue if I’m hoping for success. And a manicure? Even if I’m doing business with a woman, I wouldn’t consider this. I’d be too concerned about the impression this suggestion might give.

If you have an established relationship and are only meeting socially to maintain it, then your choice of activities are great. Presumably, you have some degree of familiarity with the other party and can suggest something they’d enjoy. But for the initial significant contact or to pitch an idea, you have to play it safe. And everybody has to eat.

Lunch isn’t about showing off how wealthy you are. It’s about creating a comfortable environment for your guest that allows you to create a business relationship. It doesn’t have to be expensive. The lunch venue for political power in New Orleans is a very humble diner.

Lunch is just an opportunity to show that you are competent, reliable and sincere in your desire to create a business relationship.

If you’re pitching and lucky enough to get a lunch, you have much more opportunity to close. In the office, you’ll have 3 minutes max. At lunch, you’ll have roughly an hour.

In today’s economy, you have to make lunch count

However, in this economy, you can’t just mindlessly “do lunch” like you might have in the past. You have to make lunch count. Which means doing your homework. Yes, we all know that lunch is about creating a relationship. That’s not news. The question is how? Is it some cosmic alchemy that determines why some lunches end in success while others are just a waste of money?

We say no.

The Social Capital way

Creating a productive business relationship over lunch is just a matter of doing some very basic things regardless of your personality. Our DVD, the Power Lunch, gives you a basic template to help you maximize your chances for success. I’ll get into the details of the template in more detail in upcoming posts but our DVD covers the fundamentals and walks you through a typical “power lunch.” Bear in mind that this template can be used for any activity that you choose in place of lunch. The Power Lunch DVD is your introduction to the Social Capital way. Once you internalize this process, you’ll be able to use it anywhere.

The bulk of the DVD are interviews with people who have used lunch successfully in their careers. From the former head of Fairchild Japan to a senior official in the U.S. Department of Defense, we cover all the bases so you can see the fundamentals at work.

The principle is simple.
Do your homework so your guests feel that their needs are cared for.

Easy right? It really is. Stick with us and we’ll show you how, in a systematic and repeatable way. It’s not your personality. It’s your habits and behavior that really matter.

In this down economy, you can either curl up in a ball and hope somebody comes to your rescue or you can start looking for a way out of the hole you’re in. We’ll give you the ladder; it’s up to you to climb it. Making the most out of your lunch matters more than ever. Leave nothing to chance. Prepare with the Power Lunch DVD.

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Tags: business lunch, How To, Power Lunch, social capital