Lunch meetings are better because people are in better moods

Want your Client to be in a Better Mood?

Posted on 09. Mar, 2009 by Craig Peters in Uncategorized

It’s so simple, yet easy to forget: lunch puts people in a good mood.

I had the pleasure of taking a prospective client to lunch recently (I run a web design consultancy in San Francisco). As the CTO for a big division of a multi-national, multi-billion dollar tech company with upwards of 100,000 employees, he’s pretty busy, so I was thrilled to get an hour of his time.

But that’s not why I’m writing. I’m writing because lunch was our second meeting, not our first, and it gave me a chance to compare two different venues. Our first meeting was in his office, squeezed into his already busy calendar in the middle of the afternoon. I remember that first meeting because it was so unremarkable. Sure, we talked about business, and we said the right things, but compared to the lunch meeting, this was dry, uneventful, safe, and… I hate to admit it, kinda boring.

What a difference lunch makes. We talked about our weekend plans, ski trips, kids, great white sharks, and the opening night of Watchmen… in short, we actually got know each other. Of course we eventually got down to business, but it was so much easier and more productive because we had a connection. It’s just that simple.

Btw, Watchmen is a lot of fun. Go see it while it’s still on the big screen.