Lunch For Success

Entrepreneur & Small Business Academy June Meetup

Posted on 27. May, 2009 by Craig Peters.

We’d like to thank Patrick for inviting us to speak at his Entrepreneur & Small Business Academy June Meetup next week (Monday, June 1st, 5:30 PM). As of today there are 39 spots left, so you can still rsvp if you’re in the area and want to learn about conducting a Power Lunch (as part of an overall effort to improve your Social Capital). We’ll present our ideas and take your questions as we go. Here’s a bit taken from the Meetup page:

June Topic: Building Social Capital

All things being equal, people do business with people they like. Rare is the case where one proposal is far and away better than any other. When a person has to make a choice, he is undeniably swayed by his personal feelings. Learn how to tilt the scale in your favor!

Success in social business meetings has more to do with preparation and mind set than any natural charisma. We don’t just teach you to be charming. We teach you behaviors that will help you close deals.

Join us at the June meeting to learn how to properly conduct the mythical “Power Lunch.” It isn’t dead. We’ll show you some very simple tricks to increase your power wattage and make you and your business more attractive to potential clients.

Why lunch? Because before business gets to the boardroom, it has to get past the table where relationships are first developed. Lunch is that important step that takes you from a simple business card at a networking event to substantive meetings.

Please join us for an evening that will measurably increase your ability to close more business.

You can reserve your spot here.

Looking forward to it!

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No Wonder it Sounds Stuffy

Posted on 28. Apr, 2009 by Craig Peters.

Those of you who have read our blog before know that our definition of “Power Lunch” is broader than the image of high-powered fat cats with ludicrous expense accounts. Call it a business lunch. Call it a power lunch. We don’t really care. What matters to us is that people get together over a meal to do business. Plain and simple.

Every once in a while, I read something that reminds me why people have such a stuffy impression of a Power Lunch. I came across this nifty panoramic viewer of the India House, a Lower Manhattan luncheon club. The title of the page is “The Power Lunch Takes a Hit.” That’s not the stuffy part. That’s in the accompanying article,

Once there was the Broad Street Club and the Stock Exchange Club, private haunts for the financiers of Wall Street, killed off by the blights of merger and recession and by the money crusades of Eliot Spitzer, the former governor and attorney general of New York. India House, a stately Renaissance palazzo, is among the few survivors in the neighborhood that still provides a decent turkey club and the kick of a crisp martini for its aging clientele.

Established in 1914 by 38 guests at a special dinner at the Metropolitan Club, India House has long been a refuge for mercantile masters, a sanctuary near the stock exchange where men from J. P. Morgan or General Electric could gather, in the words of a founder, Walter Clark, to foster “relations between the bankers and the promoters of foreign trade.”

Its name is a nod to the West Indies; its décor is mildewed maritime. A 100-year-old globe of the earth looms beside the hostess’s desk. The dining room is hung with smoky paintings: “A View of Canton Harbor.” “The Steam Yacht Aguan.” “The Capt. Anthony Kelley, Jr. Passing Flushing, 1859.”

Business lunches are being held all over the world in places much less stately than this, and that’s a good thing. It’s time to let go of this old-fashioned image and replace it with an image of people simply getting together to do business over lunch.

There’s something else that gets my goat. The author is suggesting that lunch is a vanishing institution.

He was sitting in the dining room near four old men, skeletons who muttered about their doctors’ bills. The men wore sagging suits and somber faces; one of them wore a Band-Aid on his nose. The hush was such that one could hear their forks clank on the antique china plates. The chandelier above them had a pair of burnt-out light bulbs; a mirror above the oak buffet reflected the empty chairs.

Mr. Godfrey, a Londoner with tired-looking eyes, was coming to the end of an impassioned speech about the vanished institution known as lunch.

That’s silly. Lots of things are different in this recession. But does that mean we’re witnessing vanishing institutions? Are we also witnessing the vanishing institution of the automobile because car sales are down in this recession? Of course not.

Are we witnessing the vanishing institution of extravagent spending? Maybe so, but for the long run, I doubt it. For now at least, it’s a business faux paus to throw money around … and that’s a good thing, too.

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Power Lunch is Strong in D.C.

Posted on 24. Mar, 2009 by Craig Peters.

“Instead of a $150 wine, they might order a $100 bottle.”

That’s the extent of the power lunch downturn in our nation’s capital, so says Tommy Jacomo, the manager at The Palm in D.C., as quoted in this article by Andi Coller (State of D.C. power lunches is strong). We keep saying that business still has to happen. People still eat. Lunch is still a great way to connect.

Breakfast is too early, dinner is expendable, but don’t mess with lunch.

That’s the verdict of Washington’s power-lunch set, who say economic downturn be damned — some conversations need to be had over a white tablecloth, or at least accented with some fresh-ground pepper.

It’s not that people aren’t cinching their belts a bit inside the Beltway. But even those whose companies are reining in expense accounts or who are painting on a more prudent public face are not quite ready to brown-bag it at midday, when there are friends to be made and people to influence.

“The three-martini lunch is out, but the power lunch is still on,” says Republican strategist and consultant John Feehery.

Btw, there was an interesting shift in where lunch was to be held when official rules changed as to who pays in D.C.:

The power lunch actually took its biggest hit before the economic downturn, says Democratic lobbyist Steve Elmendorf. “I think the biggest change in the lunch world was when they changed the rules where you couldn’t have lunch with [Hill] staff,” he says. “Now, if you want to have lunch with a staffer and a lobbyist, they have to pay. Which means you’re doing lunch in the Rayburn cafeteria, not The Palm.”

I’m happy to say that excessive extravagance is down, even in the capital. Looks like they’re taking a cue from my hometown of Detroit:

He believes, however, that the climate will not support any kind of public extravagance, no matter what the venue, and that even those who have the means to buy their Montrachet by the magnum know better than to do it right now.

“Since auto execs got it handed to them for flying in on private jets, that changed a lot of things, and people started thinking it was time to settle down,” he says. “I think everybody started thinking, ‘What am I doing like that?’”

Remember, people still need to talk about business and they still need to eat.

(image credit: Jake McGuire)

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Prepping Helps You Relax at Your Business Lunch

Posted on 18. Mar, 2009 by Craig Peters.

Knowing what to do and how to handle yourself at a business lunch makes you more comfortable and relaxed, not less.

(If that’s the only thing you read in this post, I’m happy.) I was talking to my brother Charles on the phone last night. A friend of his said something that I hear a lot:

I don’t really want to prepare for business lunches. If I prep too much, I’m not going to be myself. I want it to be natural.

That’s totally understandable, because we collectively think of lunch as a social experience.  Mark said it well in a post last month.

…a business lunch is not a social engagement. It sounds simple enough, but it’s a fact that’s often overlooked or forgotten… We’re trained over years of practice to sit down for meals with friends and family as a way to connect and be together socially.

If you’re sitting down with friends and family, you want to chill and be yourself. Of course. When we say you need to prep for lunch, we’re not talking about those personal settings.

A business lunch is part of doing business, and more importantly for my brother’s friend, knowing what to do and how to handle yourself at a business lunch makes you more comfortable and relaxed, not less. I need to reiterate this.

Knowing what to do and how to handle yourself at a business lunch makes you more comfortable and relaxed, not less.

Let’s say you’re going to take a prospective client out to lunch. Everyone knows how to actually eat lunch. That’s easy. Then you wonder, When should I bring up business? You might wonder who should pay? How long should you be there? Which restaurant? Who drives? What kind of lunch is this? Is this an initial meeting, closing a deal, managing a relationship? etc.

You can go into it one of two ways.

1. You don’t prepare and you wing it. It might go fine. But you never know. Would you take that chance with other business meetings that you’re leading? I hope not. The problem is that you might run into a moment at lunch where you’re wondering “What should I do now? Is this going well? Should I have done that?” Those questions are more difficult to answer if you’re going into it cold. That’s wasted energy and it’s harder to relax. If you’re not relaxed, you’re not as effective.
2. You do your homework, prepare, and practice. You’ve anticipated a number of things that might come up, practiced your approach, considered topics to cover and avoid. You’ve done extra research on the restaurant, your guest’s professional background, and the details of the business you’re going to discuss. With these things covered, you’re more prepared for the unexpected. It’s much easier to relax. If you’re relaxed, you’re more effective.

This doesn’t mean that you become a robot during the meal - it just means that you’re ready for things that might come up.

How do you learn? Keep reading our blog. Also, we’ve collected a bunch of great first-hand interviews from seasoned experts in our Power Lunch DVD. The DVD also has a section at the beginning that outlines the framework of the lunch. After that, it’s practice. As you practice, tell us how it goes. Ask us questions - we’d like to help.

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Do I Mourn the End of Boozy Business Lunches?

Posted on 12. Mar, 2009 by Craig Peters.

I like this article by Stuart Jeffries in the Guardian, UK last week “The death of the lunch” (I don’t like the title, however because Lunches aren’t really dead). Here’s the subtitle:

The days of the long boozy business lunch are over. With expense accounts cut to the bone and restaurants closing down, Stuart Jeffries mourns the end of a British institution.

It’s clear that the over-priced lunches of throwing money around are over (or at least for now). In case you’re not convinced by some of our earlier posts, here’s Stuart quoting Peter Backman, the managing director of Horizons, a company that monitors the restaurant business:

“That shift is particularly noticeable in London and the large metropolitan cities,” says Backman. “What is especially noticeable is that the era of the long, boozy lunch is over. Less wine is being ordered and customers are spending less long at table.”

Apparently, it was already heading that way in Britain before the recent recession.

Is the institution of lunch suffering just because of the credit crunch? “Not entirely,” says Backman. “In Britain, the expense-account lunch has been a declining phenomenon for a long while. The corporate belt-tightening is more intense now, but it predates the recession.”

So, the extravagant lunch is in a downfall. But do I “mourn” the downfall?

Not one bit. Good riddance.

A business lunch, the way we see it, should never have been about extravagance and one-upmanship in the first place. It should be an opportunity to connect with others and get business done while showing your guest that you can take care of things.

At its core, a business lunch is about making your guest feel cared for.
It’s that simple. It’s not about showing off.

Keep lunching. Keep showing people you know how to take care of things. Keep doing business.

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Want your Client to be in a Better Mood?

Posted on 09. Mar, 2009 by Craig Peters.

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.

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Reports of My Demise are Greatly Exaggerated…

Posted on 04. Mar, 2009 by Richard Chen.

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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Will Network For Food

Posted on 27. Feb, 2009 by Craig Peters.

It would be more accurate to say “Will Network for Business Lunch.” In case you missed Richard’s post on our other blog earlier this week, he lays out an 8-point networking process that you can follow for your next networking event.

What’s the best way to follow up with key people after a networking event? Take them to lunch.

I don’t consider a networking event a success for me unless I get a lunch or two out of it. If I take someone to lunch, it means I want them to be a member of my core network and not just filler. In fact, networking is just a way for me to get to lunch. Why? Because I know that if our various offerings make sense, I can close anybody over lunch. A well-executed lunch is the single best way to generate Social Capital quickly and efficiently. Lunch is where actual business can start and you have to do it right. We’ll get into that next.

Richard is going to get into setting up the lunch more in a future post, which we’ll likey publish here. Stay tuned.

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Is Your Business Etiquette Good Enough?

Posted on 24. Feb, 2009 by Craig Peters.

We’re not going to teach you etiquette. We’re going to teach you how to use your etiquette and your social skills to develop something bigger: Social Capital. Since you can’t develop Social Capital without a foundation of etiquette and social skills, here’s a quiz.

Business Etiquette Pop Quiz

1. In preparation for a business lunch, do you need to be told to “Hold your utensils in a proper manner and do not grip them in your fist”?
2. Do you know which fork to use for salad?
3. Are you wondering if showing up late for a business lunch is a good idea or a bad idea?
4. If you’re in the middle of a business lunch and your cell phone rings, would you answer it and leave your guest at the table by themselves even if it was not a life-and-death emergency?
5. Are you unclear about what to do with your napkin when getting up from the table (or if it falls on the floor)?

If you answered Yes to any of those questions, you need to set some time aside and study up on basic business lunch etiquette. Do a google search for “business lunch etiquette” and/or “business etiquette” and take it from there. You’ll find lots of articles. Here are three decent examples.

Business Lunch Etiquette Tips, by Gloria Starr. I’m pleased with her introduction:

Professionals who know proper dining etiquette are much more comfortable and confident in their business dealings with others than those without these skills. Manners during mealtime can be learned and practiced very easily with some basic guidance.

The success or failure of a job interview or project proposal may hinge on how well a person conducts his or her self during a meal. According to Gloria Starr, President of Global Success Strategies Inc., “If a person uses incorrect dining skills or has no knowledge of dining skills, that person is not going to get the job and that’s final.” Inappropriate actions or behavior will often be interpreted as rude, disrespectful, or highly offensive.

Dining Etiquette in Business, by Michael McCann. In his intro, Michael says,

Having a working knowledge of dining etiquette turns any employee into a poised marketing representative of the company.

I like his general intent with that statement. However, not to be nit-picky, I don’t fully agree because, a “working knowledge of dining etiquette” is just the beginning; a necessary foundation. It takes more than etiquette to be a “poised marketing representative.” That said, I included his post because he includes some examples that you won’t find in the article before it.

5 business-lunch faux pas, by Christopher Elliot. It wouldn’t be fair to call this one basic. Christopher is not going to tell you which fork to use. He’s not going to tell you to be on time (well, he does, but it’s just for context). He sets the right tone in his intro, especially when he says that a business lunch is part meal, part meeting:

The recipe for a successful business meal seems deceptively easy. “Let’s meet for lunch,” you tell a client or associate. You get together. You talk business.

Sounds simple enough. But you know better.

A business lunch is part meal, part meeting…

Christopher’s advice is a good transition from the world of business etiquette to that of developing Social Capital.

Social Capital is not etiquette

We’re not going to cover basic etiquette here, except for occasional reflections or to make a particular point. Instead, we’re helping you develop your Social Capital. What is social capital? We’re talking about it more on our other blog Social Capital Mentor. Here’s Rich from a post last week titled Avoid the Chopping Blog: How to Keep Your Job in a Recession:

Social Capital is a complex topic which I will expound on more fully in later articles but for now, you must understand that it is actually capital. If used properly, it can take the place of financial capital you may not have. But Social Capital can do things that financial capital cannot. It has the ability to get things going and even to close deals in lieu of actual money. In our example above, it can tip the scales in your favor when a manager must decide whom to lay off.

If you’re interested in the broader topic of Social Capital and how it can help your career, check out Social Capital Mentor and sign up to receive posts by email.

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Ordering Dessert at a Business Lunch Depends on Your Guest

Posted on 20. Feb, 2009 by Craig Peters.

Should you order dessert at a business lunch? In general, sure, if the conditions are right, go right ahead. Sound’s simple enough–and it actually is simple–but what are the conditions?

Guideline: it’s about your guest, not about you

General guidelines and frameworks are going to serve you better than precise checklists and absolutes. For this dessert question, start by reminding yourself what a business lunch is for in the first place: it’s a business meeting where you connect with your guest. It’s not about the food - it’s about your guest. Like I said in a post last month, Social Capital is all about making your guest feel cared for.

So, your question of dessert has to be viewed through the lens of how it will add to or subtract from your guest’s experience. Let’s say your guest is in a hurry, looking at her watch, and talking about how many meetings she has back at the office. If you then delay her by ordering dessert, well… you’re gonna be bummed.

If, on the other hand, your guest is saying how glad she is that she can take long lunches and heartily asks the waiter to bring the dessert menu… you get the idea. And, like like Zayda Rivera says here, you’re lucky to have the extra time.

If you’re lucky, your guest will order coffee or dessert, which will give you an additional 15 minutes to continue with your business discussions…

But, remember, it comes down to your guest.

Decide for yourself

As you come across business etiquette suggestions and tips about business lunches, take a look; most of them will be related to this general guideline of making your guest feel cared for. Let’s see a couple examples. This eHow article suggests that you shouldn’t make people wait and you should follow the lead of others:

If others order dessert, you can assume this is acceptable, but don’t be the only one having a sweet treat while everyone else is waiting.

Would our general guideline have gotten us here? Yes, because making your guest wait while you eat would not send a message that you’re taking care of their needs, now would it?

Here’s another one, along the same lines. Nell Farragamo says in her post earlier today, “…if you decide not to order dessert and someone at the table does, sip on a coffee or tea.” Your guest doesn’t want to feel like they’re being ‘watched’ as they eat. You don’t want them to feel like a pig. Remember, in this example, you’re not ordering tea or coffee for you - you’re doing it for your guest.

Good luck and happy lunching.

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