Don’t waste those precious five to ten hours per week eating alone, and worse, sitting isolated at your desk, but rather, use this time for building your network, extending your brand, gaining visibility and effectively marketing yourself, your firm, your product, your services. This means getting away from your desk, developing clear objectives, and implementing a plan. You will reap many benefits from developing and executing a strategic, thoughtful approach to ‘just’ having lunch.
First, consider your network – who do you know that can be a professional advocate, a potential client, a liaison to additional introductions and networks, a needed service provider, or a referral for your next job? Write down ten names that match one or more of these criteria. As you get in touch with these ten people, ask to meet them for lunch, and tell them you would like to discuss – pick one – the article you just read on their company’s new product launch; the notice (and congratulations) on their recent promotion; an idea you have for researching a new market; their counsel on how to meet someone at company ABC; the latest on a known competitor. You get the idea – it’s not just lunch, but an opportunity to learn, share ideas, develop business, and meet your objectives. It should be relatively easy to fill your calendar with at least two professional lunches a week for the following month. As each name on your initial list is scheduled, continue to add names according to each of your criteria you are focusing on, most importantly including those names that you gain as referrals from the original list of ten contacts.
As you begin filling out your lunch schedule, think about restaurant choices that match both the personality of your guest and the objectives of the lunch meeting. For example, if your goal is to gain additional contacts within your industry, and your guest is a speaker you recently met at an industry seminar, what type of restaurant would provide the most conducive environment for your conversation with this person? Is the best restaurant choice a clubby grill or an outdoor terrace? Think of the restaurant that you select as the stage upon which your performance (e.g. asking for additional introductions) will take place. Then make the reservations at a mutually convenient time, and remember to confirm one or two days in advance with your lunch partner. You will be paying, so consider your business development budget or your own finances as an additional guideline for your venue of choice.
Next in the series: Plan your discussion, and ask the right questions.
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The Art of Lunch – It’s About What You Order
[Part I of a three-part Series]
During the work week, you typically eat lunch five days a week, most often at an area restaurant or takeout place, and perhaps occasionally, at your desk. Once in a while it’s good to break it up a little so you invite a colleague or co-worker to keep you company. Wrong! There is an art to having lunch, and it has everything to do with where you go, with whom, what you discuss, what you order to eat and how you follow up.
Rene’ Kraus is an experienced business development professional, focused on increasing market share, visibility and revenues for the professional services. She consults with Fortune 50 organizations, non-profit groups and individuals.
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