May26
Advise On Business Lunches And Dinners
Posted by Nick in Sales Training To Improve Sales Results | 0 Comments
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Business Lunches And Dinner Advice
By, Nick Moreno
A business lunch or dinner is a great opportunity to further a business relationship with a client or prospect. Since your client or prospect is out of the office, you have their full attention. That said, nothing is automatic so there is no guarantee that your business meal will be a big success.
Taking A Client To A Business Lunch Or Dinner
First, as with anything else, you need a plan. Let’s start with deciding where to go for your business lunch. You want to go to a special kind of restaurant so I advise staying away from chains.
You also don’t want to limit the selection of food. Hard for me to believe but some people don’t like Italian food for example. I once took a CEO to a great steak house only to learn he only ate vegetables. I ate my steak while he grazed on his vegetable side dishes. If you don’t know what you client prefers to eat, pick a nice restaurant with a wide variety of dishes.
There is nothing wrong with asking your client what they prefer to eat. This is much better than guessing. Before my first business lunch with one of my clients, I found out he craved sushi. Craved is not an overstatement, he devoured it! I was glad he enjoyed it and I was glad he increased his business with me from $40,000 a month to $220,000 a month.
The second part of your plan is to have a well-defined objective for the business lunch or dinner. What is the purpose of the business lunch and what do you hope to achieve? Treat a business lunch or dinner just as you would any sales appointment. You’ll also need a well thought out sales strategy on how to achieve the objective you’ve established for the business meal. Unless you do these things, you are just wasting your time and money. Don’t leaves your sales skills back at the office.
Business Lunch Tips And Advice
How about a few quick tips and advice on how to insure your business lunch is a big success?
1) Make reservations and insure your credit card will be accepted and is in good working order.
2) If only one person from your client’s company is attending, pick them up at their office.
3) Here is a very important piece of advice about business lunches. Spend a great deal of time building rapport with your prospect through casual conversation. A business lunch is both a business and social event.
4) When asked if you would like drinks, look to your client or prospect and have them order first. No matter what they order, you are not obliged to order alcohol. Remember, you’re driving and you are at work. The three martini business lunch is gone.
5) Be respectable to waiters and waitresses.
6) Thank your prospect or client for attending the business lunch. Remember, you are the host and your sales prospect is your guest.
7) Leave a more than sufficient tip.
Last, but not least, insure your objective is achieved.
Have you ever seen a sales training CD on this subject? I never saw one but one is needed.
I hope this advice will help you insure your next business lunch or dinner is successful. Be yourself and enjoy your client’s company. Insure your client enjoyed their meal and is looking forward to another business lunch with you.
To your business lunch sales success!
Nick Moreno
Additional Articles of Interest
Ethics In Sales Is A Career Requirement
Entry Level Sales Training by Nick Moreno
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