The Business Lunch

Have you ever tried to use alcohol to grease the skids in a negotiation?

No?

Then you must not have been a guy out on a date.

But I digress.

Lunch—and dinner and breakfast and cocktail parties and baseball games and yadda-yadda-yadda—have become accepted, even expected, settings for business negotiations. Breaking bread together is a good way to establish a working relationship where negotiations can take place. Maybe this is just my Italian-American heritage talking—“Mangia!”—but food and the whole idea of sharing a meal together puts everybody in a relaxed situation. We’re all human together.

Now look, there is such a thing as being too human. Lunches are a zillion distractions just waiting to happen, like the steak that was supposed to be rare getting delivered well done. Some people are going to find it too distracting to do any real negotiating, though they can use it successfully to build rapport. For me, casual, friendly settings can put both sides at ease and add the human element that builds rapport. And rapport helps a negotiator do his job.