Making lunch go down well

By MARIE WILSON*

Q. I've recently been promoted in my sales team and it looks as if I'll be doing lunching of a sort I haven't done before. Given that I started my working life after the era of 1980s day-long lunches, can you give some advice on the best etiquette for a business lunch? Are they actually to do deals, or just to lubricate relationships?

A. Whether "doing lunch" includes closing deals is partly a question of the industry norms and culture.

In many situations, social gatherings are part of maintaining client relationships. Start by observing your colleagues and employer: How do they treat their luncheon meetings? You could, of course, ask them directly.

It also depends on the expectations you set with the clients. You can set a meeting to discuss business, and signal that in your invitation. Then make sure you reserve either the first part of the lunch, or the last, to discuss the business matters.

If you reserve this discussion for the latter part of the lunch, start the gathering by verifying how long the other members of the group can stay and let the waiter or waitress know your time restrictions.

Then indicate to your clients that you hope to discuss business over coffee at the end of the meal, which should give all of you the opportunity to enjoy the lunch and talk about other matters in the meantime.

Q. I'm not too impressed with the memo-writing skills of some of my staff - the way they put together memos and the quality of the language they use (eg, spelling, description, clarity of thought - general effectiveness). What can I do to get a better standard?

A. The first issue in assessing any perceived performance problem is to describe the discrepancy - how is what they are doing different from expected performance?

The second is deciding whether it is important enough to pursue. Sometimes we are sensitive to how things are done because they are not how we would do them, and with delegated work, the results are what we are looking for.

If it is impacting on results, start by documenting the impact. Then you have a basis for approaching staff and suggesting better ways to craft memos.

Using the grammar and spelling tools provided in word-processing software is a start, but one of the easiest ways to improve writing is to suggest that the staff-member reads it out loud to a co-worker, and get suggestions on improvements.

* Dr Marie Wilson is associate professor of management at the University of Auckland Business School, research director of the Icehouse business accelerator and a veteran of 20 years in corporate management and small business.

* Email us a question for Dr Marie Wilson to answer