Business lunches seem simple enough. You pick a nice restaurant, have a pleasant conversation and hope for the best. However, if you ever walked away from a business lunch wondering if you could’ve done better, you’re not alone.
From choosing the right restaurant to knowing when to transition to business talk, these meetings require careful consideration to be effective.
In this article, you’ll learn how to shift business lunches from uncertain meetings to opportunities. Whether you’re meeting potential clients and partners or networking, you’ll know what to do before, during and after your business lunches to reach your business objectives.
What is a business lunch?
A business lunch is a business meeting in which you build relationships or discuss professional matters over a meal to advance business objectives. It’s a more informal way of discussing business outside the traditional office environment.
Unlike casual lunches with coworkers, business lunches have a clear strategic objective. The objective can be negotiating a deal, exploring potential partnerships or strengthening customer relationships. Sharing a meal reduces barriers and makes people more open to discussions.
Types of business lunches
Business lunches require different approaches based on your objectives and lunch companions. Meeting a potential client demands more preparation than a networking event.
Here are the main types of business lunches:
Business lunch type | Explanation |
Client business lunches | Sales meetings with current or potential clients. When meeting new potential clients, the conversation flows from general to light business topics to assess compatibility. For existing clients, business lunches strengthen or maintain the relationship. |
Partnership business lunches | Meetings focusing on building a relationship between organizations that work together or plan to collaborate. Parties usually have aligned interests, which allows for more open conversations about challenges or negotiations. |
Networking business lunches | Meetings involving professionals from multiple companies, industries or roles occur during industry events or conferences. Network business lunches don’t have a clear objective other than to make valuable connections or identify future opportunities. |
Internal business lunches | Meetings between department heads or executives from the same company to align on important initiatives or solve particular challenges. Internal business lunches can also help break down any silos. |
Business lunch timeline step-by-step
Planning a business lunch involves much more than picking a restaurant and showing up. Sending an invite, making a reservation and following up might seem straightforward, but there’s more to ensuring a successful lunch meeting.
The following steps will help you create a memorable experience – whether you’re meeting a potential client or strengthening an existing relationship.
Step 1: Preparation
Business lunches usually start with an informal invite, which can be made in a casual conversation or via email. For example, you might suggest discussing a topic further over lunch to gauge interest and availability. Once you get confirmation, you can dive into specific details.
Choose a restaurant
Find a lunch spot with a quiet ambiance (so you can talk), good service (so you won’t have awkward interruptions) and a menu that accommodates different dietary preferences.
If you’re in a major city, business midtown locations have the best restaurants as they’re used to handling business clientele. The central location also means you’ll likely have a variety of cuisine options for every preference (e.g., American, Italian, French, Mediterranean, Asian, Greek, Indian, Mexican, bistros and steakhouses).
Note: Make reservations at your restaurant of choice as early as possible. Popular business lunch restaurants, especially those suitable for client meetings, can be fully booked during lunch hours if you don’t plan ahead.
Send the invite
When sending your business lunch email invite, give your guest enough time to plan. The invite should include these essential details:
Date and time
Restaurant name and address
A brief mention of what you’ll be discussing
Your contact information
For example, use the following email template:
Subject: Lunch meeting – [Date and time]
Hi [Name],
Following our conversation about [brief context], I’d like to confirm our lunch meeting for [Date and time]
I’ve made a reservation at [Restaurant name] at [Restaurant address].
The restaurant is known for its [type of cuisine], and they offer a quiet setting to discuss [brief mention of topic].
Please let me know if you need directions or have any dietary preferences so I can inform the restaurant when confirming our reservation.
Looking forward to our meeting,
[Your name]
[Your contact information]
Research your guest
Look up your guest’s LinkedIn profile and check their company website. Understanding your guest’s role and company allows you to ask more relevant questions.
Confirm the reservation
Call the restaurant two or three days in advance to confirm the reservation. Use this opportunity to request special arrangements – such as a quiet table – or to remind them of any dietary restrictions.
Step 2: Arrival and seating
Arrive 15–30 minutes before the agreed hour, giving you enough time to check if your reservation is ready and prepare to greet your guest.
Request a quiet spot away from the kitchen or high-traffic areas if possible. A best practice is to offer your guest the most comfortable seat, typically the one facing into the restaurant rather than facing a wall.
While a business lunch’s focus is to establish a conversation with your guest, bringing the following materials can help you be prepared:
Business cards
A pen
A small notebook
A business phone
Any specific documents your guest requested
When your guest arrives, stand to greet them, make eye contact and offer a firm handshake.
Note: Dress appropriately for the occasion. For most business settings, that means business professional or business casual. As a rule of thumb, dress slightly more formally than you would on a regular day at the office.
Step 3: During the meal
Start by making small talk or addressing light topics. Discuss the restaurant’s lunch menu, your professional background, mutual connections or even industry trends.
Conversational intelligence helps you ensure the conversation is professional without turning it into a sales pitch. Avoid personal topics (e.g., family life, relationship status, political views or religious beliefs).
Start business discussions after ordering to ensure you’re not interrupted by servers or your guest isn’t distracted reviewing the menu.
To ensure a professional dining experience:
Wait until your guest is served before you start eating
Match your eating pace with your guest
Avoid messy or hard-to-eat foods
Only order alcohol if your guest does (if appropriate, review the wine list)
Set your phone to “do not disturb”
While you want to progress in business matters, the goal of this dining experience is building relationships. Balance the conversation between business and professional topics and always read your guests’ comfort levels.
Step 4: Wrapping up
As you finish the meal, wrap up without rushing your guest. However, don’t linger too long after your servers pick up your plates. Start wrapping up about ten minutes after the server removes the main course.
A business lunch typically follows this sequence after the main course:
The server clears your entree plates
They offer dessert or coffee
You and your guest either accept or decline dessert
You begin wrapping up the conversation
Finish a business lunch by summarizing the main points of your discussion and setting the next steps to maintain momentum. For example, you can set the next meeting, establish timelines for a deliverable or tell them you’ll follow up through email.
Note: Never end a business lunch by promising to “keep in touch” – be more precise. For example, say, “I’ll send you that proposal by Friday afternoon”.
Step 5: Follow up
After saying goodbye to your guest, find a quiet place to take notes on the topics you discussed. It can be your car, a nearby cafe or back at the office. Just don’t let too much time pass, as the details from your conversation may fade.
Note: If you’re using Pipedrive’s customer relationship management (CRM) tool, consider downloading the mobile app on your phone to take notes about your contact, the company or a specific deal.
Once you have your notes, craft your follow-up email. Consider the following questions to add value:
Did you promise any resources or deliverables?
Are there any action items you need to confirm?
Were specific dates or deadlines mentioned?
Do you need to schedule a follow-up meeting?
Do you need to clarify any points from your conversation?
Answering these questions ensures you’re not just sending a courtesy email but moving business decisions forward.
Here’s a follow-up email template you can use:
Hi [Name],
Thank you for meeting me over lunch to discuss [specific topic]. I enjoyed our conversation and learning more about [their company/project/challenge].
[Here, include the value points from the questions above: attach a deliverable or clarify details about specific points of the conversation]
To summarize our next steps:
[Action item 1]
[Action item 2]
[Action item 3]
I’ll [specific action you promised] by [deadline].
Would [specific date/time] work for our follow-up meeting to discuss [specific topic]?
Looking forward to continuing our conversation.
Best regards,
[Your name]
[Your contact information]
Send your follow-up email the day after the business lunch, preferably in the morning. If you don’t have the requested deliverables ready, send a follow-up email anyway. Thank them for their time, confirm specific points of the conversation and set expectations for when they’ll get the deliverables.
Turn Maybe Into Yes With These Killer Follow Up Email Templates
How to make the most of your business lunch: 4 principles
Now that you understand how to plan and execute effective business lunches, here are four principles that will help you get the most from them.
1. Setting clear objectives
Only propose a business lunch when you have a clear objective in mind. Business lunches are strategic meetings to move business forward. The objective you set depends on the type of business lunch you’ll have.
Here are some examples of objectives for different business lunch types:
Business lunch type | Objective |
Client business lunches | With first-time clients:
With existing clients:
|
Partnership business lunches |
|
Networking business lunches |
|
Internal business lunches |
|
Ask questions related to these objectives within the flow of conversation. Your objectives should guide how you shift the conversation but shouldn’t turn it into an interrogation.
2. Moving business forward
Moving business forward means achieving results that bring you closer to your objectives. It’s about relationship selling, so you can act on opportunities that arise during the conversation.
For example, say you’re having lunch with a potential client. During your conversation, they mention a challenge they face that your software could solve. You start asking follow-up questions to understand their situation and how you can help. Once you assess the situation, you propose your software as a solution.
In this case, moving the business forward would mean getting an introduction to their CTO, who makes purchasing decisions.
Each business lunch objective you set requires specific outcomes. Keep these outcomes in mind to naturally guide the conversation toward them.
3. Maintaining professionalism
In business meals, you want to be personable enough to be likable and create a connection but professional enough to be taken seriously.
Here are the three things that determine your level of professionalism:
Your behavior. Be aware of how you present yourself throughout the lunch – how you treat the restaurant staff, handle distractions (like your phone) and engage in conversation.
Your conversation. Know what topics are appropriate and how to discuss them. If your guest mentions a competitor, acknowledge them but don’t criticize them. If the conversation shifts to personal topics, bring it back to business topics.
Your reactions. Maintain your composure regardless of what happens. Responding based on emotion can lead to poor decision-making. If your guest criticizes your product, don’t be defensive, thank them for their honesty and ask specific questions about how you could improve.
Consistency in these three areas is the key to maintaining professionalism. It shows that you’re reliable and clients can trust you with future business negotiations.
4. Managing time effectively
As the host, you should use your time strategically while making it feel natural. Don’t lay out all your most important conversational points before the food arrives. Don’t keep rehashing those same points during dessert either.
Your business lunch should roughly flow as follows:
The first 15 minutes set the tone (e.g., arrival, greetings, order)
The following 30-45 minutes are for business discussion
The last 10-20 minutes should be the wrap-up
Read the situation and adjust the pace according to your guest’s engagement.
For example, if your guest is interested in a specific topic, you can spend more time on it and accelerate other parts of your discussion. If you sense they’re ready to move on to the next topic, progress more quickly.
How to use Pipedrive’s CRM to manage business relationships
Nurturing relationships is at the core of Pipedrive’s CRM. It can help you organize and follow up with your contacts effectively so you don’t lose business opportunities.
Your standard sales pipeline in Pipedrive might look something like this:
Proposal
Closed deals (either won or lost)
In most sales processes, business lunches occur during discovery (when building the initial relationship), proposal (when discussing solutions) or negotiation (when working on the final details).
Before the business lunch
In the deal detail view, check guest or customer data you’ve saved from past interactions (e.g., specific challenges, ongoing projects, growth initiatives). Being prepared with this information shows that you understand the customer’s business and helps build trust.
When setting up the lunch, use Pipedrive’s scheduling tool to schedule and send invites.
The platform automatically syncs with your calendar, preventing double bookings and ensuring everyone has the correct time and date. You can also include meeting details like location, video call links and any additional notes for attendees.
During the business lunch
Immediately after the working lunch (or when your guest steps away), use Pipedrive’s mobile app to record your sales activities and take notes about opportunities, challenges discussed or personal preferences. The notes will automatically sync with your deal in Pipedrive.
After the business lunch
Pipedrive’s task management feature allows you to create follow-up tasks with specific deadlines and reminders. For example, if you promised to send a proposal by Friday, you can create a task to ensure you do so.
The platform’s email integration helps you track when your client opens and responds to follow-up messages. It automatically logs these interactions in the deal’s history, which creates a complete record of your relationship’s progression.
Final thoughts
Business lunches are about finding the right balance between building relationships and strategic thinking. Keeping it professional, setting clear goals and knowing when to end a meeting help create opportunities for your business.
With Pipedrive’s CRM, you can track every interaction, manage follow-ups and turn lunch meetings into closed deals. Start maximizing the value of your business lunches today with a free 14-day trial of Pipedrive.
