Business Lunch Etiquette
It is wise to be familiar with proper rules of conduct in social situations.


Here's your chance to make good use of your business lunch etiquette and manners. You finally landed this particular business lunch. The pursuit was lengthy. Constant travels and other important business responsibilities resulted in a series of polite emails and phone calls canceling successive business lunch dates. But, finally, this is the day.

Business Etiquette and Manners

The strategy behind any business etiquette and manners is to establish personal contacts while remembering that this is a business lunch, not a lunch date. 

There are rules for meeting single men or women, there are rules for business meetings and there are rules for business lunches.  

Rules such as listening actively, not interrupting and treating the conversation as confidential. 

The idea behind polite and simple business lunch etiquette is to treat people with respect and courtesy and to make sure everyone feels comfortable.

A business lunch can be a way for you to show your customers and your prospects a more friendly side of yourself. Even if business lunches always have some sort of business goal in mind, meals or coffee are a great way to build relationships with other people.

Business Table Manners

It is wise to be familiar with dinner table etiquette and with important basic rules such as knowing that solids are on your left (bread plate) and liquids are on your right (water) so you don't eat your guest's bread or drink from his or her glass of water.

The strategy behind good business table manners is to build trust. Your goal is to provide a relaxed atmosphere conducive to productive discussions and to profitable negotiations and transactions.

You must always treat your guest with respect and courtesy and you must make sure he or she is comfortable during the entire business lunch.

There are always issues that need to be discussed, goals that need to be achieved and topics that need to be talked about. You either use your business lunch to discuss an important topic or you look at the lunch as an opportunity to help your career in some way.

The basic context for a business lunch is to acquire additional professional information. Your goal is to gain a better understanding of your prospect or your customer's demeanor through first-hand contact with personal habits, tastes and other formal and informal behavior and preferences.

Business Dinner Manners

Prospective customers usually prefer a business lunch restaurant close to their office. It saves them time. Don't take them out of their comfort zone, but choose a restaurant you are familiar with. It doesn't have to be the most expensive, but it should represent your professionalism and your sense of style.

A large part of what goes into choosing a restaurant has a great deal to do with diminishing the risk of anything causing embarrassment. 

Your choice could be a classy lunch restaurant with healthy lunch menus, tasty dishes and a wine selection at affordable prices.

As you agree on which wine or mineral water to drink, do take time to chat. Make conversation and try to get beyond the weather. Inquire about your customer's day and listen to whatever he or she has to say. During your business lunch, expect the conversation to swing back and forth between recreational and professional topics.

If or when you find yourself in dinner conversation topics that seem to be going nowhere, you may decide to introduce a question, change the conversation and go back to the purpose of your encounter or, you may decide to bring your business lunch to an end in a nice dinner manner.

Dinner manners and social grace always go a long way.


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Last updated on August 24, 2014

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