Imagine, as an example, a small industrial maintenance company in Joinville, in southern Brazil, that gets an invitation to an online business round on a Thursday morning. The owner does the math in his head: a morning away from the workshop, a profile to fill in, conversations with companies he has never seen. His question is the same one many small businesses ask: is a business round worth it when you have little time and a small team? Before answering, he enters his own figures in the cost-per-meeting calculator, which compares trade fairs, prospecting with a sales rep, ads and business rounds by the cost of each conversation. This guide walks you through the same exercise: what to expect, what it really costs, when it is not worth it and how to tell afterwards whether it was.
What to expect from a business round
A business round is a series of short conversations between companies, scheduled in advance. Instead of spending weeks looking for a client or a supplier, both sides arrive at the conversation knowing why they are there. The guide to how a business round works explains the format and the steps. Here the focus is different: what you take home at the end of the day, and what you do not.
What a business round delivers
- First qualified conversations: with companies looking for what you offer, or offering what you are looking for.
- Speed: you talk to several of the right companies in a single session, without chasing each one for weeks.
- Market information: what buyers are asking for, which objections come up and how your price sounds to the people who buy.
- Pitch practice: after a few conversations, you notice which sentence in your pitch works and which one confuses people.
What a business round does not deliver
It does not close the deal for you. In business to business sales, the first conversation rarely ends in an order: after it come the proposal, the visit, the sample, internal approval and negotiation. People who join a business round expecting to leave with a signed order usually come back disappointed, even when the conversations went well. The right expectation is to leave with a few agreed next steps and a clear idea of which ones deserve your attention first.
The real cost: time, travel and attention
When deciding whether a business round is worth it, many people only look at the registration fee. For most small companies, that is the smallest part of the bill. The cost that really weighs is the time of the owner or the salesperson, and whatever does not get done while they are in conversations or on the road.
| Item | In-person business round | Online business round |
|---|---|---|
| Registration | Free or paid, depending on the organizer | Free or paid, depending on the organizer |
| Travel | Transport, parking and sometimes flights and a hotel | None |
| Time away from the company | The whole event, plus getting there and back | Only the time slot of the conversations |
| Preparation | Profile, pitch and printed material | Profile, pitch, camera and a stable connection |
| After the event | Sorting business cards and writing the messages | Sorting the contacts that were shared and writing the messages |
Preparation time
A well-written profile, a short pitch and a list of what you want to find out in each conversation take a few hours the first time. After that, almost nothing, because you reuse what you already have. This time is not wasted: it is what separates a useful conversation from a generic presentation the other side forgets the next day.
Follow-up time
This is the most forgotten cost and the one that decides the outcome the most. Every conversation where both sides marked interest calls for a message, sometimes a proposal, sometimes a phone call. If you do not block that time for the following days, the rest of the investment is lost. The article on business rounds or trade fairs compares this calculation with that of an industry fair, item by item.
When a business round is worth it
- You sell to other companies: and your client decides after talking, comparing and asking for a proposal.
- You need new conversations: your client base depends on referrals or on a few large clients.
- You want to reach other regions: without traveling to every city where there are buyers.
- You are looking for a supplier or a partner: a business round also works for buying and for finding companies that complement your offer.
- You have time for what comes after: you can reply within two days to everyone who marked interest.
If you are not sure where your networking stands today, the networking diagnostic shows where the gaps are and helps you see whether a business round is the right next step or whether something else should come first.
When it is not worth it (or not yet)
There are cases where the honest answer is no. It is better to know that before you block the morning.
You sell to end consumers
A clothing store, a bakery counter or a beauty salon sells to people, not to companies. A business round brings together companies that buy from companies. The exception is when you also have a business to business side: the bakery that wants to supply coffee shops and restaurants, for example. In that case the round serves that side of the business, not the counter.
You cannot deliver if it works
If your production is already at its limit, or if your product is not yet ready to be sold to another company, with a proper invoice, delivery times and consistent quality, a good conversation turns into a problem. Promising what you cannot deliver damages your company's name right at the first contact. Sort out your capacity first and join a round afterwards.
You expect to close on the same day
Whoever judges a business round by the order signed at the end of the afternoon almost always concludes it was not worth it, even when it opened good doors. Business to business sales have a cycle. If your company needs cash this week, a business round will not solve that squeeze: it feeds the sales of the following months.
You have no time for follow-up
If your calendar for the coming weeks is already full, pick a date when you can reply to everyone who marked interest. A conversation with no reply is time wasted on both sides, and the other company remembers who disappeared.
How to measure the return
Knowing whether a business round is worth it for your company is a matter of record keeping, not of impressions. There is no return figure that fits everyone: it depends on your average deal size, your sales cycle and what you did after the conversations. What you can do is measure your own case, with your own data.
- Write down the cost beforehand: hours of preparation, hours of conversations, hours of follow-up and, for an in-person event, the travel.
- Record each conversation: who it was with, what the company is looking for and the next step you agreed on.
- Tag the source: every opportunity that comes out of that round carries its tag, even when it turns into business months later.
- Track it by stage: conversations with interest on both sides, proposals sent, orders closed.
- Compare with other channels: the cost of each client who came from the round next to the cost of clients who came from fairs, referrals or ads.
The guide on how to measure the return on networking shows how to set up this record in a simple spreadsheet. To know whether the cost of each client is reasonable, the article on how much it costs to win a B2B client helps you compare that cost with what the client brings in over time.
One word of caution: give the cycle time to play out. Judging a business round one week later only measures the beginning of the story. Look again when the open proposals have an answer, and only then decide whether to do it again.
A quick test before you sign up
Answer honestly, ideally in writing:
- Can I say in one sentence what I offer and to whom?
- Do I know what kind of company I want to meet and what I want to find out in each conversation?
- Do I have the capacity to serve a new client in the coming months?
- Have I set aside time in the two days after the round to reply to everyone who marked interest?
If you answered yes to all of them, a business round tends to be a good use of your time. If you got stuck on any of them, sort that point out first. It also pays to choose the format carefully: the article on the types of business rounds helps you find the one that fits where your company is right now.
Where to start
Work out the cost of your next business round, write a profile that says what you offer and what you are looking for, and block in your calendar both the time slot of the conversations and the time for follow-up. If this is your first time, the guide to your first business round shows the experience from beginning to end.
Your company's first online business round is on us: all you need is an active Brazilian CNPJ (the Brazilian company registration number), once per CNPJ, and contact details are only shared when both sides mark interest. See the upcoming business rounds and use the first one to measure, with your own figures, whether the format is worth it for you.