Imagine a Brazilian accounting firm that serves small businesses in the region. Every year end, some clients call to ask whether there is a cheaper option, and one of the partners realizes the firm is only remembered for the tax slips it sends. At the same time, she knows the client list includes a print shop looking for manufacturers, a trucking company looking for distributors and a uniform supplier that has never talked to any of them. Before proposing anything to her team, she opens the Cost per Meeting Calculator and compares how much it costs one of her clients to get a qualified meeting at a trade fair, with a dedicated salesperson or with ads. That cost gives a sense of what the firm can offer as a benefit: conversations with people who are looking for what the client sells.
This article is for anyone who looks after a base of companies, whether an association, a coworking space or an accounting firm, and wants the online business round to stop being a one-off event and become a benefit for members and clients, used throughout the year. The step by step for setting up the first edition is in the guide on how to run an online business round at your association. Here the subject is different: why the round works as a benefit and how to keep it going.
Why a benefit has to be used
Almost every organization has a list of perks: a health plan agreement, a discount on courses, a meeting room, a magazine. Members compare that list with the monthly fee, item by item, and almost everything on it has an equivalent on the market. A benefit nobody uses does not show up when it is time to renew.
Business between members is different. It depends on a base that only your organization has, and no outsider can copy it. When a member meets a client or a supplier in a conversation your organization set up, the memory stays tied to the organization, not to just another discount.
The hard part has always been the operation. Bringing companies together to talk takes a venue, staff and a lot of preparation, so it rarely happens. In the online format, each participant talks one to one by video call inside the platform, with a fixed time and automatic room changes. The organization invites and the platform runs it. That is what makes it possible to repeat. To understand why short, timed conversations tend to yield more than a cocktail party, read the guide on business networking.
Associations, coworking spaces and accounting firms
All three have a base of companies that barely know each other, but each one uses the round for a different reason.
Business and trade associations
An association lives on renewals, and members weigh what they got over the whole year, not only on the day the invoice arrives. A regular round gives them a benefit they can actually use and gives the board something to show beyond discount agreements. It also helps attract new members: an edition open to outside guests shows what the association offers before anyone talks about joining. The page on business rounds for associations shows how the round goes out with your association's name and brand.
Coworking spaces
In a coworking space, residents share the coffee and the internet, but rarely know what the person at the next desk sells. Community shows up in the sales proposal and much less in daily life. A round among residents turns that promise into scheduled conversations, and the space can become known as the place where companies do business with each other. See the page on business rounds for coworking spaces.
Accounting firms
An accounting firm knows its whole client list up close: who sells, who buys, who is growing. When clients only see the tax obligations, the conversation turns to price. When the firm introduces them to other clients who are looking for what they offer, the relationship changes subject. The page on business rounds for accounting firms covers this case.
| Point | Association | Coworking space | Accounting firm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who takes part | Members and outside guests | Residents of the space | Clients on the firm's list |
| What the round solves | A benefit members use throughout the year | A community that proves itself in practice | A relationship that goes beyond price |
| Who to invite first | An active industry group | The residents who are around the most | Clients who sell to other companies |
What to deliver
The benefit is not just a slot on the calendar. Members see value in the whole package: what happens before, during and after the conversation.
- Before: a clear invitation that says in two sentences what the company gets, and material so it arrives prepared. Send the guide on how to prepare for a business round along with it, and ask everyone to describe in their profile what they offer and what they are looking for.
- During: conversations with people who are looking for what the company offers, without repeating a conversation and without anyone having to share a link. The organizer chooses between matching by affinity between businesses or random matching, depending on the goal of the edition.
- After: contact details shared only when both sides mark interest, and a reminder from the organization so the conversation continues. The guide on follow-up after a business meeting is good material to send in the following days.
Many people in your base have never taken part in a round and do not know what to expect. Before the first invitation, show them the screens: the Round Simulator walks through the preparation room, the conversations and marking interest in under a minute, with no camera. A link to it in the invitation answers the question of how it works before that question lands in your team's WhatsApp.
Also respect what members do not want. Sharing contact details depends on both sides, and that should be in the invitation: nobody leaves the round with the phone number of someone who did not want to talk to them. For anyone who worries about pushy sales approaches, this rule carries more weight than any argument.
Frequency: a pace your base can keep
A benefit is only remembered if it shows up regularly. A one-off round makes the news once and then fades. A round with a predictable date gets onto companies' calendars, and members start planning to take part.
Pick a pace and announce it
Monthly, every other month or quarterly: the right pace is the one your team can sustain without extra effort and your base can keep up with. It is better to start with more space between editions and increase later than to promise a frequency that will soon fail. Announce the calendar for the half year all at once, always on the same weekday and at the same time.
Vary the theme of each edition
Always inviting the same audience runs out of new conversations. Alternate editions open to your whole base with themed ones: an industry group, suppliers for local manufacturers, service providers for retailers. When spots are left over, you can open the remaining spots to platform subscribers, which brings companies from outside your base to talk with your members.
Rehearse when the format changes
Every time an edition has a new format, run a test in the Lab, the training environment separate from production, with test participants. That way your team sees the round the way members will see it, without exposing anyone from your base.
How to measure
A benefit that is not measured becomes a cost at the first board meeting with a tight budget. So decide what you will track before the first edition.
- Attendance: who registered, who showed up and who came back for the next edition. Coming back says more than registering.
- Connections: the conversations in which both sides marked interest. The organizer report brings attendance and connections at the end of each round.
- What came next: a few weeks later, ask participants what came out of the conversations: a quote requested, a site visit, a sample sent. This is the part no dashboard shows, and the one that convinces the most.
- Who did not take part: look at which segments are missing and ask why. Sometimes the problem is the time slot; sometimes, the invitation.
Take this data to the board or to your partners with the report in hand. If someone asks what a connection is worth, go back to the Cost per Meeting Calculator and show, with numbers from your own base, how much it would cost to get similar conversations through other channels. Do not promise results: show what happened and let members tell the rest.
Where to start
Choose the audience for the first edition, set a pace your team can sustain and write, in two sentences, what the member or client gets. Learn about the Organizer plan features on the page on business rounds for organizers and rehearse everything in the Lab before inviting your base. And, to offer the benefit knowing what it is like from the inside, take part in an open round as a company first: your company's first online business round is on us, all you need is an active 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 feel, from the participant's side, the benefit you are going to deliver.