Business matchmaking: 4 tips for good communication

This article is about your communication at the table, during the event. It is about conversation technique, not about the organizer's communication with the companies, which is in how to communicate better with the companies.

At the table, the time is short and the same for everyone. Four behaviours decide whether people will remember you.

1. Rapport, without imitation

Rapport is the sense of being in tune with whoever is speaking to you. It is built through details: a similar pace of speech, a compatible volume, posture mirrored discreetly.

What works:

• Adjusting the pace. If the person speaks slowly, do not run them over. If

they speak quickly, do not make them wait.

• Using their words. If they say "clients", do not reply "consumers".

Adopting the other person's vocabulary reduces friction.

• Acknowledging before disagreeing. "That makes sense, and in my case it

works like this" opens a conversation. "That is not quite right" closes it.

What does not work: imitating gestures obviously. Mirroring that is noticed becomes embarrassing, and the effect is the opposite of the one intended.

2. Gesture in measure

Too much gesture reads as nervousness. Too little, as insecurity or disinterest.

Two practical references for a business table:

• Keep your hands visible, above the line of the table. Hidden hands generate

distrust without anyone being able to explain why.

• Use gesture to separate ideas, not to accompany every word. When you say

"there are three things", showing three fingers helps. Waving your hands the whole time is tiring.

And remember that at a round table you are speaking to five people, not one. Divide your gaze. Always speaking to the same person makes the other four disconnect.

3. Listen properly, and prove you listened

Listening well is the rarest and most profitable skill at a matchmaking event. Whoever only waits their turn to speak hears nothing.

The test is simple: after the person finishes, can you repeat in one sentence what they are looking for? If you cannot, you were not listening.

Three habits that solve it:

• Take notes while you listen. One word on the back of the card. As well as

helping you remember, it shows the conversation mattered.

• Repeat before replying. "So you are looking for a packaging supplier with

weekly delivery, is that it?" Confirmation avoids the wrong answer.

• Stay silent after the question. The most useful information usually comes

in the second when the person carries on talking because you did not interrupt.

4. Ask open questions

A closed question generates a yes or a no and ends the conversation. An open question generates information.

Questions that work at a matchmaking table:

• "What are you looking for today?"
• "How does your company usually choose a supplier?"
• "What gets in the way of your day the most right now?"
• "What kind of referral would be useful to you?"

That last one is the most efficient of all, because it turns the conversation into cooperation and creates a natural obligation of reciprocity.

Avoid questions that sound like a commercial investigation, such as "what is your revenue" or "how much do you spend on that today". At first contact, they close the door.

The time, which is the same for everyone

At a matchmaking event, each table has a fixed time. If the table has 6 seats and each person has 3 minutes, that is 18 minutes of presentation. Whoever speaks for 5 minutes steals time from someone else, and the whole table notices.

Do the arithmetic beforehand: over 8 rounds you will repeat the same pitch 8 times, to 40 people. It is worth rehearsing against a clock. Almost everyone overruns on the first rehearsal. See how to present a product or service.

Communication mistakes that recur

• Talking only about yourself. The table is not a stage. It is a

conversation.

• Selling before understanding. A proposal with no diagnosis sounds generic.
• Speaking badly of a competitor. In a mixed room, they might be two tables

away. And even if they are not, whoever hears it records the information about you, not about them.

• Using your sector's jargon. Whoever does not understand does not ask, they

just disconnect.

• Interrupting. It cuts off the conversation and the goodwill with it.
• Not taking notes. Forty conversations become a fog in 48 hours.

What to do when the table does not get going

It happens: a quiet table, tired people, someone on their phone. Two ways out that work.

Ask the whole table a question. "Who here has had a problem with a supplier's lead time?" A collective question breaks the ice better than a livelier presentation.

Offer something before asking. A referral, a contact, a useful piece of information. Whoever gives first changes the tone of the table in seconds.

After the event

Good communication at the table with no follow-up afterwards generates nothing. In the following two days, send a short, specific message to each person the conversation made sense with, citing something they said. The script is in tips for strengthening relationships after the event.

Continue with what you should never say at a matchmaking event and with 10 tips for efficient networking.