How to present a product or service

At a business matchmaking event you get between two and five minutes per table. That is not enough time to tell the company's story. It is enough time for one thing: making the five people at that table understand what you solve and why they should talk to you afterwards.

This article is the script that works in that format.

The four-part structure

Write your presentation in this order. It fits in two minutes with room to spare.

1. The problem, in one sentence. Start with what hurts, not with who you are. "A company with twenty staff loses about half a day a month just checking payroll." Whoever has that problem looks up.

2. What you do, in plain language. No acronyms, no industry jargon. If your grandmother would not follow it, rewrite it.

3. Who it is for, with a concrete example. "I work with small manufacturers in the furniture cluster here." Being specific creates recognition. "I work with any company" creates nothing.

4. The ask. Finish by saying exactly what you are looking for. "I am looking for accountants who work with manufacturers, because their referrals are my main channel." Without an ask, nobody knows how to help you.

Point four is the one people skip and the one that produces the most. People want to refer you. They just do not know what to refer.

Time it beforehand

Almost everyone overruns on the first rehearsal. Record yourself on your phone, listen back and cut. Two practical rules:

• If you cannot say it in 90 seconds, you have not yet worked out what is

essential.

• If a sentence needs context to make sense, the sentence is wrong.

And count how many times you will repeat this. Across 8 rounds at tables of 6, you will give the same presentation 8 times, to 40 different people. It is worth rehearsing.

Why a matchmaking event is the best place to practise

Speaking to an audience of a hundred is a single, frightening event. Speaking to five people, eight times in a row, is something else: at the second table you notice what did not work at the first, you adjust at the third, and by the eighth your presentation is sharp.

That is a real benefit of the format that almost nobody mentions. If public speaking is your weak point, see fear of public speaking.

Business cards, used properly

• Hand it over at the start of the meeting, not the end. Someone holding

your name pays more attention while you speak.

• When you receive one, read it in front of the person. Putting it away

without looking is the clearest possible signal of disinterest.

• Write on the back. One word about the conversation. Within 48 hours, forty

cards with nothing written on them become forty strangers.

• Bring enough. Count them: rounds times seats per table minus one. Across 8

rounds of 6 seats, that is 40 people. Bring 50 cards.

• Put what matters on it. Name, company, what you do in four words, a phone

number with WhatsApp, and the profile where you actually publish.

Demonstrations and support material

Showing beats describing, but show carefully.

• A small sample that can be passed around. If it fits on the table, it

works. If it needs installing, it does not work in this format.

• A short catalogue. One page, not a book. Thick material gets left on the

table.

• A giveaway with a use. What stays on someone's desk is what keeps your

name in mind.

• Check with the organizers. Some events limit demonstrations so the rounds

do not run late.

Mistakes that ruin the presentation

• Starting with the company's history. Founded in 1998, family tradition.

None of that answers the question the table is asking.

• Using your industry's jargon. People who do not understand do not ask;

they just disconnect.

• Selling to someone who is not a buyer. Half the table will not buy from

you, but they can refer you. Speak to both roles.

• Running over time. You take minutes from whoever comes next, and the whole

table notices.

• Having no ask. It is what separates a pleasant presentation from a useful

one.

• Reading from slides or paper. At a business table, reading is the fastest

way to lose attention.

What to do when you freeze

It happens. Two ways out that work: go back to the problem, which is the part you know by heart, or ask the table a question, something like "has anyone here been through this?". The question hands the conversation back to you, and it also reveals who has the problem you solve.

Filling in the registration counts as presenting

At events run with software, the supply and demand fields you fill in when you register determine who you sit with. In Rodada de Sucesso, the compatibility score for each meeting weighs supply, demand, interests, sector, priority and history. Writing "various services" on the form wastes the whole matching process. Writing "professional uniforms for the food industry, manufactured in house, delivered in 15 days" changes who sits down in front of you.

After the meeting

A good presentation with no follow-up produces nothing. Within two days, send a short, specific message to each person the conversation made sense with, quoting something they said. The script for that is in strengthening relationships after the event and in ready to be remembered after the event.

Continue with how to pitch your idea well and what you should never say at a matchmaking event.