The Ultimate Guide to Business Matchmaking for Corporations in 2019

Thought matchmaking was just for dating? Well, think again. If you think about it all businesses are ideally trying to find the perfect match between themselves and their ideal client. Sites like Uber match people looking for rides with people who need rides. Travel sites use artificial intelligence “to improve personalisation, tailor recommendations and guarantee fast response times, even in the absence of staff.” What they’re doing essentially is matching the right package to the consumer based on what they are looking for.

Business matchmaking for corporations

So why is business matchmaking important for corporations? Simply put, corporations can’t afford to do business with suppliers who are not the right fit. This can lead to many issues such as expecting something and getting something else in return, overextended deadlines, over budget projects and more. In order to mitigate risk it’s critical for corporations to find the perfect supplier fit to begin with.

How does business matchmaking work?

In the aim to connect two businesses (aka the buyer and the supplier), business matchmaking makes the use of data to make an ideal connection and a targeted match.

A buyer could be seen as a corporation, multinational, federal agency or any entity looking to procure a product or a service. A supplier could be a small business, a diverse business or anyone looking to sell their products and services.

The idea to match the right buyer with the right supplier is the essence of what business matchmaking does.

What is business matchmaking software?

Just like travel sites will personalize services based on your browsing and purchase history, business matchmaking software uses a unique algorithm to match the right buyers with the right suppliers.

Highly intelligent, the algorithm needs to analyze and sort through a wealth of different data to cherry-pick the perfect matches between buyer and supplier.

There are many different parameters it uses to do this. Based on how the matchmaker planner decides they want to match businesses, a well-built matchmaker should be able to find matches by business category, product, service, diversity codes, keywords and more, helping attendees find the best most targeted matches that could lead do potential business opportunities.

What types of business matchmakers are there?

In most cases there are two types of business matchmakers and two ways they can be run. First let’s take a look at the two types:

1. Strategic business matchmaking

The most common kind of business matchmaker, strategic business matchmaking makes use of the portal’s unique business intelligence, and an algorithm automatically selects the best possible matches by business category, product, service, industry codes and more finding the best most targeted matches for Buyers and Suppliers on autopilot.

2. Non-strategic business matchmaking

In this type of business matchmaking the buyers and suppliers have a lot more control over who they want to meet with. They can search and filter by parameters important to them such as years in business, industry, state, product and service codes, past performance and more. They can then request meetings with the company they want to meet with, and the company requested has the option to either accept or reject the meeting request.

How are business matchmaking meetings set up?

There are two ways the matchmaker can be run — One-to-one and one-to-many meetings:

1. One-to-one business matchmaking

In one-to-one business matchmaking, one buyer meets with one supplier at one time. For example, Corporation A meets with Small Business A

2. One-to-many business matchmaking

In one-to-many business matchmaking, one buyer can meet with one or more suppliers at one time. For example, Corporation A meets with Small Business A, Small Business B, and Small Business C

What happens at a business matchmaking event?

Essentially, business matchmaking is all about networking and building connections between two or more entities, facilitated through meeting slots of usually 10, 15 or 20 minutes.

The business matchmaker can be run as an event on its own, or in many cases it is part of a larger event that also has workshops, plenary sessions, perhaps even an awards ceremony, gala and more.

Usually as attendees register for the matchmaker session online they are asked a few questions to sort themselves into industries, business categories and more refined options such as keywords and NAICS, SIC or UNSPSC codes. The event planner or the person responsible for running the matchmaker ultimately decides the parameters that will be used to match buyers and suppliers.

In the case of a strategic matchmaker, once the system generates the matches, the participants are sent their schedule so they know who they will be meeting with.

For a non-strategic matchmaker participants choose who they want to meet with so they will only meet with those whose meeting requests they have confirmed.

What should I be looking for in a business matchmaker?

Here are a few things you should be looking for in an intelligent, comprehensive business matchmaking software solution:

Also, a smart business matchmaker will include extensive reporting functionalities. By tracking the progress of matches from inception to exit, companies now have the opportunity to expand their role from simply making introductions to supporting long term business relationships.