If you are thinking about selling your business, you likely have many questions. This is one of the biggest decisions in your life.
Most people only sell a business once in their lifetime. That is why we want to help you better understand the process that we follow so it feels less daunting and overwhelming.
If you missed our last article on an overview of our process and details of Step 1 Getting to Know You, you can read it here.
Selling Your Business – The 5 Steps We Follow to Achieve Your Goals:
Step 1. Getting to Know You
Step 2. Going to Market
Step 3. Negotiations
Step 4. Due Diligence, Financing, and Legal
Step 5. Closing
This article presents more detail about Step 2. Going to Market.
Keys to the Game
Using a sports analogy, analysts will often talk about the “Keys to the Game”: aspects of the game that are going to be important. Keys to Step 2 continue to emphasize the importance of confidentiality and professionalism (these are essential throughout the process) plus we add a new and important key: efficiency by protecting your valuable time.
During this step in the process, we are going to market, developing and implementing the marketing strategy to take your business out to the market so that we identify solid potential buyers to buy your business so you can achieve your goals. You have selected us as your business broker, and we are committed to championing your goals.
At this point, efficiency is important as you still have a business to run. You can’t take your foot off the gas or your eye off the ball, so we have developed an efficient process that enables you to do that while we are doing what we do best, marketing your business and vetting prospective buyers.
The Deliverables in Step 2 Going to Market
So what is your business broker doing for you in the Going to Market phase of selling your business?
The initial priority is gathering all the information to take your business to market, which is professionally packaged as a Confidential Business Review (CBR). This is a formal presentation of your business and is only released to prospective buyers after signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). As part of preparing the CBR, we develop a strategy for targeting prospective buyers which may include individuals, industry buyers, and strategic buyers such as private equity firms. Our vast network enables us to have a track record of success in getting your business in front of the right prospective buyers. Read this case study as an example of how we identified a buyer early in Step 2 of the process without having to formally take them to market.
Another deliverable we develop during this step is a recorded Seller interview. This video is shared with qualified prospective buyers to learn more about the seller’s motivation, the business and additional information the seller may want to share to appeal to select buyers. This can be an effective marketing tool to help serious buyers then convey their interest and suitability in a letter of intent.
Vetting Prospective Buyers to Present Strong Candidates
A differentiator of working with us is our proven process to protect your time as we effectively target and vet prospective buyers. This saves you time and hassle and ensures that we are only presenting the strongest candidates to acquire your business.
While this may seem obvious, imagine if one hundred NDAs were signed indicating interest in your business and no proper vetting process was applied? You would be buried in meetings and pulled away from your day-to-day responsibilities.
It takes a lot of time and expertise to sort through and vet prospective buyers for our clients. And that is our job. From Step 1 of Getting to Know You, we understand your goals and as experienced business brokers, we are putting our knowledge and expertise to work on your behalf by carefully reviewing and following up with all prospective buyers. This is especially important now in today’s seller’s market as buyers are signing NDAs indicating interest and are not necessarily suited for your industry or line of business. Prospective sellers are putting multiple lines in the water, and it is our job to assess those who are serious, qualified, and with financing secured to even be considered to move on in the process.
Managing the Meeting
Once vetted, we will determine the prospective buyers who have risen to the top of all those who indicated interest. At this point, we recommend a meeting for you to meet and assess for yourself their viability as a buyer of your business. We will coordinate and manage all details of this initial introduction. This is an important meeting and is reserved only for the best prospective buyers so your time is protected and spent wisely.
As the business owner and seller, you are our client. We will guide and counsel you every step of the way, including in this important Step of Going to Market as we present prospective buyers and share insight as to which prospective buyers are the most qualified and best-suited to take on the business in a manner that supports your goals as you move on to the next phase of your life.
Conclusion
Going to market is an exciting step in the process of selling your business. There is often great pride in seeing the final CBR and having a professional, summarized overview of all that you and your team have accomplished. With our team, you can be assured your time is protected so you can continue to lead the business and stay on course. We are committed to presenting you top prospective buyers, coordinating the initial meetings and helping to narrow down the field to a few good options at this step.
We then move into the next step of the process, Negotiations.
All our business brokers have owned a business and gone through this process. We are confident our hands-on experience enables us to best serve you with support, understanding, and experience. With a final sports analogy, think of us as your biggest cheerleader and the quarterback of the process, leading the team, calling the plays while communicating with you to protect your interests and your time, and achieve the goals that you shared with us in our first meeting during Step 1.
If you are thinking about selling your business. We welcome the opportunity to meet to learn about your goals, your business, and how we may be the right fit to help.
Stay tuned for more information as we next talk more about the Negotiations Process and the value we bring in Step 3.