If you’ve built a high-performing, high-value company and want to sell it, working with a business broker could be your best bet. Business brokers provide seamless, end-to-end solutions that help sellers get the best terms and the best prices. They’re skilled negotiators, seasoned planners, and highly effective mediators. Read on to discover five major benefits of working with these professionals.
1. Get Ready to Sell
Knowing that you want to sell your business and being ready to sell it are two different things. You must be prepared to receive intense scrutiny from prospective buyers, their attorneys, and their lenders. Part of a broker’s job is making sure that your company makes the best possible impressions. Not only will a broker help you get your sales pitch together, but they’ll actively look for weak areas and assist you in building them up. They approach business selling as a multi-pronged process that optimizes profits for their clients.
2. Understand the Full Implications of Selling and Set Feasible Goals and Priorities
One large part of preparing your exit strategy is defining your goals. You may be leaving a large, loyal, and much-appreciated team of employees behind. If you’ve spent years or decades building your business and your customer base, you might be concerned with preserving your legacy. Business brokers can help you strike the right balance between optimizing your profits and ensuring that your company winds up in the best hands for protecting your clients, your team, and your brand reputation.
3. Be Prepared for Buyer Objections and Contingencies
When buyers negotiate, they often attempt to incorporate contingencies or “wish lists”. Company sellers typically fare best at the negotiating table when they’ve consulted with brokers beforehand or have brokers actively negotiating with them. Given their vast experience in brokering deals, brokers can anticipate buyer objections, contingencies, and “wish lists” in multiple industries, and they can keep conversations held steady at sellers’ targeted price points.
4. Make Your Sale a Seamless and Easy One
Brokers also assist with all post-sale paperwork. They can facilitate asset transfers and the transfers of all licenses and contracts as needed. With a broker on your team, your work will largely entail defining your goals and priorities and getting your company ready. When your objectives are clear, you’ll find that your broker does much of the remaining heavy lifting.
5. Expand Your Options
Among the greatest benefits of working with business brokers is their ability to align sellers with qualified and motivated buyers. Business brokers leverage their vast networks and marketing channels to get the word out in ways that work well for their clients. A broker can assist you with professional marketing materials, quality advertisements, and confidential marketing campaigns as needed.
Working with buyers who understand your industry and recognize what your company is worth is far better than attempting to offload your enterprise to a family member, colleague, or friend. You can avoid all the complexities and unnecessary stress that come with selling to people you know, and you can engage in negotiations in a completely fair and practical way.