Part 2: Managing Expectations and Gaining Momentum

When selling a company, it is important to build momentum without losing focus on daily business operations. Many business owners grapple with this struggle when selling a business. In part two of the series “Selling your Business: Techniques for a Successful Sale,” you will learn the importance of managing expectations, staying focused on the business and sustaining momentum—the final three components of the acronym SUCCESS.

Expectations are Managed

If your company has not managed the sale of a business before, it’s difficult to know what to expect. Having a strong understanding of these details puts your company is a position of strength, which may result in securing a better deal. If a buyer suspects the seller is uninformed about the process, they may take advantage of the situation. This can add up to wasted time and money.

Merger and acquisition professionals know exactly what to expect and can work to mitigate these potential issues. They can also diffuse any surprises that may arise during the process.

Stay Focused on the Business

When handling the sales process yourself, it is easy to get caught up in the transaction and distracted from daily operations. Selling a business can drain both time and energy from the seller. Given the depth of the process, a business owner may wake up one day and realize he is spending most of his days on the transaction process. This can affect both the owner and the business.

For example, a business owner who has experienced success with his company decides to sell. He spends time contacting potential buyers every day. An interested buyer visits his company and is very impressed with the business. In the meantime, the owner discovers one of his key accounts has pulled his business and taken it elsewhere. Although the customer expressed issues with service several times, the owner was disconnected from daily operations. He didn’t realize there was a problem. Situations like these are common for business owners handling their own deal.

An intermediary positions the owner to focus on daily operations while he focuses on deal activity.

Sustain Momentum

Maintaining positive momentum is crucial to finding the right buyer and moving the ball down the field. For many business owners, the process starts when the owner responds to an inquiry, and invests valuable time in sending information to a buyer. Because this process is so difficult to manage while supervising daily business activities, the owner split their focus between managing operations and deal activity. Buyers begin to get frustrated and the sales process loses momentum.

Delegating this process to an intermediary allows the owner to focus entirely on their business. Momentum is preserved and buyers are dealt with on a timely basis to keep the process moving.

When selling your business, remember the SUCCESS acronym as you decide to manage the process yourself, or delegate it to an intermediary.

Mark Jordan is the Managing Principal of VERCOR, an investment bank that creates liquidity for middle market business owners.  He is the author of Driving Business Value in an Uncertain Economy (Decere Publishing, 2009), Enhancing Your Business Value...The Climb to the Top (Decere Publishing, 2002), Selling Your Business The Hard Easy Way (Decere Publishing, 2008) and co-author of The Business Sale...A Business Owner's Most Perilous Expedition (Decere Publishing, 2001). He is also the author of numerous articles on mergers and acquisitions.  For more information, contact him at (770) 399-9512 or go to http://www.vercoradvisor.com.