Trio Business Intermediaries Blog

Good to see a few potential sellers putting their noses above the parapet!

If you’re waiting around to see if the business-sale market picks up use the time wisely by making sure:

• Everything that can be documented is documented – procedures, arrangements with suppliers, customer contracts,

• Key staff are happy with life at your business and not about to bolt off – you need continuity below you when you depart

• Marketing is pushing towards clearly articulating your competitive advantage.  Buyers need to feel the business is unique and a cash machine!

• You don’t take your foot off the accelerator – you need to demonstrate the business is full throttle ahead and really going places

• Long serving suppliers are being nurtured but you have new products / services on your radar to show the growth potential.

There’s no doubt that marketing and making sales is tough in any business.

If business buyers can see that there are great sales and marketing machines already in place and actively churning away then they will feel much more comfortable about the transition to them as the new owner.

So if you’re thinking of selling your business we’d recommend putting some effort into documenting your sales and marketing systems, collecting good examples and shining a light on your achievements with customers and prospects.

Some of these areas might include:

• Graphs and other visual aids showing sales / marketing / leads / customer service / online stats

• Key sales and marketing people (NOT the outgoing owner)

• Smarten up the website, including testimonials and recommendations

• Tidy up the customer list and enhance it with each customer’s tenure, avg sales per month, industry  etc