Dealing with Your Prospects

2misi.com

By following some simple communication guidelines when selling your business online, you can ensure you don't get caught up in a communication nightmare.

 
Step 1: Be Knowledgeable About Your Business

Know your business before you put it up for sale.
It sounds simple, but the fact remains that many business owners list their establishment for sale online without having a clear grasp on how much their business is worth and what facts to communicate to potential buyers.

The first step is to get all the financial information of your business in order, including cash flow and revenue numbers that span from the time you first owned the business to the current day. After you list your business for sale, you'll undoubtedly have to field legit financial questions from potential buyers, and you won't want to come off looking irresponsible or uninformed about your own business.

When you have made yourself an expert on this basic information, you can confidently put your business on the market and begin communicating with prospective buyers.

 
Step 2: Identify Serious Leads
 

Once you have listed your business for sale online, it's time to sit back and wait for the buyer leads to come in. Unfortunately, it is likely that some of these leads will not be from serious prospects, and it will be up to you to decide if an inquiry seems legit enough for you to devote a large amount of time and effort into following up.

Once a potential buyer has made initial contact, you can ask them some simple questions to quickly gauge how serious they are about going through with a transaction. These types of questions include how long they have planned on buying a business, how they plan on financing the business and how much money they have available for a down payment. If the contact provides vague or unconvincing answers, you'll probably not want to invest too much time and effort into keeping the conversation going.

Step 3: Keep Communication Flowing Through Purchase and Beyond

Now that you have found the perfect buyer, you'll have to continue effective communication through the purchase process and after.

After the business description and purchase price have been described, the purchase agreement typically deals with how the buyer intends to pay. Most buyers cobble together a variety of payment methods to complete the sale, each of which needs to be clearly discussed and identified.

Buyers should look for a clear schedule of payments with escrow agreements attached to any payments that are due prior to final closing. If the seller is financing part of the purchase price, the repayment schedule should also be described along with collateral requirements and interest details. This can become a sticking point if the seller expects to secure a first collateral position for assets that will be held as security by other lenders.

When a business is sold, the seller makes certain promises to the buyer in the form of warranties. These warranties are an extension of due diligence for hidden threats or liabilities that would devalue the business or its assets.

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