Finding the right Business Broker or M&A firm to sell your company is an important decision. There are many good Business Brokers and M&A firms out there, but just because they’re good doesn’t mean they are the right fit to sell your company. In the 11 tips below, we’ll give you some ideas on how to find the right Business Broker to sell your business. We’ll start with tips for selecting a good business broker or M&A firm in general. Then we’ll give you some recommendations of things to consider for choosing the right advisory firm to sell your specific company.
Before you can find business brokers that might be a good fit to sell your company, you need to know where to look. The first place to get started is to do a Google search for Business Brokers. You might also try other search terms along with Business Broker, such as the industry that you are in (for example, manufacturing, technology, construction, etc.).
You can see which companies come up high in the search rankings. This is a good indication that they get a lot of internet traffic from buyers and sellers. You can also find business brokers on lists of the most prominent Business Brokers associations such as the International Business Brokers Association (www.ibba.org) as well as the most extensive website for Business Brokers (www.bizbuysell.com).
Once you have a list of possible Business Brokers, you can read on for more ways to narrow down Business Brokers that might be a good fit to sell your business.
You want to check their reviews on Google and Linkedin to make sure they have happy customers. It’s become a common practice for hiring anyone important to check their reviews. In addition to written reviews, are there video testimonials on their website?
It’s essential that the Business Brokerage firm that you select has been around for a long time. We recommend at least ten years. Business Brokers & M&A firms come and go, and the last thing you want is a firm representing you that goes out of business in the middle of your sales process. Also, the fact that a firm has been around for a while is an indication that they’ve been successful and are more likely to be successful in selling your company.
What types of marketing do they do? We recommend selecting someone that does both inbound marketing with internet advertising to attract potential buyers as well as proactive marketing to contact prospective buyers. Some firms will only do one or the other. Also, do they use social media for marketing such as Linkedin, YouTube, Facebook, etc.? Make sure they advertise on all of the significant sites such as BizBuysell, Businessesforsale.com, BizQuest, Dealstream, and BusinessBroker.net. In addition, do they advertise on Google, Bing, and Yahoo?
In addition to advertising, you want a firm that has established relationships with potential buyers that they can contact. You want them to have contacts in your industry as well as related industries, private equity groups, and wealthy entrepreneurs. Find out how extensive their database of potential buyers is. We recommend that they have at least 10,000 to 40,000 potential buyers or more. When selling a business, you typically need to speak with a large number of potential buyers to narrow it down to the ones that are qualified and serious about your particular business. The more solid qualified potential buyers you have, the more leverage your M&A Firm or Broker will have in negotiating the best price and terms.
6. Fee StructureWe feel that it’s important to pick a broker that doesn’t charge an upfront fee. They ought to be successful enough to make a good living based solely on closing businesses as opposed to relying on fees to pay for their marketing costs and other expenses. Besides, with no upfront fee, there is no incentive for them to take the assignment to sell your business unless they think they’ll be successful.
It’s essential to make sure the Business Broker will be protecting the confidentiality of the sale of your business. Realtors will advertise the name of the company and location, so you want to choose a Business Broker that has potential buyers sign confidentiality agreements and provide getting qualifications before the details are released on your business. You will also want a broker that will protect your other interests as well.
The International Business Brokers Association (IBBA) and M&A Source are the most prominent associations that you can look to see if they are members of. Also, are they members of State or regional Business Broker Associations as well as Chamber of Commerce members.
If you are selling a company with well over $1Million in revenue, you probably want to choose a Business Brokerage firm that has Brokers in multiple states and has relationships with potential buyers throughout the United States as well as overseas. The best buyers might be local, but they may also be far away.
Is their website well designed to encourage buyers to view their listings? Do they have ways in which buyers can search on different businesses for sale by different criteria? Read their blogs and articles to see whether the writing is well thought out and written professionally. Make sure you review the backgrounds of the Brokers. Does their website come up high in searches on google? If you can find them easily, so can buyers. Are their videos of their team members so you can get a sense of them before you speak with them? Do they have stated Values and Principles, and do you agree with them?
When finding the right business broker, you should look to see if they have sold companies that are similar to yours. And, do they currently have businesses for sale that are similar to yours in terms of size and industry? For example, we don’t sell retail businesses, so you would want to contact business brokers that sell these types of businesses. In addition, we only sell companies that have revenue greater than $700,000, so if your business is smaller than that, we wouldn’t be the right business broker. Looking at the types and sizes of the companies that a Brokerage has sold and is currently selling will give you an indication of whether they might be the right fit. Because then they would most likely have the right potential buyers for your company and are more likely to sell your business quickly and at a better price.
12. Contact Business Brokers and M&A firms to form a relationshipNow that you’ve done your research and narrowed it down to the top Business Brokers that seem like the best candidates, it’s important to have a detailed conversation with them. Do they seem to understand your business? Do you like them? This is important for a couple of reasons.
You’ll be working with them for anywhere from a few months to a year, or more, so you want someone that you will work well with. A collaborative effort is the best way to sell a business because no one knows more about your business than you, and you’ll need to rely on your Business Broker for their expertise in the process of selling your business.
The other reason you want a Business Broker that you like working with is that if you like them, chances are the potential buyers will also. Personal skills are essential, and many things come up that need to be negotiated. You want someone that can keep things moving forward. The best way to do that is to keep the conversation open and not let emotions get in the way of closing a deal.
We hope these tips have been helpful for you to find and select the right Business Broker/M&A firm. To give you some background on us: We focus on selling companies with annual revenues of $700,000 to $50 Million in technology, distribution, construction, manufacturing, healthcare, services, engineering, education, and transportation. If you own a profitable company that fits these criteria, we provide a confidential consultation with no fee until your business is sold.
We’ll get to know you and your company, and you can see if we might a good fit to sell your company. Since we only charge a fee if we sell your company, we only take on assignments that we feel confident that we can be successful in meeting your goals in terms of pricing. After we review your financial information, we’ll give you an idea of a potential selling price before we begin marketing your company to make sure we’re in the same ballpark.
For more on us you can visit: Businesses we’ve sold, Customer Reviews, Our Team, Values & Principles, Businesses for sale, and About Us.
We have been in business for over 17 years and have established relationships with potential buyers throughout the country and overseas. We have a potential buyer database of over 27,000 and are members of the IBBA, M&A Source, and many local and regional business broker associations and chambers of commerce. You can also read our article on combining the best practices of M&A Firms and Business Brokers. We sell businesses in the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, the South, the Midwest, and in locations throughout the US as well as selectively worldwide.
We look forward to hearing from you. If we are a good fit, we’ll look to establish a great relationship with you to collaborate on selling your company. To get started, please fill out our online form, email us at info@synergybb.com, or call (888) 750-5950. One of our M&A Business Brokers will follow up with you.
