Our Process to Selling a Business

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There are two crucial components to selling a business and you need both of them: a competitive market of interested acquirers and a shared vision of a lucrative future. If you’re intent on selling your business for the most you can get out of it, you have to proactively and intensely create a dynamic, competitive market of interested acquirers. Without a competing market, you’ll have very little leverage to convince a buyer to pay you anything more than the industry standard multiple of past profits.

As business owners, we know that there’s more value in our business we’re selling than what we’ve been able to accomplish in the past. At BCMS Corporate, we’ve spent 20 years perfecting a process that allows us to switch conversations away from buyer-focused return on investment criteria to the future opportunity and value that you’re able to offer when selling your business.

Learn more about our 6-step process to selling a business using the buttons below or call 888-413-2267 and speak with us today.

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  • Brief: Project exploration
  • Every business – like every business owner – has a unique past and a unique future. We will spend time understanding your personal objectives for selling the business, your business’ unique strengths and opportunities and the acquisition potential.
  • A large portion of the information will be used by our Research Team when looking for strategic acquirers. We must be meticulous during this stage so that we consider all opportunities and do not prematurely eliminate potential synergies or value opportunities.
  • Research: From Nagano to New York
  • Our Research Team undertakes a customized research project for each client. Potential buyers may be found across the world, from private equity shops to public firms here and overseas.
  • We create a tailored list of qualified prospects from the 55+million global companies contained in our database. Each prospect is scrutinized using our proprietary research practices, which look at industry and M&A trends, strategic and synergistic motives, financial capability, and acquisition history among other criteria.
  • The aim is to cast a large, but targeted, net around the most likely potential acquirers for your business. In order to successfully sell a business, the research at the beginning of the process must be as thorough as it is comprehensive. Research is the cornerstone for everything we do.
  • Prospect Generation: On the ground marketing
  • Once we have identified a list of potential acquirers we hit the phones, calling the chief decision-makers at each company. Then we call them again. And again. And – you get the idea. Our marketing team is as tenacious as our researchers are thorough.
  • We deliver customized pitches about the acquisition opportunity to each acquirer. Once we’ve secured nondisclosure agreements, we present the acquirers with marketing documentation that is benefit-focused and concentrates on the future potential of your business.
  • A competitive pool of strategic buyers rarely occurs by accident. We create our own luck by working tenaciously to uncover our own competitive market.
  • Exploratory Meeting: Understanding motives
  • We’ll arrange face-to-face meetings with the most suitable, qualified prospects. It is too early to begin price discussions*; instead these exploratory meetings are used to evaluate the “fit” between the two parties.
  • We discuss value of what your business will look like once the acquirer applies their resources, time, energy and money to the business. Acquirers don’t buy a company for its history, they buy a company because of the opportunity it presents in the future – and we want to understand what value this holds for them.
  • The goal of this stage is to come away with an understanding of what the future of your business is worth to an acquirer.
  • Bidding: Negotiating competitive offers
  • Your Deal Leader will invite competitive bids once we have a clear understanding of acquirers’ motives. We introduce the notion of competition and the motives behind some competing bidders; maybe a foreign competitor wants to acquire your company to gain a foothold in your area, maybe there are cross-selling opportunities, etc. Each prospect is selected because of their plans for the company in the future.
  • We leverage the information gained in the Exploratory Meetings. After the first rounds of bids are received, our skilled negotiators ask the bidders if they would consider adjusting their bids to reflect the future potential they presented in the exploratory meetings. You are selling the business for its future potential, and as the acquirers described in the Exploratory Meetings, paying you for that opportunity still provides a win-win situation.
  • Completion: Due diligence
  • Once you’ve decided which offer to accept, the buyer will want to verify that what they think they’re buying is what they’re actually getting. This stage will typically vary in complexity consistent with the complexity of the business. Preparation is the key – we guide our clients through a 78-point checklist that ensures our clients are prepared for any request.
  • Maintaining speed and momentum are critical from the point of offer acceptance through to deal completion. The longer a deal takes to complete the disproportionately more likely it is to never close. Our deal teams ensure that all lawyers, accountants and deal professionals keep sight of the larger picture (selling the business) and move towards a speedy and successful completion.