A typical business sale might take 4 to 6 months to conclude and during this time you will have to deal with a lot of buyers. A poorly targeted marketing strategy will waste your time by delivering enquiries from buyers who will never be in a position to purchase and may not even reach the buyers you really want.
Consider the numbers put forward below for a typical business sale that assumes a well thought out strategy and a targeted marketing campaign. If you aren't targeted in your marketing approach, then the first 3 interaction numbers increase significantly wasting valuable time making it harder to get to the last 2 parts of the process.
Some industries can justify a marketing strategy that casts a wide net but you still need to be conscious of what your ideal buyer looks like. No one is going to buy a business just because it has a "High Return on investment" or "Plenty of Opportunity". Of course these things are important to buyers but if they don't have the skills, interest in or understanding of the business operations, they will never proceed to settlement.
Profile your buyers by considering why they would by your business :
- Geographical Distribution Expansion
- Increase Market Share
- Technology and IP
- Economies of Scale and Synergies
- Product Line Expansion
Once you know what your buyer/s will look like, you can place your advertising where they will see it and produce marketing content that is relevant to them.
For example; a transport operator looking to expand their geographical footprint through acquisition will already be very familiar with what is needed to run your Trucking business and how profitable they can make it. Value for them will be in contracted customer relationships and well maintained, late model plant and equipment. However, an ROI investor from outside of the industry will likely be focused on current profitability, systems and key staff retention.
The content of your marketing collateral should reflect whether your business best suits a trade sale, an ROI investor buyout, or both. These buyer characteristics should also determine your advertising content and where those ads are place.
Note that the buyer of your business may not even be actively looking to purchase a business so soft marketing and confidential approaches to competitors, staff and key industry players should be a serious consideration in your marketing mix.
Troy Potter : 0412 286 176