The initial meeting serves as an introduction between your company and Insight Acquisitions Group. We’ll explain our process and how we can help maximize the sales price of your business. We will answer any questions you might have about the process and also obtain basic information about your business operations. The sale of most businesses is highly confidential, so we can meet after business hours or at an off-site location at your convenience.
Insight Acquisitions Group will provide you with a free valuation of your business. Our intermediary will analyze your financial statements and review the various aspects of your business in order to determine a market value range for your business. In order to complete our analysis, we will require the last 3 years of financial statements and the completion of a basic seller questionnaire.
Once we agree on a selling price for your business and you are confident with our proposed marketing plan, an engagement agreement will be signed. This document describes our mutual understanding and commitment along with the relevant terms and conditions of the agreement. Our listing agreements are straightforward and typically established for a 12-month period. Our commitment to you is to utilize our best efforts and resources to sell your business. Your commitment to us is to sell your business at the price and terms consistent with the marketplace.
We will request from you the necessary documentation required to sell your business. With this information, we will prepare the Confidential Business Memorandum report, a key document utilized in the marketing of your business. To maintain confidentiality, details from any documentation provided will never be released to prospective buyers without the execution of a signed non-disclosure agreement. Further, only a limited amount of information is provided to prospective buyers during the initial inquiry stage.
We have a multi-faceted marketing strategy that is individually tailored to your business. Our aggressive marketing plan may include internet advertising, targeted direct mail, use of personal contacts, and the contacting of buyers from our comprehensive buyer database. Our goal is to give your business maximum exposure in order to attract a large pool of buyers and create competition between buyers. Your business is advertised confidentially and we never disclose your company’s name or location in any advertisements. Everything we do is designed to protect your business and your confidentiality.
Finding buyers interested in your business is important, but that’s only half of it. We make sure to screen buyers to separate serious buyers from “tire kickers”. Qualified buyers interested in more information about the business for sale will be profiled and required to sign an NDA, which protects the seller’s confidential business information and states that the business sale is to be kept confidential. After an NDA is signed, the team can engage the prospect by revealing more detailed information and provide further information about the business for sale.
A meeting between yourself, our intermediary, and the buyer will be organized to discuss the buyer’s serious interest. Buyers that wish to meet with the seller are qualified for the financial ability to buy the business. During the meeting, the various components and benefits of the business are discussed. The goal of the meeting is to provide free-flowing information and establish trust between both parties. Your intermediary will attend the meeting to help facilitate a productive conversation between you and the buyer.
Appropriate negotiation is crucial to achieving your best price and terms. Once you meet all of the qualified buyers, we urge them to prepare and present all offers. We then secure and hold the earnest money from buyers during the offer process. We will counsel you on your options of accepting, countering or rejecting the offer. As your intermediary, we work on your behalf during this critical negotiation stage. We have in-depth knowledge and experience with negotiating techniques and structuring deals. Most buyers will not have representation during the negotiation phase, so you’ll have the advantage of us working on your behalf.
At this stage, financial and legal due diligence is performed by the buyer and their accountant and attorney. Due diligence is the process where the buyer has the opportunity to examine all financial records and documents of the business. We work to ensure an efficient due diligence process and strive to keep the lines of communication open between all parties during this critical phase. During this stage, the definitive purchase agreement is drafted by the lawyers of both the buyer and seller.
It is vital to keep the deal moving efficiently from the offer phase to the closing phase. Time delays can be detrimental to any deal. Once a buyer and seller agree on an offer, we make sure that the remaining steps to close the deal move forward timely and efficiently. We help manage all administrative procedures, licenses, inventory counts and lease assignments that may be required. We also stay in touch with the accountants, lawyers, banks, landlords, and other third parties to ensure that lines of communication remain clear and open so that nothing gets in the way of closing the deal.
