Does your prospective business buyer seem too good to be true? If you’re selling your business you want to get the best deal possible. You don’t want to waste your time talking to someone who’s not really interested in buying a business or accidentally provide important information to a competitor who wants to learn more about how your business operates.
How to Qualify Potential Buyers for Your Business
Anyone who expresses an interest in buying your business should be carefully vetted before you spend any time talking to them about your business. You should ask everyone who says they’re interested in buying your business a series of questions to make sure they are qualified and sincerely interested in buying your business. Buy asking each potential buyer the same questions, you will have enough information to compare the prospects and find the best-qualified buyer.
You probably have never sold a business before. But you have started and built a successful business. You know from experience that many people talk about building a business, but never actually do it. As Mark Cuban says, they are wantrapreneurs, not entrepreneurs.
Similarly, there are many people who dream of buying an already successful business – but never will. Just as there are people who attend open houses for homes they will never buy. They are dreamers, not doers. There is nothing wrong with being a dreamer – but you don’t want to waste your time and energy talking to someone who is never going to buy your business.
Shopping your competition – also called secret shoppers or mystery shoppers – is a strategy where someone goes undercover and pretends to be a customer when all they’re really want is information. You can’t stop people from trying to get competitive data about your business. But you can prevent them from getting your trade secrets and insider knowledge by pre-qualifying anyone who pretends to be interested in buying your business.
It only takes one buyer to successfully sell your business. You can avoid mistakes and maximize your time and profit by prequalifying your prospective business buyers to make sure you find the right person to buy your business.
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11 Questions to Ask Potential Buyers of Your Business
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11 Questions to Ask Potential Buyers of Your Business
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