Selling a business is never as straightforward as you might hope. Most businesses are complicated assets, and it’s impossible to assign a clear value that all buyers will accept without any further questions.

As a result, pretty much all sales processes will include an often prolonged round of negotiations. It’s crucial that you go into this process as prepared as possible, so that you don’t go in blind. 

From ensuring your business is in good condition to understanding the buyer’s perspective as well as your own, these are some important factors that should inform your approach. 

Make sure your business is ready

Before you enter into negotiations with potential buyers, you need to ensure that your own position is as strong as possible. 

The most important thing you can do for this is to prepare your business for the sale, getting it into as strong a condition as possible. 

This means paying off important debts, getting your accounts in order, and lining up any potential upcoming business opportunities. Preparing your business might not be easy, but it’s absolutely worth it for the benefits it will come with.

Use a business broker

One of the best things you can do to improve your negotiation position is to use a business broker like Dexterity Partners. Your broker will be able to help you navigate the sales process from start to finish, starting with developing a sales strategy and ending with negotiation assistance.

With extensive experience in these kinds of situations, they’ll know how to approach the negotiations, depending on a number of specific factors. 

These will include the strength of your negotiating position, the strength of the prospective buyer’s position, and your other priorities associated with the sale.

Have a no-compromise list

Throughout the negotiation process, you’ll be met with questions about how far you’re willing to go on various points. To make this process a lot easier and faster for all parties involved, it’s important that you go into the negotiations with a list of clear points that you’re unwilling to compromise on.

This will often include quantifiable factors such as price, and other issues like a date you want to have completed the sale by. Take your time to go over these, and have figures that you’d prefer not to compromise on as well, but that wouldn’t represent a red line.

Understand the other perspective

Lastly, it’s crucial that you don’t enter into the negotiation process with a narrow perspective of values and desires. Don’t just think about what it is that you, the seller, want to get out of the process – try to also put yourself into the buyer’s shoes as much as possible.

By empathising with their position, not only do you make it much less likely that you’ll push them away inadvertently, but you also strengthen your own negotiating position. There’s no fixed or easy way of doing this; it requires a little mental agility, and a willingness to see things in a different light to your own.

Negotiating a business sale isn’t an easy process to navigate, but by taking these points into consideration, you can make things a lot easier for yourself. Don’t rush it, and go into the process on as strong a footing as you possibly can.