Advertise - You Can't Sell A Secret

AUTHOR

Bruce Coudrey

It is almost impossible to find the right buyer for your business if you don’t widely promote and advertise to find suitable buyers. The wider the net you cast, the more potential buyers you will have look at your business. More buyers = more demand, and more demand = more value for you. You simply have to expose the business to the widest possible market to sell the business for the best possible price.

That’s a fact. When selling large commercial property or up-market residential property it is common for successful marketing agents to allocate a marketing budget of 1% of the selling price of the property. As businesses are more specialised than property, and it is often more difficult to locate the perfect buyer, and a larger advertising budget will often be required to achieve a sale. Many people think that advertising means placing an ad on the internet – or in the paper. This is not the case. That may have been the preferred method of advertising a business years ago – but not now. Today there are better, more sophisticated, proven, methods available to expose your business to the most suitable prospects. Successful business brokers know that there are at least four basic methods of maximising exposure of the business to a wide target audience.

These are:

Database marketing*

Acquisition letters (direct mail)

Optimised website advertising

Press advertising

Each of these four categories contains sub sections which are able to be invoked to optimize the exposure to the market. Don’t fall into the mistake of trying to save a few dollars on advertising, it always pays to do it properly. Allocate an appropriate budget towards marketing your business. Often business owners will be seen spending a small amount each week on advertising their business when just a few larger-sized ads will create more response and a more qualified buyers, in a shorter period of time. * Most business brokers have a database of qualified buyers Without exception, every single successful business broker will tell you that a proper marketing campaign will expedite the sales process significantly, and is critical in producing a successful sale for maximum value. Value for any asset is determined through SUPPLY & DEMAND. We can create demand for your business by creating a marketing program that will get lots of potential buyers wanting to know more, in confidence. In fact, the right kind of marketing will give you control. Rather than you feeling like you are inviting the buyer to acquire your business, you will have them asking you to sell them your business. This is called “gaining posture”.