There are many different things to plan for when you are selling a business. One aspect that isn’t mentioned as often as others is what to plan and prepare for when marketing your business to potential buyers. However, properly preparing your company and M&A team for marketing will help you attract the right buyers, avoid potential issues that come from announcing a sale too early, and can lead to a better sales price overall. In today’s article, we will cover the important things to consider when planning your M&A marketing strategy.
1. Identify the Right Buyer
Having the right target audience is critical to the success of any marketing campaign. Therefore, one of the first steps in planning your M&A marketing strategy is to decide what the right buyer for the business will be. First, determine what industries your potential buyers are currently operating in. For example, a software company could find buyers in the technology industry but could also consider larger companies that may be interested in strategically adding a technology company to their operations.
After that, consider what aspects of owning the business would be most appealing to potential buyers as different buyers will value different things. For example, a competitor may find your company more appealing they won’t have to take on a lot of extra overhead costs whereas a private equity firm may be able to afford larger upfront costs. Some buyers like the idea of being very involved with the business’ day-to-day operations, while others will prefer more flexibility in the amount of time spent in the office. Identifying the best parts of ownership will help to inform you about which buyers may be a good fit for your business.
Whether you are working with an M&A firm, or selling yourself, having a list of traits that the right buyer will have will make finding them much quicker. It will also result in less time wasted on buyers that won’t be interested in the business. Before any marketing plans can be made, deciding on what type of buyer to look for should be top priority.
2. Timing
Timing is everything when planning the press strategy for your business’ sale. The most important thing is deciding when the right time to announce the sale to your employees, clients, and to the public is. For instance, announcing the intention to sell too early can cause your employees' morale to suffer as a company sale can create a lot of uncertainty for them. Furthermore, it may hurt relations with current clients which may cause some of them to move their business to a competitor which, in turn, will hurt the business’ overall value. Conversely, announcing the sale too late may catch employees and clients off guard, which can also negatively impact the business. Due to these, and many other, factors, careful consideration should be given to when the announcement of the sale is made.
Beyond this, creating a schedule for which marketing materials will go out to potential buyers at a given point will help keep the marketing process moving along smoothly. When do you want the first round of emails to go out to potential buyers? When should your second social media post go up on your social media pages? These are the kinds of questions that you should be answering when putting together a marketing schedule. Getting the timing right for your press materials will prevent your marketing campaign from slowing down and will ensure that potential buyers are being reminded of your company on a regular basis.
3. Find Out What Makes the Business Shine
Successfully marketing a business means highlighting the best parts of it to potential buyers. The best place to start is to get your financials in order and find the numbers that buyers will find most interesting. Maybe your company has a fantastic profit margin, or perhaps you have great projections for revenue growth over the next few years. Buyers will typically value these financial statistics more so than anything else, so it is critical to present them with the best financial picture possible.
However, there are other things that you can highlight about a company besides financial data. For example, if you have a high level of customer retention it can show that the company is providing a service that people want or need. Maybe there are some easy and unique ways that new ownership could expand the business, or new markets that would be easy to move in to. Anything that shines a positive light on the business should be included in marketing materials.
This is also the time to craft the story of your business. Why was it founded, and how has it grown to where it is today? Maybe there was a gap in the market that needed to be filled, or perhaps the company pioneered an innovative solution to an existing problem. These types of things allow you to add a personal touch to marketing materials and can help show potential buyers why your company is so great. Overall, you should strive to find every statistic and fact that makes your business truly shine.
4. Put Together a Press and Branding Kit
The final major thing to consider when preparing to market your company is to put together a press and branding kit. Both accomplish different things and are equally important for a successful marketing campaign. Beginning with the branding kit, as it’s the simplest of the two, this should have several essential elements.
First, you should include multiple copies of your company logo in a variety of sizes, and in most, if not all, of your company colors. This makes it much easier to incorporate your logo into a variety of marketing materials and will make sure that it looks good no matter what design you are putting it on. Speaking of colors, it is beneficial to include the exact color codes you use in your branding in your branding kit so that you can ensure you are using the correct colors when creating marketing materials. Finally, include any other variants of your logo, or any symbols that you associate with the brand, in the kit.
The press kit, using the elements in your branding kit, is the package that contains all the marketing materials that you plan to use in your campaign. Things that a press kit typically contain include things like email teasers for potential clients, press releases announcing the sale, and photo/video materials. Building a strong press kit will ensure that you have the necessary marketing materials for every step of the process. Planning out what will go into your press kit should be an early priority to ensure you aren’t scrambling to make marketing materials at the last minute.
Bringing it All Together
There is a lot that goes into planning a marketing campaign when the time comes to sell a business. While it is certainly possible for a business owner to run their own campaign, it is often beneficial to bring on an experienced M&A firm like Seck Advisor Group, to do the marketing for you. M&A advisors have experience in what kinds of buyers may be interested in certain types of companies and know what marketing channels will fit your specific M&A goals. If you are thinking of selling your business, get in touch with us at (913) 815-8481 or go to www.seckadvisorgroup.com/contact to start the selling process today!