4 Deal Flow Tips To Get You to the Closing Table

Once you’ve found the right buyer for your transportation business for sale, you’re only half-way to making a great sale. The other half of the equation is keeping the buyer interested long enough to make it until closing. What keeps a potential buyer interested long enough? Deal flow is the key. When miscommunication or human errors interrupt the deal flow, stalled negotiations increase the chances that your buyer will abandon you before you get to the finish line. Business brokers use the following strategies to control deal flow, keeping it moving until the sale is finalized.

Communication

Key to so many aspects of business ownership, effective communication is key to a successful sale. Since sellers have different priorities than buyers, they often find it difficult to see eye to eye. Sellers keep details private in order to avoid scaring off buyers, while buyers avoid asking questions in order to avoid offending the sellers. The lack of information that results can prompt delays, lead to distrust, and put the deal at risk. Transportation business brokers can be helpful intermediaries that ensure proper information flow, which leads to improved deal flow.

Confidentiality

When confidentiality is breached, the deal is put at risk. In addition to drafting a Non-Disclosure Agreement for serious potential buyers, sellers need to make sure to keep their anonymity during the sale process. If information about a potential impending sale is inadvertently leaked, customers and employees may abandon the business, leaving it less valuable than it was before the leakage. Competitors can then capitalize on the weakened business, causing further damage to the business value.

Transportation business brokers can be key to helping sellers maintain their privacy, allowing them to maintain buyer interest, as a result.

Valuation

Sometimes, sellers are misguided when they set a sale price, leading to disruptions in the deal flow. As a prospective buyer reviews your business documents, they may realize that your asking price is far too high. On the flip side, sometimes sellers fail to realize some unique aspects of their business that add value, leading to lower returns than they could have achieved with the sale. Transportation business brokers like The Tenney Group can provide expert valuation that takes both tangible and intangible assets into consideration. During the bargaining process, those same brokers can be available to answer any questions that the buyer may have regarding the business’s value.

Experience

While transportation business owners may be experts at running their companies, few are adept at selling one. You need someone managing your business sale who has transaction experience suitable to this level of a sale. An accountant or attorney can be qualified, but many tend to be overly conservative. What you really need is an expert business broker who has experience within the transportation industry. The Tenney Group is one such example.

With the right communication, confidentiality, valuation, and experience, you’ll be much more likely to keep the deal flow going all the way to that closing table.