At Verified Businesses we work closely with our clients to ensure a smooth sale of their business (and a positive return on their investment). But this process takes a couple of steps. Whether you are marketing your business yourself or working with a broker, it’s important to take each step into careful consideration during the sale of your business. Ask yourself the following questions when developing your sales plan – this is our Ultimate Guide to Marketing Your Business for Sale.
Step 1: Identify your target market.
Who is your target market? What do they look like? Where do they live? What are their interests? For example, is your target market fulfilled by employees, competitors, businesses in other sectors, or investors? Another helpful way to break down your target market is in to three separate categories:
- Demographics (i.e. age, gender, education, income, occupation, etc.); you can build a basic silhouette of your target market through demographic research and profiling.
- Geographic segmentation (i.e. area, city, state, country, region); narrowing the location of your target market will help focus your marketing efforts in the right areas, targeting only relevant people and regions.
- Psychographics (i.e. social class, lifestyle, interests and hobbies, personality characteristics, behaviours); Psychographics are often combined with demographics to truly build the persona of ones’ target market.
Step 2: What is your business’ unique point of difference?
What are the key selling points of your business that will appeal to prospective buyers in your target market? To accurately understand your unique selling proposition (USP) you need to be aware of the key risks and opportunities a purchaser is likely to consider when evaluating a business for sale. In understanding these attributes you can position yourself and your business accordingly in a favourable light.
Step 3: Prepare a credible business information package.
Have you prepared a credible business documents and information into a single, handover package? These handover notes should detail the business’ value proposition, performance metrics, key selling points, and any other document of importance. To understand how to best prepare your business for sale, you read our previous blog “Selling Your Sunshine Coast Or Brisbane Business? Here’s How:”. It is in your best interest to hold off on your marketing activities until you can align all of this information into a single document. All of your key messaging and enquiry answers will come back to this document for clarification.
Step 4: Directly and accurately target your market.
Do you know the best way to target your identified market? Think about the different marketing channels you have at your disposal. Does traditional advertising appeal more than digital, or vice versa? Is personal, face-to-face contact appreciated? Does direct marketing have any cut through with this target market? Think about the psychographic and behavioural attributes of your target market and plan your marketing activities to best appeal to the market. Your business broker should be able to assist you here.
Thinking of selling your business? Want to know more about how to sell? Contact our friendly team at Verified Businesses for your own information pack or to book a consultation today. Our highly experienced team of business brokers are the Number 1 team on the Sunshine Coast in business sales. At Verified Businesses, success in business is Verified.