Niche Market Exit Planning Tips
Selling a Bulk Mail Processing Business
Although a bulk mail processing business may not be completely recession-proof, the best companies can survive nearly any storm. All it takes is a strategy to identify solid prospects and convert them to buyers.
An assortment of hurdles and obstacles stand between you and the successful sale of your bulk mail processing business.
Armed with a deliberate selling strategy, sellers of bulk mail processing businesses are finding qualified buyers, even in today's tough market.
Negotiation Teams
Business sellers are sometimes surprised to find themselves in the position of negotiator-in-chief. When you sell your bulk mail processing business, your business brokers may or may not be willing to conduct negotiations for you. But although you will responsible for negotiating terms with buyers, you should never approach negotiations without support. A negotiation team comprised of trusted advisors and senior business leaders is essential in helping you devise a winning negotiation strategy. More importantly, a negotiation team can serve as a sounding board -- an objective presence that prohibits your personal emotions from clouding your judgment or sabotaging your efforts to negotiate a successful deal.
Finding Prospects
Many sellers don't realize how many prospective buyers there are for their businesses. We frequently see qualified buyers emerge from the seller's network of business and personal acquaintances. In other cases, sellers take a proactive approach to finding likely buyers and contacting them directly. Competitors may seem like natural prospects and they are. The downside is that they won't pay top dollar and will probably absorb your company into their own.
Working with Appraisers
Next to your broker, a skilled appraiser is the person most capable of adding value to the price of your bulk mail processing business. By hiring an appraiser to conduct a thorough appraisal of tangible and non-tangible assets prior to listing, you get a measure of the true worth of your business. Although the appraised value of your business may not be the same as the sales price, you gain valuable insight that can be used to your advantage during negotiations. If you're disappointed with the appraiser's estimate of your company's worth, you have the option of seeking a second opinion. However, it's more often the case that you will need to adjust your expectations of your business's value to buyers.
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