Sales Process Step 4: Screen Potential Buyers
Pre-Qualification involves fielding all phone and email responses, obtaining buyer pre-qualification documentation and answering initial questions. Thereafter, we ascertain the buyer's interest level, management skills and ability to meet the financial requirements of the transaction.
Furthermore, our Business Advisors are trained in procedures to protect your business confidentiality. Through the use of screening procedures and non-disclosure agreements, we protect the confidentiality of your business and business interests so that your customers, vendors and employees do not learn of the sale until it is complete. Finally, we gain a firm commitment that the buyer is prepared and committed to the process of purchasing a business at a price and upon terms consistent with the marketplace and the seller's objectives before we begin to focus our clients on the task of applying their resources toward preparing for a transfer.
As a seller, whether you agree to "carry-back" a portion of the purchase price in the form of a promissory note – the typical situation when a small business is sold, or receive a lump-sum payment, it is imperative that you learn as much as possible about the buyer. Not only to you want to ensure that the buyer has the skill, determination and integrity to succeed with the business after the purchase, you first want to determine the buyer's ability to close the deal. At Quantum, before we disclose any information about your business, we obtain the following documentation from each prospective buyer:
After we receive these completed documents, they are carefully reviewed and maintained within a file established for each prospective purchaser. Thereafter, we provide the prospective buyer with some basic information about the business in the form of a Business Profile prepared by us.
If the prospective buyer continues to express an interest in the business, we request "proof of funds" documentation in order to substantiate the prospective purchaser's ability to consummate the purchase transaction before we provide detailed financial information and the offering or sales memorandum which we will prepare on your behalf.
