Signature Acquisitions actively markets all business opportunities that we are engaged to represent - but the way that we carry out the listing process can vary depending on the sellers specific requirements. However, increasingly we find that our website is only telling part of the opportunity story and that the private & confidential introductions aspect of our business is becoming more relevant - especially on the larger deals.
In terms of how we generally take a business to market the listing process tends to work like the below pyramid with our pre-signed buyers at the top, our private mailing list contacts in the middle, and the Signature website and other social media channels sitting at the end of the listing process.
In fact since lockdown ended in the IOM due to this pyramid process less visible online business listings are appearing via the Signature social channels as the private introductions part of this process is capturing buyers and other interested parties before the opportunity gets pushed through to our web or social media channels.
An overview of the Signature business listing process:
What is a Signature pre-signed buyer?
If you are actively looking to acquire being a Signature pre-signed buyer gives you the guarantee that you will get to know about anything that matches your acquisition profile before anyone else. It means that you can also, subject to fees being agreed, engage Signature Acquisitions to actively and confidentially go out and source potential targets for you before a company might even be actively thinking of its sale options. Contracts for pre-signed buyers also include confidentiality clauses which normally allows Signature to share more detailed information with pre-signed parties straight away. Although for commercially sensitive information you will also be required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). If you are seriously looking at acquiring, especially in the financial services space, then being a Signature pre-signed buyer means that you will get to find out about opportunities before anyone else.
What is a private mailing list client?
Signature also has a strictly private & confidential mailing list for all parties who are interested in business opportunities which is the next stage of the Signature business listing process. Here a confidential synopsis of any new opportunity will be circulated normally around 10 days after all interested pre-signed buyers have been contacted about an opportunity. Should any further information be required a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) can be provided at this stage to allow more business sensitive information to be shared. Should a mailing list client wish to pursue an opportunity further then a buyers agreement may additionally be required depending on the type of contractual agreement we may have with the seller. The mailing list is confidential and addition to it is strictly by request / invitation only to join.
Many sellers will not wish to advertise their business for sale publicly and this is often where the business listing process will stop - until such time as a seller wishes to take a more visible approach to marketing.
Social media and web marketing
The final part of the Signature business listing process is that web and social media content will be placed in the public domain relative to a business for sale. This may include specific references to the business (and pictures) or it may be anonymized content to allow a business to be publicly marketed in a more confidential way until an NDA is signed. We also use our You Tube Channel for short videos and business walk throughs and other interactive content.
As a business broker Signature Acquisitions is very active when it comes to selling businesses and we also work hard to source deals for our buy-side clients. So aside from following our website and social media channels if you want to be more active in your search and are interested in finding out more about being either a pre-signed buyer or joining our mailing lists please don't hesitate to contact: mike@signatureacquisitions.com