Selling Your
Answering Service Yourself
By Steve Michaels
When people are
contemplating selling their answering service, they often wonder about
hiring a broker. There are many reasons why they may want to; a broker
will present your business to more buyers, properly execute the
paperwork, handle the escrow, and maximize the selling price. Even so,
some people still decide to go it alone. If you do decide to sell your
answering service yourself, here are a few suggestions from my thirty
years of experience:
-
Never fall in love with a deal
or a buyer; there will be other deals and other buyers.
-
Empty yourself
and believe that you do not care; it is only a business.
-
Listen
carefully when engaged in serious negotiations. Nobody ever got
poor by listening. If you are in a hurry, you are in a position of
weakness.
-
Set a price that you will not deviate from;
this is where a skilled negotiator excels.
-
The buyer’s job is to downplay your answering service and to diminish its
worth. You must do the opposite.
-
Be ready to walk away
if your price is not met. Remember that your answering service is
not for every buyer; you just have to find the right one.
-
Establish where the balance of weakness lies. Most strengths are self-evident;
weaknesses are usually hidden. Ferret them out, comprehend them,
and make a plan to compensate for them.
Steve Michaels is a telephone answering service broker and can be
reached at 800-369-6126 or
tas@tasmarketing.com; his Web site is
www.tasmarketing.com.
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