10 Ways to Successfully Sell Your Business or Franchise Online
Selling a business or franchise can be hard and at Buy and Sell a Business our goal is to make it easier by attracting and connecting engaged buyers and sellers every day by providing them with a positive user experience that is seamless, resourceful and supportive. However, as a seller you must be accountable in ensuring that you take the right steps in creating a listing that will be effective while selling your business online. It all comes down to leveraging the features within the Buy and Sell a Business marketplace and creating a listing that stands out from others so you can attract serious potential buyers while avoiding “Window Shoppers”. Let's discuss how you can make great first impressions with potential buyers. Here are 10 ways to successfully sell your business or franchise online:
Create an Engaging Headline
The headline on your listing is the first thing a potential buyer will see. It is important to come up with a headline that is truly unique in order to grab the attention of a potential buyer. This will also set your listing apart from the others.
Include Key Financials
Don’t be shy about promoting your financials. The Buy and Sell a Business marketplace is a login and confidential marketplace. Serious potential buyers are looking for a solid investment opportunity and will be interested in your listing if it showcases substantial financial opportunities.
Be Easy to Contact
As a seller this is extremely important! Sellers can lose credibility and valuable leads if they are difficult to communicate with or get in touch with. Buy and Sell a Business condones an environment where a conversation between the buyer and seller should occur within 24 hours after the initial connection. You must think of this like any other sales pipeline in which you engage in the appropriate sales cycle with follow-ups in order to effectively and efficiently move forward through the due diligence process.
Choose the Right Industry
Many buyers may get confused with what industry their listing belongs to! Ensure you select the most appropriate industry that will yield the most engagement. If you have trouble with selecting the most appropriate industry, contact us and we can definitely provide you with advice and guidance.
Social Integration
When listing a business or franchise on Buy and Sell a Business, you have the ability to share your listing seamlessly on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and via email! Leverage this power by attracting people outside the walls of the Buy and Sell a Business marketplace to a convenient link that showcases your listing.
Yelp Reviews
If your business or franchise for sale has a Yelp review page, integrate your listing with it. Showing potential buyers what customers think of the business is a huge positive and gives your listing more credibility. Buy and Sell a Business loves Yelp backed listings due to the fact that many people do not realize the positive impact it has on your contact per view results. This will hands down improve your chance of getting the highest quality connection.
Be Descriptive
While creating your overview, ensure you write a coherent and thorough description of your business or franchise. This is your chance to speak to the potential buyer and tell them how awesome, unique and scalable this opportunity is. It is also your opportunity to tell them why they should highly consider learning more about it and potentially purchase it. Make sure to keep it professional and avoid salesy/pitchy headlines with all caps, such as “AMAZING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, VERY CHEAP”, this will most likely turn off potential buyers. This is your opportunity to be informative and honest so you can earn trust and a potential connections.
A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words
At Buy and Sell a Business we see a direct correlation with connections on listings and the quality of images the seller has uploaded to them. One of the most effective ways to differentiate your business for sale listing from the rest is to include great photos. We highly recommend uploading images as per Buy and Sell a Business' specifications as well as images that will inspire or excite potential buyers, increasing their interest and confidence to want to learn more! You should avoid images of lonely rooms or images with the current business owner in them as this once again may turn off a potential buyer. Now if you do not have any images it will default an industry icon, however, we highly recommend purchasing a stock photo that suits the business/franchise you are trying to sell.
Be Flexible with Confidentiality
The Buy and Sell a Business marketplace prides itself off confidentiality due to in depth research stating that when a business is for sale publicly it disrupts the business at the time. Employees may see the sale as instability and therefore look for another job and customers/vendors may think the same and start making other arrangements. That’s why all Buy and Sell a Business listings have the ability to be discoverable privately or publicly, nevertheless, the details of the listing will never be shown to a person who is not a Buy and Sell a Business member. Furthermore, you can ensure confidentiality by always using an alias name for your listing and never sharing the exact address of the business/franchise! For example, instead of “Tim Horton’s” use “Extremely Popular Breakfast Franchise” and instead of using images, once again purchase some stock images that represent the environment for the listing. Also, as best practice you can require the potential buyer to sign a non disclose agreement before moving forward with the due diligence process.
Proof Read
Check for spelling and grammar errors, as well as any missing words or numbers. Having mistakes can decrease credibility and lead to confusion and miscommunication. This can decrease the chances of a buyer connecting with you. Our recommendation is to draft your listing in a word document and use the spelling and grammar tools. Also, Buy and Sell a Business has the ability to save listings as drafts, take advantage of this, it allows you to re-read your listing and make revisions before making it live online.
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