Q: Have you sold a business in the same sector as mine? If not, why should I use BCMS Corporate to sell my company?
A: This is a common enough question asked of our Business Managers, the people here at BCMS Corporate who meet prospective clients for the first time, and present the BCMS Corporate case for being awarded a sales mandate.
There are three key considerations which we believe are more important than sector expertise and relevant to this question. Before I tackle these though, let me just say that BCMS Corporate has sold companies, on behalf of its clients, in almost every sector. We are well equipped to provide case studies but this, in our view, can provide a false sense of security when choosing who to place a sales mandate with. The decision must be based on more.
It is not uncommon for corporate finance boutiques, other business agents or even investment banks to stress their sector-specific capabilities, something which BCMS Corporate deliberately chooses not to do. Those of you who have been to one of our weekly seminars or have read our book will know that we frequently disagree with traditional thinking when it comes to selling businesses.
So why do we differ on the issue of the importance of industry sector experience and what are the three key considerations?
Avoid assumptions
A sector specialist will often tell you that they know who the buyers are. This can limit an open-minded view about who the best buyers might be and prevents the widest possible marketing of a business to find the obvious and, less obvious buyers.
At BCMS Corporate, we do not want our staff to view each project through the prism of a sector specialism and deliberately, or sub-consciously, discount from consideration those potential acquirers which don’t happen to fit a too narrow prescribed view.
Every project we undertake is guided by a marketing strategy, developed by our research team in conjunction with our clients, it is designed not to funnel research in the early stages, but to open it up in order to maximise the prospect of finding the right buyer – obvious or not.
A structured approach
We deploy a highly structured approach to selling businesses; what has structure can be measured and repeated, to deliver consistent quality and results. Structure, however, should not be confused with limiting the exercise of good judgment, the structured approach frees our staff to exercise their judgment but gives the clients a basis on which to measure what we are delivering over time against what has been promised. Progress is measured, feedback is frequent and tactics can be fine tuned if required, in a timely way.
Global reach
We now have operations in North America, China, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. These operations are not the result of a loose network of affiliated companies but actual BCMS operations deploying the same structured approach, staff either seconded from the UK or trained here in the UK and crucially, for our ‘sales mandate’ clients, providing an extension of our ability to look not just in a companies home market, but also overseas for the right buyer. This is something we believe will be important in the next few years as companies in developing markets increasingly look outwards.
