30 Mar Establishing Your Value in the Eyes of Clients
In last week’s webinar “Accepting Offers Instead of Selling Businesses Part 2”, we were joined by business intermediary and business broker legend Doug Robbins. As the founder of Robbinex®, Robbins has decades of proven experience. In his long career, he has completed more than 1,000 assignments advising his clients on M&A, partnership resolutions, refinancing and a great deal. Since the founding of Robbinex® in 1974, Mr. Robbins has completed 400+ business sales and has personally invested in 32 businesses. In this article, we’ll dive in to Robbins’ thoughts on what it takes for business brokers to establish in the eyes of a client that they are fully competent and essential for the process of selling a business.
One of the single most important steps that any business broker or M&A advisor can take is to establish their competency in the eyes of a buyer or seller. Robbins believes that competency is the foundation of trust, and that without trust, no real progress can be made.
Step one in what Robbins calls “establishing a trusting relationship” is to sign a confidentiality agreement with the client. He believes that clients should be told that even if they decline to work with you all information will be destroyed; this step plays an important psychological role in that it works to put the client at ease.
Business brokers and M&A advisors should always remember that many, if not most, clients will be very guarded when revealing key information is concerned. A confidentiality agreement works to establish a key foundational element between the parties.
Next, it is vital to establish in the minds of clients, and we’re talking about in sellers in particular, the tremendous complexity involved in selling a business. As Robbins points out, selling a business is nothing like selling a house or a piece of real estate.
Sellers simply must understand that their businesses have deficiencies. However, you are the one who can help them solve those deficiencies so that their business can ultimately be sold. Robbins notes that when prospective seller clients realize all the steps that they have to take in order to sell their business, your expertise will become much more valuable. Or as Robbins states, “All of a sudden the seller is going to look to you as the leader, and all of a sudden, the world starts to change.”
In our next article, we will continue to explore the steps that Robbins believes are essential for you to take in order to establish both trust and competency with your clients.
