getting phone calls in work to sell my business

COOLTRIKERCHICK

there has got to be some sort of new scam or something going on here..

over the last few months i have been getting cold call phone calls asking if i am intersted in selling my business, as 'they' have clients interested in buying my type of business, and that htey would send someone 'free' of charge to assess and value the business...

There is def some sort of scam going on here.... I am def not interested in selling my business...( well unless the price is right....:D)

So was just wondering what it is, so it can give other business people the heads up... as lets be honest if a struggling business get this type of phone call they could get drawn into it... or is this what they are after.....


so does anyone know or have had these types of phone calls

Pennywise

Sounds like a new tactic from the "usual suspects" business sales agencies. At least in the past, they used to wait for you to contact them before they swung into action, but perhaps now they're being more proactive.

Standard procedure is that they send out their "valuer" who is in fact their salesman. He looks at your accounts etc., and gives you an unrealistically high valuation for your business to get you hooked. Then you have to pay upfront fees for advertising etc. Your business will be advertised as promised, but you'll get very few, if any, viewings. When you complain to them, they'll recommend reducing the price, which you'll do and there may be a bit more interest, then the "advertising budget" is spent and they want more money from you to continue advertising, and so the downward spiral continues until you either sell at a much lower price (what it was worth in the first place), give up on the idea of selling, or move to another agent - of course, the other "usual suspects" now know about you and will send their salesmen to do the hardsell to get you to move to them, and so the cycle continues.

Many of the nationwide business selling agents make their money from upfront advertising and other fees - if they manage to sell a business that's the icing on the cake for them.

By all means, talk to them, but if their valuation seems too good to be true, it is!!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Pennywise wrote: »

Sounds like a new tactic from the "usual suspects" business sales agencies. At least in the past, they used to wait for you to contact them before they swung into action, but perhaps now they're being more proactive.

Standard procedure is that they send out their "valuer" who is in fact their salesman. He looks at your accounts etc., and gives you an unrealistically high valuation for your business to get you hooked. Then you have to pay upfront fees for advertising etc. Your business will be advertised as promised, but you'll get very few, if any, viewings. When you complain to them, they'll recommend reducing the price, which you'll do and there may be a bit more interest, then the "advertising budget" is spent and they want more money from you to continue advertising, and so the downward spiral continues until you either sell at a much lower price (what it was worth in the first place), give up on the idea of selling, or move to another agent - of course, the other "usual suspects" now know about you and will send their salesmen to do the hardsell to get you to move to them, and so the cycle continues.

Many of the nationwide business selling agents make their money from upfront advertising and other fees - if they manage to sell a business that's the icing on the cake for them.

By all means, talk to them, but if their valuation seems too good to be true, it is!!

lol....i allways tell them to get knotted... ( well not as polite as that...lol..)

I am not intested in selling my business as its quite profitable...( unless someone comes along and offers me a good wack of wongas...lol...) i posted to find out exactly what the scam was, and to highlight to other businesses about these phone calls...

Savvy_Sue

Are you registered with the Telephone Preference Service? Businesses now can be, and it does cut down the rubbish a bit - although I still had one the other day who hung up on ME when I said I wasn't interested in his price for servicing our 'fleet'! I was just explaining to him that we were a charity, with one van and a very cosy arrangement with the local bus company, so no I didn't send servicing out to tender, and then realised he'd hung up after saying "So you're not interested in saving money then?"

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Are you registered with the Telephone Preference Service? Businesses now can be, and it does cut down the rubbish a bit - although I still had one the other day who hung up on ME when I said I wasn't interested in his price for servicing our 'fleet'! I was just explaining to him that we were a charity, with one van and a very cosy arrangement with the local bus company, so no I didn't send servicing out to tender, and then realised he'd hung up after saying "So you're not interested in saving money then?"

thanks Savvy_Sue will look into the preference service, as it is quite annoying, when i got to run the length of the factory to answer the phone sometimes, to be greated with such a phone call.

i did have one girl phone me back and call me a very rude name, when i told her i wasnt interested and hung up on her...lol...

Savvy_Sue

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

thanks Savvy_Sue will look into the preference service, as it is quite annoying, when i got to run the length of the factory to answer the phone sometimes, to be greated with such a phone call.

Get a cordless? Keep it in your pocket, even if it's noisy at the 'wrong' end of the factory, and all you can do is say "hold on, I'm just going to my desk".

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

i did have one girl phone me back and call me a very rude name, when i told her i wasnt interested and hung up on her...lol...

:mad: Well THAT's no way to drum up business, is it?

BTW, you can register online for TPS, really quick and easy. May take a while for it to have full effect, and of course it only applies to calls starting in the UK, so doesn't get rid of all of them, but it's a start.

vivatifosi

I work in M&A research and look a lot at the buying and selling of companies. It is actually hard to make a decent living from offering a bespoke selling service to profitable companies with a turnover below about £2m. If your company size is below that (and most will be), then chances are that they will advertise you on a few websites etc, as Pennywise says and you won't get good vfm. If people do want to sell their businesses in these situations, then it is much better to speak to advisors they trust (accountants etc) for advice as to who to speak to.

IMO there has been a lot of this type of advertising about of late because the expectation was that people would want to offload companies quickly to avoid extra CGT.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I have had cordless phones before, and we end up breaking them, there is normally someone in the office, but they go at 3pm. most of our phone calls are made to the mobile, but its just flipping annoying, especially when they dont take no as an answer, and they question you on your decision....
thanks Vivtifosi, we arent quite at the 2 million...

so the adive you give is if anyone does want to try and sell their business, ask their accountant for advice, and where would be the best place to advertise their business, in local papers, estate agents etc?

vivatifosi

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

so the adive you give is if anyone does want to try and sell their business, ask their accountant for advice, and where would be the best place to advertise their business, in local papers, estate agents etc?

In terms of the first part of the question, accountants are a good place to start, but you may also have a good relationship with a law firm. These are the people who can put value on businesses and handle transactions and they should be willing to give you a bit of free advice if you are a customer. It also depends on what type of business you have. For example a property intensive going concern (such as a freehold pub) would be sold differently to - say - a small manufacturing firm as so much of the value is tied up in the land with the pub. So such transactions are handled by specialists in that area (commercial property).

In terms of where to advertise, that's something you need to be careful with. Personally I don't like ads where it is easy to identify the business as you only need your competitors to see it and they'll start telling your customers that you're changing hands and that can have a negative effect on the business before the sale even starts. There are however "business for sale" columns in some of the serious broadsheets and industry magazines that could work, depends on the business, size and industry.

Personally I'd get an intermediary to target companies that may be interested in your business and get them to only reveal your identity once a confidentiality agreement is signed. A good M&A advisor or accountant is not going to front-end load fees and should be genuinely interested in helping you sell the business. As pennywise says, if someone is sticking forms in your hand to get you signed up quickly, then run a mile. AFAIK you don't get the same cooling off period selling a company as you do buying something from a doorstep seller, even if the pressure techniques are the same.

Horace

Sign up to a PAYG answering service such as https://www.answer.co.uk and divert your mobile through to the number that they send you and that way someone will answer the call as though it is your business and they will field unwanted sales calls.