You have kept your head down working laboriously to build a business, and currently it is time to sell it.  Underneath such pressure, will be simple to stop scanning the horizon for vital shifts and changes that will impact your business valuation.

As a veteran consultant, I consistently see that business owners don’t give themselves time and permission to look outside of their slim, pressing focus.  Hence, corporations are slow to recognize and react to changes, and this will be dangerous when it comes time to exit a business.  They may think they apprehend their purchasers, their competitors and the marketplace, and yet they are surprised once they are not achieving the results they expected.  Are you guilty of this? Question yourself, within the last ninety days:

• What have I learned?  What new, relevant and valuable business skills have I personally acquired?  
• What feedback have I gotten from current and potential purchasers?  How have I evaluated and responded to it? 
• Do I understand my shoppers’ current strategic initiatives, obstacles and competitors?
• What new offerings have I developed?  Were clients involved in their creation?  Can the market price them?  How do I know? 
• When was the last time I studied a competitor?
• Do I track when competitors are sold, to whom, their worth and why?
• How do I keep my finger on the pulse of changes in the marketplace? 
• When was I last shocked within a business context, and why? 

The danger of not making the investment in this information, but, is the goals you have set for your business   and its sale are less seemingly to materialize if you are missing several of the shifting context for them.  To look outside of yourself and business, take into account the tips below.

1. Take time understanding your clients perspective.  Discuss their issues and initiatives, and what you can do to assist them be successful.  Investigate what your clients marketplace and competitors are doing.  Use this knowledge to form new offerings that may inspire your clients to attempt and do more business with you.  Investigate ways that to maneuver their perception of you from a vendor to a trusted advisor.
2. Build a strategic business education plan.  Take telesummits in sales, questioning and listening skills.  Take a course that your target clients would go to.  If you sell to Human Resource Managers, attend a class on HR management.  You will learn about what your client desires, and meet potential purchasers in a non-threatening manner.
3. Produce a strategic networking plan.  This will not mean attending events and throwing your business   cards at people.  Instead, take a leadership role in an organization like a professional association or board that will be doing work you are passionate in regards and potential shoppers are concerned in.  Your passion will become evident, your visibility will rise, trust, relationships and necessary data can build. 
4. Establish connection platforms.  Establish a client council to make or review products, services and academic offerings.  Develop a Strategic Advisory Board for business advice and development.  Get your shoppers – current and potential – concerned and caring, and give them an opportunity to network with their peers. 
5. Regularly gather information concerning your competitors.  They may be one step ahead of you in locating a sweet spot or positioning for a modification in the marketplace. 
6. Externalize your sales efforts through referral programs, strategic alliances and joint marketing.  Produce an aggressive referral program.  Develop an intensive Strategic Alliance plan that will be other  than logo swapping on websites.

Can you partner with your shoppers to try and do joint promoting of any kind?

In light of what you are learning, review your strategy and tactics.  Are they still appropriate?   How do they impact your intent to sell a business?  Where are your efforts best rewarded?  Gathering this info is important.  Acting on it is powerful.

I invite you to use these ideas during your journey to sell a business.

Marian Cook is a highly sought after business transition expert and speaker with over 25 years experience helping business owners design their best-life exit strategy, and improve their business performance and valuation.  She is the co-author of “Selling Your Business For More:  Maximizing Returns For You, Your Family and Your Business” (published by Macmillan).  If you are ready to sell a business and jump-start your business sale process, connect with Marian via her free tips, articles, checklists and blog at Business Transition Experts.

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