My Proactive Approach to Client Company Divestitures

Divesting a company is a fulltime job requiring much more than just posting the business listing on a few business brokerage web sites and hoping a buyer visits one of these sites. Many times the process includes contacting the CEO, President and several other senior managers at over 100 prospective buying companies. There is a very small window of opportunity where a precise educational process needs to occur with each buying prospect.

The selling company owner can handle this job, one of his managers can do this job, or I can be hired for a couple of months to handle the divestiture process which has been my focused profession since November 1996.

Create a Buyer Status Document:

This is my working document that I only share with my client. I list all of the companies and individuals who likely have the ability to make an acquisition, then note the communication, document flow and status with each prospect.

Contact each prospective buyer and present either a Blind Overview or Named Overview. (1 paragraph)

I note the following on the Buyer Status document:

• The date I reached out to each buyer contact
• The prospect's name, title, and company name
• Which method of communication I used to reach out
• If there was a response and what it was

The process continues until each prospect has either declined or expressed interest.

If the Chairman, CEO or President is unavailable or unresponsive, I contact the other senior managers on the Buyer Status doc.

This is just one of the aspects of “The Company Divestiture Process, Step by Step” which can be viewed at the following link.