B. Marketing Phase
From the previous preparation phase, your M&A Advisor should now understand your business, the specific sector segments you operate in and be able to articulate your USPs, understand where you might add value to other companies in your and adjoining sectors and be ready to execute the agreed strategy with you.
This means they are now ready to market your business!
Step 1: Approach Purchasers
With a long list (50+ companies) of potential strategic buyers created during the preparation phase, the M&A advisor should reach out to the potential buyer’s executive team and / or owners to discover if they are interested in purchasing a company.
Obviously, the trick is to identify companies interested in acquisition but without letting them know the advisor has a client for sell and definitely not letting them know who the selling company is.
Advice: The M&A Advisor should be able to provide the vendor with their buyer targeting strategy.
Step 2: Sign Mutual NDA(s)
Once potential buyers have been identified (a short list), then the M&A advisor will reach out and ask if they are interested in potentially purchasing a specific target. At this point only teaser information is shared, enough to whet the buyers’ appetites but not enough to fail the google test!
The google test is when you take the information teaser and google it. A fail is if you can identify the company and a pass if you can’t!
Advice: The M&A Advisor should provide Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) that are suitable for the M&A Process.
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