Move guide

Know who buys and why

Your report suggested a move on at least one of these three questions:

which buyers are most likely, and why they would buy;
whether the story fits what those buyers look for;
what must be done to raise the price, and whether there is time.

This move guide names the three most likely kinds of buyer and what each pays for. It keeps only the reasons to buy that have evidence, and it sets the sale date from the moves that take longest.

1. When it applies

Use this move guide if your report placed any of these questions at "Red flag" or "Doubtful".

Question	Where it may sit today	Where this move guide aims
Which buyers are most likely, and why would they buy this business?	Red flag: "The buyer is whoever happens to knock, and there is no answer beyond “the owner wants out”." Doubtful: "A banker's list with no view on motives, and a generic answer (great people, loyal customers)."	Supported: "Named buyer types with what each values and fears, and two or three specific, evidenced themes every shareholder repeats."
Do we have an equity story that fits what the most likely buyers are looking for?	Red flag: "The story we tell is about us; it doesn't answer what any likely buyer is actually trying to buy." Doubtful: "One story for everyone, written from the inside and never tested against a buyer's investment criteria."	Supported: "The story is built around the likely buyers' criteria (growth, platform, synergies, returns) and each proof point maps to one."
Do we know what must be done to maximise value, and does the timeframe allow it?	Red flag: "Nobody has asked what would raise the price; the sale date is set by the owner's needs, not by the business." Doubtful: "A list of things to fix exists, unprioritised and unsized, with no view on how long each takes."	Supported: "The moves are prioritised by value and time-to-proof, and the timetable is set so the ones that matter land before launch."

If all three already sit at "Supported" or higher, skip this move guide.

It is the first of nine steps. Every later step proves something a buyer named here.

2. What to do

Five steps. They take four to six weeks.

Name the three most likely buyer types. A trade buyer in your industry, a trade buyer next to it, a fund, or your own management team. For each, write what it pays for and what worries it. Table A below records it.
Write the two or three reasons a buyer would buy, each with its evidence. Drop every reason that is really "the owner wants out".
Map each proof point to a buyer's criteria: growth, a platform, savings it can make, or returns. Write the answer to each buyer's likely objection.
List the moves that would raise the price. Size each by value and by time to proof: weeks, months or years.
Set the sale date from the list, so the moves that matter land before it. Start the longest ones now.

The sale range shows what businesses like yours have sold for, and the sale multiples show them by industry. Use them to size the moves, not to set a price.

3. What to produce

One table.

Table A. The buyer map

Buyer type	What it pays for	What worries it	Our proof for it	Our answer to its worry

A buyer type with an empty proof column is not yet a buyer.

4. A worked example

Illustrative. Written for this move guide. It describes no client.

A family-owned commercial cleaning business works for hospitals, schools and offices in two states.

The buyers.

The owners had assumed a national competitor would buy. The map added a fund building a facilities platform, and a regional rival.
The fund would pay for the hospital contracts and their record. It would worry about the founder holding the largest accounts.

The reasons.

Five reasons went in. Two survived: the hospital contracts and the safety record, both with evidence.
"Loyal staff" and "a great culture" came out. Neither had a number behind it.

The moves and the date.

Handing the largest accounts to two managers was the longest move. The owners moved their target sale date out by a year to fit it.

Six weeks on.

Six weeks on Illustrative

3 buyer types, each with its worry answered
2 of 5 reasons kept, each with evidence
6 moves sized by value and time to proof

On a retake, all three questions could be answered at "Supported".

What it looked like in our work

From our own work. Redrawn.

For a software company getting ready for a sale, we drew a first map of its buyers. It showed why each kind would buy, and how likely each was. Three types came out as the most likely.

The most likely three

Software companies in the same fieldWould buy to build share in the region, or to enter it. Several were already buying there.
Large fundsWould buy for the sticky, recurring revenue and a platform to add similar businesses to.
Large banksWould buy to sell more to small businesses and to use the ledger data in lending. The most to gain from combining, but regulators and integration stood in the way.

Buyer type	Why it would buy	How likely
Software companies in the same field	Build share in the region, or enter it	Most likely
Large funds	Recurring revenue, and a platform to add to	Most likely
Large banks	Sell more to small businesses; use the data in lending	Most likely, with regulatory hurdles
Payments and finance technology companies	Round out their small-business offer	Interested; integration is complex
Large enterprise software vendors	Fold it into a wider suite, and reach smaller customers	May see it as too small or narrow
Large cloud platforms	Fold it into a wider small-business offer	May prefer to partner
Large customer-software vendors	Move into a next-door area	Unlikely; their focus is global scale

Each type got its own reason and its own doubt.

5. Effort and dependencies

Who

Owner and chief executiveName the buyers and write the reasons.
Chief financial officerSizes each move by value and time to proof.
An outside viewA board member or adviser who has bought businesses tests the result.

What you need

Your last three years of results, by customer and by product.
A list of businesses like yours that have sold, and who bought them.

How long

Four to six weeks.

What gets in the way

Reasons that belong to the owner. A sale rationale that is really "the owner wants out" gives a buyer nothing to pay for. Every reason in the story has to be about the business.
Setting the date first. A date set before the move list leaves the slowest moves unfinished at launch.

6. How will you know it worked?

The test is whether each likely buyer could find its own reason to buy in your papers. Retake the check before you appoint advisers. Each of these should be true when you answer:

Question	You can answer Supported when	A document alone does not count if
Which buyers are most likely, and why	The likely buyer types are named, with what each values and fears, and two or three evidenced reasons every shareholder repeats.	The list names buyers but no reason anyone would pay.
Whether the story fits those buyers	The story is built around the likely buyers' criteria, and each proof point maps to one.	The story is the same for every buyer.
What must be done to raise the price	The moves are ranked by value and time to proof, and the sale date lets the important ones land first.	The date was set before the moves were sized.

The worked example is illustrative.

Start the check

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