In relation to law firms, by far an easy sale is one where the seller has a realistic idea as to the sort of price a practice is worth. Not only that, they have also communicated quickly each time an enquiry has been made, they have got all the paperwork together ready to go each time a new buyer enquiry gets sent over and they are easy for everyone to deal with.
Accountancy practices tend to have everything ready at the outset and we don’t have so much of a problem collating everything together for these deals.
So many deals happen because of synergy between the buyer and the seller rather than any particular feature of a firm for sale.
Deals often break down because one of the parties gets a bit awkward or doesn’t communicate well with the other side and things start to go off the boil rapidly. Furthermore, if a seller does not respond to a request for further information quickly, then a buyer can quite often decide it’s not for them and walk away.
Quite a few sellers put their firms on the market and take a very long time to respond to queries when they come through from potential buyers, which gets the buyers frustrated and they move on to new targets. The seller then contacts us to ask why no enquiries are coming through (!).
Key factors that will make a sale happen or more likely to happen are a willingness to provide information quickly from both sides, a willingness to discuss and negotiate on prices, and a good spirit throughout discussions.
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