How to Write the Perfect Business For Sale Listing

You’ve finally decided the time is right to sell your business. Or your life circumstances have changed, and you need to sell your business. Or you're a business broker helping your client navigate this exciting and challenging process. The business has been readied for sale, the promotional materials have been prepared, listings have been posted on various business for sale websites and…nothing happens.

Does this sound familiar? Perhaps we can help. Here are 7 tips for writing the perfect (or at least a really great) business for sale listing and 7 tips for maximizing your results when you list your business for sale on DealStream.

Write an Informative Description

Here’s your chance to help buyer’s understand the business. What does the business do? What are its physical facilities? What is included with/excluded from the sale? Is the seller active in the business? How many employees does it have? What are its operating hours? What do you see as its untapped potential? Why is the business being sold? Write a description that answers these types of questions. Take a look at other similar listings on our site for ideas. When you write, be as succinct as possible — you’re not trying to overload the buyer at this point, just give them enough to generate interest and inquire for more information. And stick to the facts: buyers can see through puffery, so avoid exaggerating or over-selling. Your description is really your first interaction with a potential buyer, so use this opportunity to create trust.

Be Willing to Share the Location

We certainly understand the need for confidentiality — you may not want employees, customers, or competitors to know the business is for sale. But be aware: many buyers start their acquisition search based on geography. If you’re not comfortable sharing the city where the business is located, then perhaps at least share the state or region. 

Include Financial Information

Including financial information (such as sales, cash flow and price) helps buyers evaluate your opportunity. And many buyers target their searches based on these figures. If you'd prefer not to disclose exact amounts, DealStream gives you the option to enter a range for each of these figures. If your asking price includes valuable assets (such as real estate), feel free to highlight that in the listing description. This information helps buyers better understand the basis for your asking price.

Find the Right Industry Category

Having your listing properly classified will help the right buyers find you. But with so many industry options, how can you find the right spot for your listing? On DealStream, you can use the dropdown menus in the listing form to explore primary and secondary industry categories. And if you are still unsure, don’t worry, our editors review your selections and will suggest the correct industry category, if need be.

And Add a Second Category

What if you are selling a brick and mortar shoe store which also has a robust online customer base? How do you decide between Retail Stores > Shoe Stores and Retail Stores > E-Commerce as your industry category? The good news is, you can have both. We offer the option to specify an additional industry category for your listing. A second category won’t always make sense, but when it does, selecting that second category will increase your listing’s exposure.

Watch the Typos

Check over your listing for punctuation, typos and random acts of capitalization. Our editors review your submission and assign each listing a quality score. Listings with higher quality scores appear higher in search results and are more likely to be selected for Search Genius emails. (Using advanced AI software, we find the best prospects for your deal and then send these prospects personalized emails about your opportunity.) The goal here is a quality score of 5 (perfect)!

Include Quality Photos

Including quality photos with your listing will help grab buyers’ attention. You can take your own photos, use stock photos, or use a combination of both. If you are taking your own photos, make sure your images are clear, well-lit and uncluttered. If you are using stock photos you find online, make sure to check the licensing rules. Either way, select photos which help buyers quickly visualize your business. Back to our shoe store example, a photo of a great pair of shoes might be a better choice than a photo of a cluttered storeroom stacked with shoe boxes.

And After Your Listing is Active–Here are 7 Tips for Optimizing Your Results on DealStream:

Check Your Inbox for Inquiries…and Respond!

Once you start receiving inquiries about the business, make sure you respond in a timely manner. When you’re logged in, you can find these inquiries under Leads Received. You’ll also receive email notifications alerting you to inquiries. So make sure you add our email addresses to your contact list:  alerts@dealstream.com and notifications@dealstream.com. (We know you don’t want inquiries sitting unanswered in a spam folder.) Some buyers inquiring through DealStream have actually paid to contact you — these are buyers you definitely want to respond to.

Keep Your Listings Up to Date

Listings with stale information run the risk of being ignored. Buyers may jump to the conclusion the business has already been sold or is no longer on the market. Update your listing with current financial information and relevant changes in the business. And remember, you can renew a listing once every 30 days by clicking the renew button in Manage Listings. Renewing a listing will people know that the listing is still available and will increase your listing's exposure.

Check Your Performance

We’ve created some great analytics to check your listing’s performance, and we hope you’ll use them. Under the Analytics tab you’ll see the number of times Search Genius emails were sent out about your listing, how many buyers have viewed your listing, and how many inquiries you’ve received. Use this information to improve your listing’s performance. 

Get Good Reviews 

If someone sends you an inquiry, they can also submit a review about you, and other buyers can see those reviews. So we’ll say it again: check your inbox for inquiries and respond! Even if it’s an inquiry you are not interested in, a quick “no thank you” is polite, generates good business karma, and will help keep you from getting bad reviews. 

Earn TrustShields

We know fraudsters are out there, so DealStream has developed something called “TrustShields.” TrustShields help establish trustworthiness and can be earned by passing certain tests (such as submitting a photo ID to verify identity). If you are looking to increase inquiries, consider earning more of these. Some buyers prefer to deal with people who have earned more or all of their TrustShields. 

Consider Becoming a Promoted Seller

Looking for more exposure? Consider an upgrade. Switching to a Promoted Seller membership will make your listings more visible since Promoted listings appear ahead of Standard listings in search results. It will also make your listings eligible for the Showcased Deals box, which appears at the top of search results. And finally, switching to the Promoted Seller plan will also make your listings more likely to be selected for our Search Genius emails.

Eliminate the Tire-Kickers

Listing a business for sale through DealStream should help you eliminate the tire-kickers. DealStream does not charge sellers to post a listing (as other sites do), instead we charge buyers to access the seller's/broker’s contact information. We've found this leads to a more serious, qualified buyer — and saves you from answering countless inquiries from people who are just looking around, but are not truly ready to buy. Brokers have told us that while they may see more total inquiries through other sites, they see more quality inquiries through DealStream. We hope this is your experience, too!