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Contacting Potential Buyers

With the seller's consent, Valufinder begins to solicit potential buyers, starting with the group designated as most likely. We provide an offering memorandum only to those candidates who express a high level of interest and who have signed confidentiality agreements.

While I planned to sell my business in the near future, I was not sure how to begin investigating my options without demoralizing my staff or tipping off my competition. The solution lay with Valufinder. The team at Valufinder was able to discreetly arrange conference calls and meetings with private buyers without jeopardizing my business operations. Without the shields of selectivity and confidentiality, that Valufinder provided, the sale of my company could have been severely compromised. - Robert Grahner
President (Retired) W&F Manufacturing

To ensure that the company receives proper consideration by buyers, we contact a senior level executive in each organization who is in a position to facilitate a buying decision. Valufinder's widespread contacts, diverse relationships with active purchasers, our past successes and particular expertise place us in a preferred position to assure that a company gets the attention it deserves from the appropriate decision-makers.

Coordination and Follow Through

Once the selected group of potential buyers receives the offering memorandum, Valufinder coordinates the flow of information, arranges meetings, answers questions, corrects misconceptions, assesses levels of interest, and gathers preliminary indications with respect to pricing, structure, timing and other terms of a sale.

Throughout the process, Valufinder acts as the seller's advocate. We coordinate the scheduling of meetings between the seller and the prospective buyers, and orchestrate the actual meetings. We often suggest limiting communications, and visits to the facilities to the handful of candidates who have expressed the highest levels of interest and who are considered the most serious.

It is not the facts which guide the conduct of men, but their opinions about facts; which may be entirely wrong. We can only make them right by discussion. - Sir Norman Angell

Advisement and Negotiations

Perhaps the most important contribution to the selling process that we provide is our assistance in negotiations with potential buyers. At this crucial stage, the seller benefits from Valufinder's many years of successful negotiating experience, which often results in transforming a varied assemblage of potential buyers into a group of enthusiastic bidders engaged in a hotly contested auction for the company. Indeed, Valufinder's skillful orchestration of the negotiation process often elicits the very best price, terms and structure possible for the sale of the particular company.

Our efforts on the seller's behalf to manage and control the negotiation process extend to functioning as a shield between the seller and the potential buyer. We intervene to prevent misunderstandings. We protect the seller from the emotional ploys and bravado that frequently occur during the negotiating process. As a result, the seller has much greater flexibility and control as the negotiations progress.

When I'm getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say — and two-thirds thinking about him and what he is going to say. - Abraham Lincoln

In continuing to represent the seller's interests during this process, the members of Valufinder's team attend meetings, provide the seller with insights into prospective buyers, their motivations and other relevant information, and advise about various negotiating strategies and deal structures that may be employed along the way.

We also coordinate with the seller's legal counsel, accountants and any other professionals and, if necessary, recommend additional advisors to ensure that all alternatives are being examined and contingencies are being covered. In short, we are dedicated to ensuring that the seller is fully informed and appropriately represented throughout the process.