When we started Green & Co, we wanted to make a big splash in the business brokerage industry by upsetting the status quo. We saw how other brokers were doing business, and we made it our mission to do better. We felt that business buyers and sellers deserved better service, quality, and results than they were currently getting. Those three areas started as our cornerstone, and we continue to focus on improving everything we do.
Our past buyers and sellers comment in their testimonial videos and in their online reviews about how we are different from other brokers they’ve worked with, and we pride ourselves in providing superior customer service, state-of-the-art marketing, and delivering results that speak for themselves.
Superior Customer Service
We understand that the key to every positive relationship is communication, so we make it our goal to put communication and customer service first. We often hear from buyers that out of all the inquiries they’ve made on businesses, we are the first business broker that’s actually reached out and called them, or that we are the only ones who have returned their call. This is quite shocking, because buyers are essential to selling a business, and as a business broker, we owe it to our sellers to explore every interest in their businesses thoroughly. At Green & Co. we love buyers and we enjoy working with them.
The number one negative comment that we hear from our sellers who have previously worked with other business brokers is that they listed their business for sale and then for a year, they never heard from them again. That is simply unprofessional and unacceptable. That’s why at Green & Co. we do a monthly seller update, which is the minimum that we will be regularly communicating with our sellers. Businesses take about 280 days to sell, on average, so most businesses will go through some quiet months with no activity on their listing. Even when that is the case, they should still be informed that there hasn’t been any activity. In our seller update we send over all of the data from our advertising efforts, the amount of inquiries and interest we’ve had, where we are at with those possible buyers, and if we are recommending any changes to how we are currently marketing the business. Of course, if there is a buyer who is particularly interested, you will hear from us right away, and we will most likely be passing along their questions or we will be setting up a buyer/seller meeting with you.
You deserve to get the very best level of service from us, so we aim to be responsive, have timely follow-up, and be as communicative as possible.
State of the Art Marketing
We have a marketing team on staff at Green & Co. and that allows us to produce marketing for our listings that is head and shoulders above the rest. We strongly believe that our superior marketing is one of the main reasons that Green & Co. is so successful at selling the businesses we list for sale.
Because most business brokers co-broke deals with one another, we see what the other brokers are producing, in terms of marketing for their listings (which sadly, most of the time, seems to be the bare minimum or nothing at all). When a buyer we are working with inquires on another broker’s listing, we send over the NDA signed by the buyer, and then we will request the confidential details about the business. What we normally get back from them doesn’t do very much to help us sell their listing to our buyer. It’s usually just whatever documents the seller has provided to the listing broker. If we are lucky, we receive some print outs of financials, a photocopied collection of photos of the business, and possibly an equipment list. It can be somewhat embarrassing at times to present this package to the buyer, because it doesn’t do anything to “sell” the buyer on the business, which is doing a huge disservice to the seller.
For each one of our listings, our marketing department creates a CBR (Confidential Business Review). This is the brochure containing all of the confidential information about the business that potential buyers receive once they have signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement and they’ve been screened by us. It’s a beautiful digital document that outlines all of the details about the business, what’s included in the sale, the financial info, the key features of the business, and the benefits of buying the business. We use the platform to really sell the business to potential buyers. A buyer pays for the past (past financial performance of the business has to justify the purchase price) but buys the business for the future potential. So, we work hard to highlight the benefits and reasons why the buyer should want to buy this particular business.
One of the biggest differences in our marketing vs our competition is that we promote our listings via video marketing as well. In today’s day and age, videos are much more likely to be viewed online than text or photos. Furthermore, YouTube is the number two search engine, so if a brokerage isn’t promoting their listings via video, they are way behind the curve. Our videos get posted in many different places and we use them in all of our online marketing efforts. Curious to see what one of our listing videos looks like? Click HERE to watch one.
Delivering Results
At the end of the day, we want the same thing that our customers want, which is to get to the closing table. In order to do that, we need to go on a journey together. Establishing a mutual relationship of trust and respect is important for the success of a business sale, and that is what we are looking to create, so that we can get the business sold together.
The hard truth of the business sales industry is that, on average, only 25% of the businesses on the market will ever sell. So, how do you make sure that you are among the 25% that will sell? We believe we have the magic formula. At Green & Co. our success rate is 82%, which is clearly miles ahead of the industry average. How do we accomplish that? First, we train all of our business brokers how to accurately price businesses so that they are priced correctly. Asking price is often the number one reason that a business doesn’t sell. Second, we take listings that we believe will sell, with sellers who are pleasant to work with. As a matter of fact, we only take 1 in 3 of the listing opportunities that are presented to us. Lastly, our marketing is head and shoulders above our competition. We feel like with that combination of factors, that’s what makes the Green & Co. difference when it comes to getting positive results for our customers. If you’d like to talk with us about how we can use our skills to get you the results you are looking for, we’d be happy to schedule a confidential call, so that we can learn more about your business.
The Green & Co. Difference
We are happy to work with both buyers and sellers to reach their goals. We are proud of how we are different from the rest of the business brokers out there, and if there is ever anything else we can do to improve, then we will make every effort to make it happen. We appreciate all of the buyers and sellers that have put their trust in us, and who have helped us to create the success rate that we have today. Are you our next success story? Give us a call today so that we can explore all of your options.