It’s imperative to protect seller confidentiality throughout the sales process. Many businesses can be damaged by mere rumors that the business is for sale, should these rumors circulate to employees, customers, suppliers or competitors. The leaking of sensitive information, such as financials and customer lists can cause further damage.
During the negotiations and due diligence and processes, buyers will request information about and access to highly sensitive aspects of the business. Some of the information and access will need to be provided to make the deal happen, other requests need to be deferred to later stages of the process, and still other requests must be resisted at all costs. Appropriate legal agreements need to be executed along the way to ensure the seller is protected.
At Indiana Equity Brokers, we do more than just say we take it seriously. We have rigorous systems and procedures in place to protect your confidentiality:
- All public marketing materials are carefully scrutinized to ensure they reveal nothing that could be used to identify your business
- Prospective buyers are screened thoroughly to ascertain their identity, resources, and motivations
- All prospective buyers must complete and sign our Non Disclosure Agreement before receiving identifying or other sensitive information about your business
- We leverage our experience over thousands of deals, to advise what information should and should not be revealed to which buyers at various stages in the process
Depending on your level of concern about confidentially, we take further optional steps as appropriate:
- Allow company documents to be viewed only on our internal servers. Buyers cannot print, forward, or share the documents
- Require your approval of each buyer before providing information
- Require buyers to come to our office for a face to face meeting
