Business Brokers - a view form the other side

searcher profile

April 27, 2023

by a searcher from Princeton University in Lenexa, KS, USA

During the course of my business search limited to the local area (Greater KC), I have become acquainted with several very professional brokers. One broker and I have a great working relationship and we are both very candid.

The broker has told me in the past that he/she gets 2 to 3 calls daily from out-of-state searchers and that he/she does not enjoy interacting with these searchers. In fact, I am speculating here but I will assume that the broker ignores most of these calls or at least does not take them seriously and does not help these searchers out in any meaningful way.

WHY?

The vast majority of searchers want to buy companies that are very rare due to their financial strength and in effect, they sell very quickly and locally. In addition, almost universally the searchers want to buy companies that can be run remotely - an even rarer prospect. Furthermore, many times these searchers have no skills in the company's specific field.

Therefore, the broker does not want to waste his/her time dealing with people who have unreasonable expectations. And he/she doesn't bother calling these searchers about the best deals. He/she calls people like me who live in the community and that have met the broker face-to-face on numerous occasions!

From my experience, the best companies for sale in KC are sold within 2 weeks of being posted if the price is below 3M. Unless an out-of-town searcher gets very lucky the searcher will not have much of a chance - at least in the Greater Kansas City region.



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commentor profile
Reply by an intermediary
from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, USA
^redacted‌ there is a lot of truth to what you said. Reminds me of a post from a couple years ago along a similar line: https://www.searchfunder.com/post/sorry-but-you-are-a-brokers-worst-nightmare-and-how-to-fix-it which had some good comments and advice to go along with yours above.
commentor profile
Reply by a searcher
in Washington, DC, USA
I had coffee the other day with someone who was rolling up manufacturers for a particular product that serves both aerospace/defense and the energy sectors. I was shocked when he told me that search funds struggle with finding CEOs to run the day-to-day of small businesses they acquire, so the response of the broker that you're talking about is unsurprising. This really hurts serious searchers, though.
commentor profile
+3 more replies.
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