Company Sale and Succession: How the Process Really Works

Most business owners think about selling too late. Not because they don't want to, but because day-to-day business leaves no gap. Then comes the point where the company has to be sold: illness, age, a dispute between shareholders. Anyone who only starts then negotiates from the weakest position there is.

This article describes how a company sale actually works, how long it takes, how we keep it confidential and why the best time for the first conversation is one to two years before the planned sale.

Selling a company is a full-time job

Selling a company does not mean calling three people. It means presenting the company so that an outside third party recognizes its value. Preparing the figures, documenting the processes, resolving dependencies, building the buyer list, leading the conversations, supporting the due diligence, negotiating the contract.

All of this runs alongside day-to-day business. And day-to-day business has to keep running, because nothing pushes the purchase price down faster than a drop in revenue in the middle of the process. That is exactly why an adviser belongs in the process: not as a broker, but as someone who carries the process while the owner runs the company.

How long does a company sale take?

Six to twelve months is realistic. We usually work towards six months. Most of that time is preparation, not negotiation.

The process at a glance:

• Analysis and valuation. What the company is worth today, where that value comes from and which levers raise it.
• Preparation. Figures, contracts, structures, data room. Everything a buyer will review, before the buyer reviews it.
• Buyer outreach. Strategic buyers, private equity firms, successors from your own network. Anonymized, in defined waves.
• Negotiation. Letter of intent, due diligence, purchase agreement.
• Closing. Completion, handover, communication to the team and customers.

At its core, this is the same mechanism as in a large funding round: if you are prepared, you negotiate the price. If you are unprepared, you negotiate risk discounts.

Confidentiality: why we work with code names

A sale process that becomes public costs money. Employees get nervous, customers start asking questions, competitors attack. That is why every mandate we run has a code name.

The company is described to the market in anonymized form: industry, size, business model, region. No name, no customer list, no identifying details. Only once a prospective buyer is qualified and has signed a non-disclosure agreement do they learn which company it is.

So when we go to market, nobody finds out which company is for sale. This is not a side detail. It is the precondition for the business staying stable during the process.

Three reasons why a sale can be the right step

Freedom for the owner

A sale is the moment when tied-up wealth becomes liquid. That creates room to act: securing your retirement, founding something new, investing, or simply getting time back. For many owners, it is the first time in decades that they can freely decide what to work on.

Securing jobs

The alternative to a sale is rarely the status quo. The alternative is often winding the company down when there is no successor. A sale to a buyer with capital and a plan secures jobs, because the company is continued and developed further. The employees keep a future, often a better one than before.

The process itself

For us, every transaction is its own task with its own questions. That is exactly what makes it interesting: there is no template you lay over every company. There is a process that is applied anew to each company.

The most common mistake: starting too late

There is the familiar picture of the owner who sits in the office ninety hours a week, works day and night and in the end is carried out of the office. If you recognize yourself in that picture, do not wait until there is no choice left.

Our clear recommendation: talk to an M&A adviser one to two years before the planned sale. Not to sell immediately, but to understand where the company stands, which levers raise its value and what a buyer will review later.

Two years are enough to reduce dependence on the managing director, put contracts in order, capture key figures properly and stabilize earnings. Doing this work while the business is running is uncomfortable. Catching up on it under time pressure during the process is expensive.

The day after

One point that comes up too rarely in advisory conversations: what happens after closing?

We have supported owners who closed a transaction worth tens of millions and knew exactly what would come next: a foundation, a new company, investments in young businesses. And we have seen the opposite: people who fall into a hole after the handover and are not made happy by the money, because they no longer have a purpose.

That is why the question of the day after belongs early in the process. Not as sentimentality, but as part of the planning.

How we work

The best purchase price is the benchmark. We do not name a minimum price in the first negotiation. Anyone who names a floor early has given away their ceiling. Our interest is tied to the result, so we do not negotiate for a quick close, but for the achievable price.

We are the interface. To the tax adviser, the bank, the lawyer. These parties bill by the hour. The clearer the coordination and the better prepared the documents, the fewer hours are needed. That is cost control in practice for the client.

We adapt to the business. If an industrial company produces until six in the evening, the meeting takes place afterwards. Flexibility is not a favor, it is the precondition for the process running alongside day-to-day business.

Valuation is not a random number

We have developed our own process to raise a company's valuation systematically. This is not about window dressing, it is about substance: making recurring revenue visible, reducing customer concentration, reporting margins cleanly, resolving dependence on individual people, backing up growth paths with evidence.

Each of these points changes the multiple a buyer applies. Taken together, they decide a considerable part of the purchase price. That is exactly why professional support pays off: the fee is set against the increase in value, not against the status quo.

When the right time is

The right time is when the company is in good shape and the owner still has a choice. Not when pressure dictates the timetable.

If you are thinking about succession or a sale in the next two to five years, today is the right moment for the first conversation. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing. What you take away is a reliable assessment of where your company stands in the market and which steps will raise its value by the time of the sale.

Read more: Governance Before a Company Sale: Why Buyers Pay More for Structure

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