How to Sell a Business

Business selling training at Redcliffe is delivered by an expert with over thirty years dedicated to corporate finance and capital markets transactions. Across three decades our knowledgeable trainer has held client-side positions and led advisory teams.

At the Department of Energy, he was a civil servant involved in the privatisation of British Gas, a global IPO involving a large advisory team. He also worked for two years (1990-92) in the Hungarian Government privatisation agency collaborating with numerous advisory firms, as the changing political environment triggered massive ownership change.

Our expert has worked at major investment banks including Swiss Bank Corporation International, now UBS, and Lazard. Additionally, he co-founded a successful M&A advisory boutique firm. This trainer retired from KPMG in 2021 having spent 13 years at the firm’s global M&A business, based in Scotland.

His experience combines business selling and a broad range of M&A and equity transactions in North and Central America, Asia Pacific, all the major European countries and most recently, Africa. His courses draw deeply on case studies from transactions he has run, bringing practical examples to set alongside the theory.

How to sell a business covers the important objectives you’ll face:

• This course is appropriate for business owners/sellers and their legal and financial advisers
• Enable practitioners with less experience to accelerate their learning around the sale of a business, through discussion of tradecraft, alternatives, case studies and best practices
• Give an understanding of why businesses are sold, and also why they are bought
• Help sellers understand the options open to them in planning a process and the choices at each stage
• Draw out key value points and other commercial terms where wins and losses may ensue
• Business selling training gives participants the confidence to know what’s ‘around the corner’ in this often complex process

• At Redcliffe Training, sessions include an immediate, concise and complete overview of every aspect involved in selling a business
• Insight - Show the sale process through the eyes of sellers – and buyers
• Appreciate the many different ways in which businesses can be sold – and the choices that sellers have to make, i.e. what is the best way to sell a business?
• Sets out the business principles underlying the marketing of a business, its value and how processes are staged
• Clear explanation of the timeline, including how value evolves and is finally agreed, i.e. how do you price a business to sell?
• Gives the roles and perspectives of all parties – buyer, seller, management and the various advisers involved
• Understand the link between commercial discussions and legal agreements
• Redcliffe’s course on how to sell a business is delivered by an expert with over 25 years of experience in negotiating and closing M&A transactions

How to sell a business is a ‘must know’ for anyone involved, or expecting to be, in the sale of a business, including:

• Business owners considering a sale, especially owner-managers who may wish to have a better understanding of what a sale involves and the alternatives to a sale
• Family business advisers
• M&A professionals in investment banks, boutique advisory businesses, and the corporate finance arms of accountancy firms
• Corporate business development teams, for example in large, diverse PLCs where disposals of parts of the business may be on the agenda
• Venture capitalists wishing to understand the options for their growth investments
• Private equity professionals

And a ‘nice to know’ for:

• Legal and other advisers involved in the M&A process, seeking a better understanding of the business sales process and how the M&A processes principles and their financial advisers initiate deals, structure sale processes and negotiate terms.

Business selling training is an online, interactive session that is particularly helpful to those with some experience in the acquisition process and wishing to accelerate their understanding of what underpins successful deals.

At Redcliffe Training our course on how to sell a business covers every aspect encountered during the process. From considering the motives of potential sellers ahead of time to details of final pricing and the legal agreements, we have you covered.

A key element is explaining the importance of thoroughly preparing a business sale and the benefits this brings, through a focused sales effort aimed at maximising value.

The principal steps in the sale process, and the key documents at each stage, are clearly explained in the course. An important section focuses on the value of understanding potential buyers, and how best to drive their interest: selling a business calls for a thoughtful, bespoke negotiating strategy; even if you want to learn how to sell a small business.

Anyone considering selling a business or wishing to work with sellers will benefit from this business selling training.