You’ve decided that now is the time to sell your company. Sales are strong, debt is under control, you are properly certified and have no compliance issues. For all intentions you are good to go.
But are you?
How is the health of your corporate brand?
In doing business day-to-day, a great majority of companies do an outstanding job. They understand where they are financially, but frankly where they fall short is where they stand from a brand perspective. They assume because sales are good, their corporate brand is also good by default. Chances are it is a fair assumption on only one level. But to better assist in your goal to get the best dollar for your business, assessing your brand’s health will pay big dividends for you.
Because your brand is essentially your reputation from every touch point, a potential buyer would be very excited to learn through research that all of the stake holders of your brand have a clear and positive understanding of your brand. They would be emboldened to learn that you have a strong point of differentiation that establishes your company as the leader in that category. This strong positioning strategy will give them the confidence that your company has many more years of positive and sustained growth ahead. A great investment indeed.
If your potential buyer is shopping many companies looking for the best investment, they will be impressed to see that your attention to brand health in your proposal is again distinctly different than other proposals who don’t even include it in their offering. This will prompt them to ask the other prospect for data on their corporate brand status. Kudos to you.
What potential buyer wouldn’t be impressed to learn that sales are great because of the customer’s relationship with your company? Using substantiated research, you can show that they purchased not on price, but on their experience with your sales and support staff. They essentially love you. Buying your products on price alone eats into margins, buying with strong brand positioning increases profits.
If you happen to be an ISO company, a correctly executed corporate brand analysis with it’s findings and validated results compliments the processes set out in facilitating ISO standards. As ISO specialist, Peter Berry once told me, “Companies who utilize ISO are smart. Those who use ISO and Brand Navigator are brilliant!” (Brand Navigator is my proprietary process).
If you have Brand icons, (such as the Apple-apple, Nike-swoosh etc.) they have real value. Many accountants chalk up this value under the label, “good will”. By researching stake holders you can give hard numbers to buyers, showing whether they know and respect your corporate icons. So if you decide to establish a higher value than just good will value, you can back it up with more than opinion.
When you decide to sell, it is best to have every possible value position at your disposal to make your case for why your company is best positioned for the buyer to benefit from a fantastic and well organized investment opportunity.