Meeting with Prospective Buyers in Person

1 Why Face-to-Face Conversations Are So Important

For small businesses, meeting in person is often the decisive moment in the entire sales process. You get to know the person who is supposed to carry on your life’s work. Unlike in large M&A transactions, where consultants and lawyers take center stage, this process is all about trust, gut feeling, and personal chemistry.

Prior to this, after signing a confidentiality agreement, the prospective buyer received the information package (company presentation, annual financial statements, business analysis) and clarified their initial questions during a phone call designed to address those concerns. This phone call focuses on the basics: whether they want to pursue the deal at all, and establishing the basis for an initial valuation estimate.

The in-person meeting builds on that. Here, the buyer asks detailed questions, and you clarify the issues that need to be addressed before a Letter of Intent (LOI) is signed: personal chemistry, future collaboration, and the transaction structure. The more thoroughly you can answer detailed questions and explain your figures, the more professional and trustworthy you’ll appear.

2 Preparing for the Interview

Good preparation gives you confidence and ensures that you come across as self-assured during the conversation. At the same time, it keeps you from revealing too much too soon.

Prepare Your Story

• Why are you selling? Be honest, but strategic. A clear, understandable reason builds trust

• What makes your company special? Know your strengths, but also your challenges: honesty pays off

• Put weaknesses into perspective: From the buyer’s perspective, some weaknesses areactually opportunities—for example, untapped sales potential or a lack of digitalization. You can address these openly. For other weaknesses that aren’t deal-breakers, you don’t have to bring everything up on your own. Lying is off-limits, but you decide when and how detailed to be when addressing specific issues

• Your vision for the future: Buyers want to know what you hope for the company after the sale

Have the numbers ready

• Revenue and profit for recent years: The buyer has the figures from the information package. You should be able to explain and put them into context, such as outliers in individual years

• Adjusted EBITDA: Buyers will ask about profitability early on. Know your adjusted EBITDA and be able to explain which one-time effects or owner costs you’ve excluded (→ Module 4: Valuation)

• Number of employees and organizational structure: Who does what in the company?

• Customer base: How many customers, and how diversified is the customer base?

Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes

Put yourself in the prospective buyer’s shoes: What questions would you ask if you were looking to buy a company? Typical buyer questions revolve around customer dependencies, employee retention, a backlog of investments, or the owner’s role in day-to-day operations. If you’ve prepared well-thought-out answers to these questions in advance, you’ll come across as confident and build trust.

3 Asking the Right Questions

The initial consultation is your chance to really get to know the buyer. Asking the right questions will help you gauge their seriousness and determine whether they’re a good fit for your company.

Motivation

• Why this company? What sparked their interest?

• Why now? Have they been looking for a company for a while?

• What appeals to them in particular? The industry, the size, the location?

Experience

• Industry experience: Is he familiar with the industry, or does he come from a different field?

• Leadership experience: Has he ever run a company or managed employees?

• Entrepreneurial skills: Does he have business management knowledge?

Financing

• How will the purchase be financed? Equity, bank loan, grants?

• Has he already spoken with a bank? Is there a financing commitment or a term sheet from the bank?

• Is there an asking price? Does the price range align with your expectations?

Vision for the Future

• What are his plans for the company? Growth, stability, restructuring?

• How does he treat his employees? Are there any signs that he would initiate rapid changes to the team?

• What is his timeline? When does he want to take over?

Timeframe

• When does he want to start? How quickly can he complete the purchase?

• Does he need a training period? How long would you be available as a consultant?

4 After the Interview: Next Steps

The interview is over. Now it's time to sort through your impressions and take the right next steps.

Gut Feeling vs. Facts

Both are important. Jot down your impressions right after the interview: What convinced you? What bothered you? Sometimes your gut feeling says more than any analysis, but don’t rely solely on it.

Check References

• Verify statements: Check the buyer’s claims from the conversation against publicly available information, LinkedIn, Xing, and the commercial register. Does the picture add up?

• Request references: Insist that the buyer provide at least one or two references you can speak with as the seller, such as former business partners or employers

• Obtain a credit report: This is standard procedure, not just when you have concerns. A credit check gives you early assurance of the buyer’s financial reliability

Request a confirmed offer

After meeting in person, the buyer has significantly more information than before. Their view of the company may have changed—either positively or negatively. If you’re still interested in proceeding with this buyer, you should request a confirmatory offer: Does the buyer stand by their previous valuation estimate, or has their assessment changed based on the new information? This way, you avoid investing valuable time in a process that ultimately fails due to differing price expectations. This confirmatory offer forms the basis for a later LOI (→ Module 8: Negotiating an LOI).