The real issue

A sale is won before it goes to market.

The price isn't decided at the negotiating table. It's built in the months that precede it.

Rushed

Prepared

A prepared SME sells for 20 to 30% more than a rushed sale.

An order of magnitude commonly observed in the SME transmission market, for a sale anticipated 18 to 36 months ahead.

Urgency breaks the price

Burnout, health, an opportunistic offer: selling under pressure means selling from a position of weakness. Time is your best negotiating ally.

The buyer will see what you no longer do

A business that depends on you, an oversized client, processes in your head. What you don't fix, the buyer will deduct from the price, or use to keep a hold on you.

The price rests on a story

The buyer pays for a future potential, not your past. Without a clear, credible story of what the business will become, they pay a discount. That story can be prepared.

First, your goal

What do you really want?

You don't prepare a sale the same way depending on what matters most to you. The right strategy starts with your real goal.

The best price

Maximise the valuation, even if it means waiting 12 to 24 months to sell on the best terms rather than to the first buyer who comes along.

The right hands

Hand over to a buyer who will preserve what you've built: the teams, the clients, your name. Price matters, but not on its own.

A clean exit

A clean break: no liability warranties chasing you for years, no being trapped in a handover or a badly structured earn-out.

What I scrutinise

Six angles, seen from the buyer's side

A 360° read of your business, exactly the one the buyer will run, but run before them.

Dependence on the owner

Does the business run without you?

It's the number-one drag on an SME's value. If everything rests on you, the buyer discounts heavily, or chains you to an earn-out. We build the autonomy that frees you and reassures the buyer.

Customers & revenue

Will your revenue hold after you leave?

Concentration, recurrence, contracts, relationships built on your name alone. We secure what will make revenue credible and durable in a buyer's eyes, and neutralise what worries them.

Management team

Who will run the business once you're gone?

A solid management team that stays after the sale means a reassured buyer, so a better price. We pinpoint the gaps and structure what needs to be, before going to market.

Process & systems

Is the knowledge in the business, or in your head?

Undocumented know-how can't be transferred, so it doesn't sell for much. We formalise the essentials, turning what's in your head into an asset the buyer can take over without you.

Equity story

What potential are you actually selling?

The buyer pays for the future. We build the figured, credible story that justifies it: market, growth levers, what a buyer could do with it. That story turns a price into an obvious choice.

Risks & liabilities

What time bomb will sink the price?

A dormant dispute, a fragile contract, a single point of failure. Better to find them before the buyer, to defuse them calmly, rather than suffer them mid-negotiation, or in a liability warranty.

A change of perspective

You see your business. The buyer sees their risk.

What you see

Your business

Your loyal clients
Your habits that work
Your know-how
Your results
A lifetime of work

What you've built, seen from the inside. Legitimate, but that's not the lens that sets the price.

What the buyer sees

Their risk

Dependence on you
Concentrated clients
Undocumented knowledge
Hidden liabilities
And after you?

What they'll have to replace, secure or prove. That, and only that, is where the price they'll offer is decided.

My method

I look at your business the way the buyer will

I regularly assess targets for buyers and funds. I know their grids, their reflexes, what reassures them and what makes them lower their offer. I turn that lens to the service of your sale, before the buyer can use it against you.

I put myself in their shoes

I run your business through the same grids I use buy-side. Nothing escapes me, because nothing will escape them.

I go on the ground

Beyond the numbers: the real organisation, the key people, what hangs on a single person. That's where the real discounts hide.

I hunt down what lowers the price

The points that worry a buyer, the blind spots, the issues you no longer see. We put them on the table to fix them, before they do.

What you get

A roadmap to sell for more, not a report that gathers dust

After one week, you have a short summary note and an oral debrief. Not two hundred pages: the essentials to decide, and a concrete action plan.

What, today, would lower your price, seen by a buyer.
The concrete levers to raise value before the sale.
The orders of magnitude of valuation, and what separates them.
The “time bombs” to defuse before the buyer finds them.
The timeline: sell now, or prepare to sell better.

Roadmap

Sell +

Dependence on the owner

Value levers

Equity story

Delivered and debriefed in one week

How it works

One week, three steps

Framing · Day 0

A conversation to understand your goal, your sale horizon and the documents available.

On-site review & interviews · Days 1 to 5

I go on-site, meet the key people, observe the organisation and run the business through the six angles.

Roadmap · Day 7

Oral readout, summary note, and the concrete plan to raise value before you sell.

The next step, if you want it

The review is just a start. I prepare the sale with you.

If the price gap justifies it, we move on to 12 to 24 months of preparation: reducing dependence, structuring the team, formalising, building the equity story and growing value. The same person, from diagnosis through to the sale.

See how I help CEOs

On the other side, are you buying? Before you buy a target, have it evaluated. Evaluate an acquisition

Why me

I know what raises the price, because I'm on the other side of the table

Fifteen years running strategic plans, sales-force reorganisations and, above all, assessing targets and creating value for buyers and funds. I prepare your sale knowing exactly what a buyer looks for, and what makes them lower their offer.

+25%

in revenue

Sales-network reorganisation (Generali): I know how to rebuild commercial performance that reassures a buyer.

Buy-side

the buyer's eye

I assess targets before acquisition (go/no-go). I know what a buyer scrutinises, so what to prepare to leave them no reason to lower the price.

LBO

lived from the inside

Post-acquisition PMO (Panzani × CVC): I ran the after-sale for a fund, so I know what makes, or breaks, the value of a sold business.

I never labelled these assignments “sale preparation”. But assessing a target for a buyer, creating value for a fund, is precisely knowing what raises, or sinks, the price of a business for sale.

Field approach: at Safetykleen, a multi-site field diagnosis (on-site audit and interviews) before an 8-workstream roadmap. That's exactly how I prepare a business for sale.

Private equity & portfolio contexts