Another technique to draw in sellers of small businesses is networking with deal professionals. This includes lawyers, accountants and other people such as valuation companies, appraisal companies and banks. All of these sources have access to sellers and potential sellers of companies. This is a longer term process in that it takes some time to develop relationships with professionals and sometimes their leads are not instantaneous. The buyer who is desperate and does not have a long term perspective will not always go this route. However, I have gotten some of my best leads from these sources because they are generally quality referrals generated from long term relationships.
My advice to buyers who have some staying power past six months is to put these people on your calendar to visit. It is relatively easy to find lawyers accountants and bankers. The world has too many of them already. Might as well take advantage of it. Have lunch with them or just arrange to stop in and have a one hour chat. You can easily get to see them because you are also a potential source of business for their operations. Accountants and bankers in particular are plugged into local networks and often have lots of great ideas for getting more deals and even tapping into investors and capital. You want to keep in touch with them from time to time to make sure they remember you. It may take more than one visit to establish a good rapport but it is generally a relatively painless process. In fact you can even build your rolodex from previous deals you have visited where you have the accountant’s name and contact info. There is no reason why you can’t communicate with these professionals once you have moved on to other deals.
