Hi All,
I've now had two proprietary transactions that I thought were extremely close on terms where once I submitted the LOI, the sellers came back and said they'd need several weeks to respond. In both cases, coincidentally, because of personal travel. The first case was right ahead of the holidays so I understood this, but it turned out the seller used this time to leverage the offer I'd made to solicit other offers and they decided to move forward with another party (according to our conversations, at the time of the initial offer, the sellers were not in discussions with any other parties). In the second case, I've stressed to the seller that while I'm happy to revisit discussions when they are back, the offer may not be on the table in a month. From my vantage point, it seems like it could be a similar situation. Both LOIs had expiration dates one week from the date the offer was submitted.
For any of you who have had a similar discussion with a seller, how have you approached this with the seller?
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Sellers Leveraging Offers
by a searcher
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When sellers tell me that they need time. I just give them time. I don’t try to box them in and rush the signing. Yes time kills all deals. But if you push too hard, they start to feel “sold” and it breaks down trust a bit.
The idea of selling your business and walking away with a pile of cash sounds great until you have a real offer with a real closing date: Then things get real and they realize that the thing that they have spent the past 20+ years nurturing will be gone. Communicate to them that you understand this feeling. Reiterate your value offering to them (*insert typical searchfunder pitch*). Then give them time.