Your marketing blueprint to attract acquisition or investors: 7 steps to successfully market your business for acquisition

In our recent webinar, your marketing blueprint to attract acquisitions or investment, we highlighted the top four elements investors want to see when considering an acquisition or investment. To achieve these elements, we believe there are 7 steps you can follow.

The 4 elements investors look for in a business acquisition

As with any other business investment, before any purchase is made there are several considerations to be made to ensure it is a viable transaction. The top four things considered by an investor acquiring another business can be combined into the following areas:

  1. Top Line Growth
  2. Pipeline Quality
  3. Good Processes
  4. Good People

There are many ways you can achieve these four essentials, however there are some underlining principles that your marketing should adhere to if acquisition is one of your key goals.​

 

The marketing blueprint for acquisition

What does marketing have to do with your plans to sell your business? Everything! To achieve the four key criteria listed above a strong, strategic marketing plan will deliver on each point.  We have put together seven fundamental principles you should adhere to in order to reach your goal.

#1: Treat “Acquisition” as a marketing goal

​There are many different “marketing goals” – lead generation, cross-sell/ up-sell, increase sales conversion, increase awareness etc.​

Acquisition is no different.​

For all the marketing strategies we undertake at Mogrify, the priority is to understand the business goal and subsequently the marketing goal. By having a goal clearly defined, it becomes easier to communicate with the team, get focused and generate a whole of team effort.

For acquisition, stating the goal early on fuels a long-term vision, and this can change some of the activities you might do.​ ​This may include looking at things like who your potential buyers are, where they might be, and how you might tap into their radar if you’re not already.

 

#2: The importance of a clear value proposition

This is universal for marketing and just as true for any potential acquirers. Value propositions are always worth investing time in. Potential acquirers/investors should be able to quickly understand what you do, how you do it, and who you do it for.

 

What makes you different, and better, than everyone else? If it’s your people, back the proposition up with your marketing by talking about staff and promoting them on your website or other digital platforms.

 

Good messaging can also allow you to appear bigger than you are, which will put you in the sights of interested investors earlier in your journey.

 

#3 Invest time into a sales & marketing automation platform

Good businesses are underpinned by good processes. Investing in a sales and marketing automation CRM platform helps to dramatically improve your sales and marketing efficiency, supporting top-line growth.​

 

A CRM platform is the gold standard in sales and marketing automation. Having a clear marketing and sales process with technology underpinning it is very attractive​

This allows you to have evidence of a genuine marketing engine, rather than random ad hoc marketing.​ Investors want to know about your data base. How big is it? How current is it? How easy is it to communicate with? ​

As you train and customise the platform over time, it will pull together many aspects of your growth including;

  • the people in your teams,
  • database,
  • sales pipeline,
  • automated workflows and
  • list, lead scoring and analytics.​

Mogrify is the only specialist B2B Platinum Partner for SharpSpring in APAC and we can help get you set up, trained and firing here. Click here to learn more.

​​#4: Demonstrate a quality sales pipeline

Your sales pipeline is central to providing evidence of predicted growth as well as showing historical growth. Setting this up properly, will allow you to provide accurate data on key metrics that makes your business more attractive such as:

 

  • conversion from pipeline stage;
  • average time to close;
  • average deal value; and
  • 3/6/9 month expected pipeline value.

Good analytics provide accurate data on key metrics that make your business more enticing.

 

#5 Your database is a key business asset

A properly segmented and engaged database is the bedrock of your marketing engine. It is crucial you invest in building it. It’s no longer considered viable to have every salesperson with their own spreadsheet, or even worse, Outlook contacts.​

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Every year you should clean your database and ensure it is still segmented properly and all necessary fields (eg email, correct names and phone numbers) are up to date. Guard it religiously.

 

#6 Profile your people, values, and culture

Buyers will always look at your people as a key asset. ​You are not just selling your IP/products/services/methodology, you are selling your people!​

So, it’s important that you create and maintain a strong internal culture, based around the values of the organisation and profile this widely. It is important to also profile the ‘great’ people within your organisation. This will highlight that the business is not just about the founders, and there is value across the whole team.

Acquirers may share similar values and you want to attract likeminded people for a smooth transition.

 

#7 Showcase everything!

Showcase your amazing work with your customers including any awards you have received or news worth noting. You should be on social media, sending regular newsletters, blogging and attending or speaking at events. All this activity needs to show clear thought, direction, and strategy. ​This allows you to get on the radar of acquirers, and once they have heard of you, convince them you are the real deal with all the showcasing you have online.​

 

It’s not too early to get started

If you are considering an acquisition you need to start thinking about this 3-5 years in advance. Your marketing strategy should be tailored to achieving these key elements in this period. Automating part of this strategy with programs such as SharpSpring will streamline and improve your marketing blueprint and put you in a prime position when the time comes to sell.

 

Book your complimentary discovery call with Mogrify. This consultation gives you up to 1 hour with us, where we will review and assess your existing sales and marketing and make recommendations on where you can improve and how we can help.

Suite 1 Level 2,
5 Watt Street,
Gosford,
NSW 2250

+61 (0)2 8091 2999
info@mogrify.com
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