You’ve been there before you turned on the lights for the first time. You envisioned how this business venture would get off the ground and what it could become. You’ve got years of stories about how it went right and how it sometimes went incredibly wrong. You’ve built a great organizational chart with a dedicated team of capable people, some no longer with the team and some who’ve made significant contributions to the operation, all of which are a part of your story.
People crave connection. Good storytellers are great connectors. They can identify shared themes and similar experiences that resonate with a target audience. Good storytellers make the audience feel a “part of” the experience and they’re not alone. Your story is the first opportunity to build trust with a potential partner to influence, inspire, and engage. Good stories inspire behavior change.
The connection is critical. When it’s time to pass the business over to a new team, potential buyers want to know that story. S&P Capital Partners creates marketing memorandums that make every business look like a $200,000,000 opportunity for the best fit, but every group wants to hear that story and they want to hear it from you. Potential buyers come with their own life experience and world view based on that experience, just like you. They’re coming to the meeting way after you’ve done the work. When you begin the conversation from that pretense, you’ll instinctively tell the story in a manner that will connect with the buyer.
Real connections eliminate anxiety and take the difficulty out of difficult conversations. Connection makes people feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves that they’re motivated to explore. The story so far is written. The characters are well-developed and defined. Your version is the story’s heartbeat. How well you tell it is a critical component of making sure your business sells to the best candidate at the best terms possible. How do you tell it?
What are the critical components of a good story and how do we tell ours?
Know your Target Audience
Your team at S&P Capital Partners will gather this information before any potential buyer meeting. You’ll know who you’re meeting because the S&P team will do the work for you. We spend time with each potential buyer group during our interview process to determine if they’re a good cultural match for your business and your `team. We investigate their financial capacity for transactions of your size and scope. We’ll know who they’ve acquired, how it went, and what resources they plan to deploy to grow your business post-closing.
Objective
We want to drive behavior towards your business as THE opportunity for this buyer group. We’re bringing awareness to an opportunity they aren’t intimately familiar with, like you. Tell the story with the intent to connect.
Time & Place
Clear concise and to the point. Storytelling follows an objective path. One part builds on the other. We don’t want to talk about a 3rd divorce if it doesn’t move the needle or contribute to the story in a manner that helps the buyer candidate connect.
Hook
The S&P Capital team will create the hook on the marketing material we build before introducing buyer candidates. You’ll sell it when we meet with them. We can tell them everything, but coming from you creates automatic and authentic credibility. They can’t see it. Collectively we’ll show them.
7/4 Rule
Never use 7 words when 4 will do. Don’t answer questions that aren’t asked. Stay in the moment and remain focused. Eye contact and gentle head nods can say more than a thousand words.
Personal
If a story contributes to the business timeline, we’ll include it here. If it’s a tangent, make it relatable, credible, and real. Potential buyers want to see your connection to your team and business operations. Culture is really hard to build. Good and bad culture comes out in meetings. The tell is hard to hide.
Body Language
Body language says a lot of things. It could be your sciatica. It could be your 13-year-old and middle school drama. People take cues from body language. Be in the moment. Self-awareness is a critical piece to understanding how you’re presenting in front of a group.
Reps
It is necessary to get as many reps as possible. It takes thousands of swings in a batting cage, hours in the weight room, and years to master fast twitch muscle and hand-eye coordination to catch up to 90+ mph exploding sliders and two-seam cutters. Good news you don’t need a batting cage to rep your story. We practice pitch meetings every day.
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