Good sales materials are one of the factors with the biggest impact on how quickly and smoothly a business sale proceeds. Better materials get you faster from first contact to a real negotiation with serious buyers — poor materials often filter out the best buyers before they've even made contact.

What should the sales materials answer right away?

  • What is the business? A clear, concrete description of the business model — not just an industry label.
  • What does it earn? Revenue, earnings (EBITDA), and the trend over recent years.
  • Why are you selling? An honest explanation builds trust — and prevents the buyer from guessing at a less favorable reason.
  • What's included in the deal? Domain, inventory, customer database, agreements, employees — what specifically comes with it.
  • What is the price — or the price range? Even a price range beats nothing; it saves time for both parties.

Two levels of materials

Most experienced sellers work with sales materials in two layers:

  • The public listing: Enough for a serious buyer to assess whether the business is interesting — without revealing sensitive details like customer names or exact figures, if you want discretion.
  • The detailed materials: Shared only once a potential buyer has signed a confidentiality agreement — here you can go deep into accounts, customer concentration, contracts and operations.

The most common mistakes

  • Ambiguity about what's actually being sold. Is it shares, assets, or a combination? Ambiguity here creates distrust from the start.
  • Unrealistic or undocumented figures. Projections that can't be substantiated are quickly seen through by a serious buyer — and damage the credibility of the rest of the materials.
  • Too little information to filter out unserious inquiries. If the materials are too thin, you'll spend unnecessary time answering the same basic questions over and over.
  • No images or visual materials. Even simple photos of products, premises or the webshop significantly boost credibility.

How detailed should it be?

As a rule of thumb, the public listing should be thorough enough for a buyer to form a realistic picture — without you having to reveal everything. If you're unsure where the line is, you can always hold back the most sensitive information until after a signed NDA.

Ready to create your listing? Get started here, or read the full process in our guide to selling your business in 7 steps.

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