Why Is Your Business NOT Selling?
Lets Find Out... NOW
This is Module Three of your "Go To $old" course.
The Presentation Problem - "They just don't understand what they are looking at".
We're going to be challenging the excuses around that and sharing some hard hitting facts.
It's not that your business isn't sellable, you just haven't made it buyable yet.
Complete this exercise, then Module 4 will be released in two weeks time. This module is the shortcut, don't shortcut the shortcut, commit to the action points.
Start The Online Exercise BELOW
Stuart Mason
This Is Module Three
The Presentation Problem
Some Guidance before completing. This course is designed as a "90 Day Sprint". The exercises are short and abrupt, so your answers need to be same. This is about action, not re-writing War and Peace. Address the points, agree the actions, and implement them... ideally today.
Below you'll see a button for a mock example of a completed exercise, that may help you with yours.
Module 03: The Presentation Problem
A buyer forms their view of your business in the first hour: the listing, the teaser, the information memorandum, the first reply to their first question. Most IMs are written by the seller, for the seller: pages of history and pride, nothing on the two things a buyer is actually scanning for, where is the risk, and where is the growth.
Here is the test. If a buyer with real money read your IM tonight, would they call tomorrow, or quietly move to the next listing in their inbox? Most sellers assume a good business sells itself. It doesn’t. A good business badly explained reads exactly like a bad business, because the buyer has no way to tell the difference from the outside.
If a buyer with money read your IM and didn’t come back, your IM failed. Not the buyer. That’s not a comfortable sentence, but it’s the only useful one, because it’s the only version of this problem you can actually fix.
Most presentation problems come down to one of four specific failures, and most IMs are making more than one at once. Here they are, in full.
WHAT THIS MODULE DELIVERS
- A rewritten listing and IM framework that reads like it was written for a buyer, not for your pride.
- Your top risks answered before a buyer has to ask, and your growth claims backed by evidence.
- A one-sentence pitch you could say out loud to a stranger with money and one hour.
THE FOUR PRESENTATION FAILURES, IN FULL
The History Lesson
Most IMs open with founding story, decades of hard work, the personal journey. None of that tells a buyer anything about future cash flow. A buyer reading page one is asking one question, is this worth my time, and pride-filled history doesn’t answer it. By the time they reach anything useful, most have already decided to move on.
Ask yourself: does my IM’s first page tell a buyer anything about risk or growth, or does it tell them about me?
The Risk Vacuum
If your IM doesn’t mention customer concentration, doesn’t mention your age or succession plans, doesn’t mention the sector headwind everyone in the industry already knows about, the buyer doesn’t conclude there’s no risk. They conclude you’re hiding it, or worse, that you don’t know it’s there. Every unaddressed risk becomes a due diligence discovery instead of a pre-answered question, and discoveries cost you leverage.
Ask yourself: if I were the buyer’s forensic accountant, what’s the first uncomfortable question I’d ask that my IM doesn’t already answer?
Growth by Assertion
“Significant growth potential” and “untapped market opportunity” are phrases, not evidence. A buyer reads confident language from every seller. It means nothing without a number attached. Three years of data showing the trend, a named expansion opportunity with a cost and a return, a customer waiting list: that’s evidence. Adjectives are not.
Ask yourself: for every growth claim in my IM, is there a number sitting next to it, or just an adjective?
The Numbers Buried
Financials scattered across formats, inconsistent margins between years with no explanation, no bridge from statutory profit to adjusted EBITDA: a buyer’s accountant reads this as low financial sophistication at best, concealment at worst. Your numbers are the single most scrutinised part of your IM, and most sellers give them the least design attention.
Ask yourself: could a stranger’s accountant follow my numbers from top line to EBITDA without picking up the phone to ask me a question?
HOW TO SCORE YOURSELF HONESTLY
- 1 Bad / unclear: a genuine problem, or you don’t know enough to say otherwise. Both are a red flag.
- 2 Below par: you can see the issue clearly. It isn’t fixed yet.
- 3 On track: solid enough. Not a blocker, but not something a buyer will notice either.
- 4 Good: this is genuinely working in your favour.
- 5 Awesome, well done: a real strength. A buyer would notice this positively.
WHAT A BUYER ACTUALLY READS FOR IN THE FIRST HOUR
A buyer with genuine money and genuine intent reads your IM looking for exactly two things: what could go wrong, and what could get better. Everything else is context. They are not reading for your story. They are reading to build their own model of risk and reward, fast, so they can decide whether a longer conversation is worth their time. Five things separate an IM that gets a callback from one that doesn’t.
- Executive summary: Leads with the number, not the story.
- A named risk section: Addressed honestly, before the buyer has to ask.
- A growth section built on evidence: Data, waiting lists, signed contracts, costed expansion, not adjectives.
- An EBITDA bridge: From statutory profit to adjusted EBITDA, line by line, defensible.
- A structure section: Shows the business doesn’t depend entirely on you (see Module One).
A WORKED EXAMPLE
Weak opening: “Founded in 2009, our family business has grown from a single site to become a trusted name in the local community, built on hard work and dedication.” Strong opening: “Established, profitable business generating £280,000 adjusted EBITDA on £1.2m turnover, with 62% recurring revenue and no client over 9% of turnover. Growth headroom in two costed, unopened territories.” Same business. The second version tells a buyer everything they need to decide whether to read on. The first tells them nothing they can use.
WHERE THE EVIDENCE ACTUALLY LIVES
- Your own IM, reread cold, as a stranger with money and one hour.
- The three questions your broker gets asked most often about your listing, answered or not.
- A trusted advisor or friend outside the business, asked to read it and say what’s missing.
- Your last three years of accounts, checked against exactly what the IM claims.
THE PRESENTATION PROBLEM
Score your IM honestly against all four presentation failures, using the rubric from this module’s teaching. Then audit it line by line.
| Presentation Failure | Score (1–5) | Evidence / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The History Lesson | ||
| The Risk Vacuum | ||
| Growth by Assertion | ||
| The Numbers Buried |
IM & LISTING AUDIT:
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE IN MY IM:
MY THREE RISKS, ANSWERED BEFORE A BUYER ASKS:
| Risk | My Answer |
|---|---|
MY GROWTH CLAIMS, BACKED BY EVIDENCE:
| Claim | Evidence |
|---|---|
MY ONE-SENTENCE PITCH TO A BUYER WITH MONEY AND ONE HOUR:
MY CONFIDENCE, RIGHT NOW, THAT A BUYER WOULD KEEP READING:
Next up: Module 04: Nobody Is Selling Your Business.
Complete all six modules to qualify for your 1-1 Exit Debrief.
80% Of Businesses Listed For Sale NEVER SELL
There's 26,000 businesses for sale in the UK, that means over 20,000 will NOT sell and it's down to one thing - lack of preparation
