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News Release 

New Software and Book 
for business brokers and others selling businesses

How to Transition to a Fee Based Practice

Millis, MA --  If you are presently a business broker or if you are considering entering the field then this  has been written for you.  Allow me to introduce myself and share a bit of how my business brokerage office changed to a fee based operation over fifteen years ago.  My name is Ted Burbank and I began my business brokerage career late in 1979.  

At that time no one in my market nor anyone I knew ever charged up front fees when listing a business. Charging up front fees was never a consideration as we began the journey that would end with my brokerage collecting a retainer with every listing.  I can tell you that the change did not take place until we were convinced that our collecting a fee was in the best interest of our client. Prior to this the staff and business owners alike viewed up front fees as a benefit to the broker only.  

It turned out that business owners really wanted the fee based approach over the free based one - they just didn't realize it until we offered them a sensible alternative.

Let me share with you the catalyst for our transition from a typical business brokerage office where businesses are listed without a fee to one where every listing was accompanied by a fee.  We were at a party, my wife and I, and someone asked what it was I did for a living.  Quite a few people gathered around to hear more after I explained that I sold businesses.  After answering all the usual questions such as “What’s the best business to buy today?”  I still had an audience so I continued and pointed out that many entities sold businesses.  In fact Century 21 sold more businesses than any other organization.  I was quick to add that those numbers were purely a function of their size and not their effectiveness. 

For example if every other Century 21 office sold one business a year that might represent several thousand sales.  But – they sell less than one of twenty listings or an effectiveness rate less than a five percent.  Business brokers typically will sell one in six to seven of their listings.  However, (drum roll please) my office was successful in selling one in four of our listings.

The adulation and praise was short lived as on the drive home my wife asked “Is it true that you sell one of four listings?”  "Why yes indeed." I replied – my chest expanding with pride.  "Yes we do."

I was unprepared for her foundation shaking reply.  “You mean to say you only satisfy twenty five percent of your customers?”   Oh wow! I never looked at it that way.  What other professional has a success rate that low?  Perhaps a baseball player’s batting average, but I couldn't think of anything else. I was really troubled and decided that we would find a way to improve our effectiveness. It’s not easy being married to an intelligent woman.

It took over a year for us to come up with the solution to the low effectiveness problem (Notice the objective was not to collect fees although the result was we became a fee based operation).  Our effectiveness rate went from twenty five percent to the high nineties percent and now I want to share with you just how we did it with this book and software package.

What the package contains:

The Book:  Transition to a Fee Based Practice - 222 pages of step by step instruction and examples to facilitate your  transition to a Fee Based Practice and become more effective selling businesses. Most importantly you will gain an understanding of why your collecting a retainer is in your client's best interest.  

 

Listing Presentation:  Includes a word for word transcript of an actual presentation that results in prospective clients asking "How much will this service cost?"  That's right - you may never have to ask for a fee to obtain one.

Paperwork:  Contracts, forms and letters designed especially for use with the retainer process

Marketing Tools:  Sample solicitation letters, post cards, flyers and brochure for you to adapt to your use in marketing your services.

Two Sample Reports:  The first is an example of a basic report - The retainer collected, $5,000  The second is essentially the same but with more research and customization - The retainer collected, $25,000

Software:   Software to produce the report mentioned above. The exact same software we developed and refined over a fifteen year period especially for our fee based practice.

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For more information contact:
Ted Burbank, FCBI
508 794-1200 or Email  bizval@bizbooksoftware.com

 

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