How To Squeeze Buyers And Sell Your Business For More

Posted on 10/17/2025, 12:47:53 PM

Getting as much money for your business as possible is just as much an art as it is a science. However, there are some practical things you can do to skew the situation in your favor and encourage interested parties to pay more. These days, there’s an enormous private equity scene, so existing businesses have more opportunities than ever before to attract giant valuations. 

So, what do you need to do to sell your business for more? What works? 

Let’s take a look. 

Create The Illusion Of Competition

One of the things you can do to sell your business for more is take a leaf out of the consumer brand’s marketing playbook: creating the illusion of competition. You want to make it seem that everyone is interested in your business so that you can push the price up. 

Obviously, you want to avoid doing anything unethical, like claiming your business is worth more than it is. But if you can make it seem like there are a lot of people interested in what you want to sell, that can make a big difference. 

Control The Narrative

Next, you’ll want to look at ways to control the narrative. Buyers will always look for ways to lower the price, but you need to be honest with them. You need to tell them why the price really can’t go down, and the reasons for it, and then give them reassurance that the value of the business is there. 

Once you start doing this, you’ll notice that you’re able to anchor people at a higher valuation. All of a sudden, the average offer value goes up, even if they want to keep negotiations going. 

Make Walking Away Believable 

You also want to make sure that you always give yourself the option to walk away. If a deal isn’t good enough for you, then there should be no reason why you should take it. 

If you need help with strategies, Bridge Point recommends working with firms that can provide assistance. It’s not always obvious how much a company is worth, according to the outfit, so the ability to negotiate is critical.

Keep Small Secrets Until You’re Ready To Reveal Them

You can also try keeping small secrets about your business until it is pertinent to reveal them as a tactic for increasing the price. For example, a lot of company owners will disclose their financials, but they won’t tell buyers about the value of their client list until later into the negotiations. Dropping this extra piece of information will suddenly challenge buyers’ perspectives and, perhaps, encourage them to pay more. 

Get Buyers Emotionally Invested

Finally, you can explore ways to get buyers emotionally invested in what you’re doing. You want them to start identifying with your business and really believe that it is the sort of thing that they could own and operate. 

Once you do this, you take buyers out of the world of rationality and into the world of emotion. And when you do that, they’re likely to pay more.