4 personality traits to watch when selling your business

Just as there are different sellers with different motivations, there are also buyers with different types of needs and personalities. If you’re the seller of a business or looking to buy, understanding these different personality types may help you be more successful.

1. Unemployed
This is the best type of buyer. But there are some catches. They need to have enough money as a down payment to buy the business. Zero down payment to buy a home hasn’t been successful. As well as the down payment, they need a good credit score (FICO 700 plus), good credit report and if they want to qualify for a third party loan such as an SBA loan; they need to have industry experience. If you are the seller of a business, the unemployed are motivated and generally want to move quickly to make a decision and start earning an income again.

2. Engineer
This will be the hardest buyer that you work with. They invariably have the money and the skills to run a business, but they have a need to know absolutely every piece of information about the economy, industry, and your business. Many meetings are required and each is long and laborious. Questions that are answered in the first three meetings are asked in subsequent meetings and if the answers are slightly different from what was said earlier, the buyer wants to know why and then go back and revisit every other question around that topic. Their chances of taking the emotional risk to buy a business are very low as after all the questions are answered, they find it impossible to commit by signing their name to the check to buy the business.

3. Talker
This person loves to talk. They have great personality and charm and you think they are the perfect person for the business. They are pleasant to deal with, ask polite and relevant questions, are genuinely interested in being liked and making sure they fit in. There is only one problem -they don't have any money and can therefore be a huge time waster. Watch talkers carefully as they are such good talkers that you may be afraid to say no or offend them.

4. Know-It-All
Another problem buyer is the know-it-all. They are like talkers but not as diplomatic. They have a bunch of knowledge making them sound like a great candidate as they "get it" and the industry and your business. They probably have money, it is just that they are hard to get along with as they love to tell you what they are going to do to make the business better and at the same time they have no problem in suggesting changes you should make now or telling you what you are not doing right.