Understand why they called before naming a price.
Acknowledge the outreach. Ask why this company and what they want the next conversation to cover.
A buyer called.
Don’t let their process become your decision.
You can explore the interest without naming a price, opening the data room, or accepting the buyer’s timeline. The first job is to protect your options and learn who is actually across the table.
A first-72-hours plan. Buyer questions. Information controls. A price-to-outcome framework.
In this guide +
The short answer
Don’t answer the price question first. Decide if the process is worth entering.
Confirm who the buyer is, why they are interested, who controls the decision, how they expect to fund it, and what they want from you after closing.
Before sharing customer names, employee information, contracts, or detailed financials, decide with counsel what should be protected and what sequence makes sense.
The first 72 hours
Slow the process down without killing the opportunity.
Protect the company before opening the books.
Customer names, employee data, contracts and detailed financials should not move informally.
Find out who would actually buy the business.
Identify the decision makers, capital source, acquisition vehicle, financing assumptions and approvals.
Ask when and how you would actually be paid.
Separate cash at close from seller notes, earnouts, rollover equity, holdbacks and obligations that survive closing.
Check what the transaction needs to do for your family.
Headline value matters less than likely after-tax proceeds and what those proceeds need to support.
Buyer wants another call?
Talk through the question before you respond →A useful initial response
Show interest.
Keep your leverage.
“Thank you for reaching out. I’m open to understanding your interest and how you are thinking about the business. Before discussing value or providing detailed information, I’d like to understand your team, acquisition criteria, intended structure, financing, and proposed process.”Illustrative language only. Adapt it to the facts and involve counsel when appropriate.
Questions for the buyer
The first conversation should produce information—not commitments.
Use the first call to understand the buyer, the proposed transaction, and what would have to happen next. You are gathering facts, not negotiating against yourself.
Buyer + capital
Who is actually buying?
Why this company?
What experience does the buyer have? Who controls the decision? What have they bought before?
How certain is the capital?
Who provides it? What is committed, what depends on lenders, and what approvals remain?
Deal shape + owner role
What deal are they actually proposing?
What would they buy?
Asset purchase, stock purchase, recapitalization, majority sale, or another structure?
What do they expect from you afterward?
Employment, rollover, non-compete, transition assistance, or performance obligations?
Information + process
What happens next?
What do they want to see—and why?
What information, when, for what purpose, and under what confidentiality protections?
What could still change the outcome?
Diligence, working capital, financing, customer consents, regulatory approvals, or other conditions?
Three numbers—not one
A headline offer only works if all three numbers line up.
Do not let the buyer’s number become the whole conversation. Price, likely proceeds, and the capital your life actually requires have to work together.
The buyer’s number
What they say the business is worth — and how that value is actually paid.
Compare the structure →Your likely proceeds
What may remain after debt, taxes, fees, adjustments, and contingent value.
Estimate what you keep →What your life requires
What the transaction actually needs to produce for you and your family.
Test whether it is enough →Build the owner-side team
The buyer is not showing up alone.
You should not either.
A serious buyer may already have counsel, financing sources, diligence teams, and a deal process moving underneath the surface.
Your side may need transaction counsel, tax professionals, valuation and transaction specialists, banking professionals, estate counsel, and a planner who keeps the deal tied to the life it needs to pay for.
That planner is the role Greg plays, supported by the broader advisory team at Regal.
Morrowgate’s job is to keep what you need on the table while the deal gets negotiated.Your next buyer conversation
The First 72 Hours Field Guide
Keep the questions, boundaries, and next steps in one place.
- Questions to qualify the buyer
- An information-sharing ladder
- A price-to-outcome worksheet
- Your boundaries and next-call agenda
Get your field guide.
Enter your full name and email for immediate access.
Buyer wants the next call?
Get clear on the one question that could change your answer.
Price. What to share. Whether the buyer is credible. What the deal would need to leave you with. Send us the issue you’re stuck on.
Do not send the buyer’s letter, financial statements, customer information, or other confidential transaction material.