It is short. It is factual. It arouses curiosity - but it is still quiet, anonymous and discreet. The teaser is the business card of a company seller. What are the characteristics of a good teaser and what pitfalls should you avoid? With these tips you will make a lasting first impression.

The teaser or short memo is the first text that a potential interested party from the short or long list receives from us. The purpose of the paper is to draw the prospect’s attention to the offer of a company sale and to arouse curiosity about the company for sale.

This is associated with considerable risks, which is why the content of the letter must be discussed and agreed in detail with the clients. On the one hand, of course, the letter goes out without a prior NDA and, on the other hand, it must be assumed that competitors of the company for sale also regularly receive the text.

Protect the client

The last point is very critical, as a possible competitor can identify the company from the parameters contained in the teaser and use this for sales purposes or use the time lead to gather information.

In the worst case, the competitor will approach the existing customers and discreetly point out “behind closed doors” that the service provider, etc. is for sale and that one should start looking for a new supplier. Not quite so far-fetched. Believe me.

What does the teaser say?

The teaser should be written as a one-pager. At least for small companies (our target group), this is usually enough. More text is usually not read by the recipient.

Let’s start with the Legal form. After all, a prospective buyer wants to know whether he is buying a corporation or a partnership. Of course, the full name of the company will not appear here.

This is usually followed by the information on the company headquarters where the property has its headquarters. There will be a further radius here. Instead of “Mülheim a. d. Ruhr”, North Rhine-Westphalia should be mentioned. After all, how many companies do you think there are that are based in Content fit?

The teaser focus

The content should briefly present the company’s purpose and key points and say a few words about the number of branches and growth opportunities. Here, too, the rule is: keep it general! No conclusions should be drawn about the object. Instead of “3 branches in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Bavaria” prefer “3 locations throughout Germany”. Instead of “It is planned to expand the energy industry software area to include a gas industry application”. rather “Expansion of the energy industry pillar to include another specialist application”. This does not give any indication of the gas industry field of activity.

It can be a little more precise. The Service/Products Please describe the job in such a way that the reader also gets an impression of the field of activity. For example: “Programming add-ins for Microsoft Office products”.

Facts and figures in the teaser

Interesting then - and this is where the reader’s eyes always go first - is information about the Turnover and earnings. The figures should be (roughly) reflected in the exposé/information memorandum. The entire sales process must be coherent. It is of no use to talk about an EBIT of EUR 1.3 million and then in the following process steps it turns out that the EBIT is actually only EUR 900,000. This immediately gives us potential for conflict and the need for discussion in the negotiations. Please do not insert entire Excel tables. Short sentences on turnover and earnings and a little about the planned turnover figures are sufficient.

Finally round off Basicinformation such as the number of employees and average age (if it can be used positively) and a short, current Status such as “good reputation”, “numerous new customers”, etc. complete the teaser.

The last point is then the Asking price. This should provide enough material to get a first impression and sign an NDA, which could trigger the sending of the complete information memorandum.