Finding the right buyer: search and selection strategies

The 5 main sources for finding qualified buyers

Finding the right buyer for your business requires a structured and multi-channel approach. Each source of buyers has its advantages and limitations.

A diversified strategy increases your chances of identifying serious and qualified candidates. Here are the five most effective channels for finding a buyer for your SME.

1. Business succession platforms

Digital platforms like Leez directly connect sellers and qualified buyers. Key advantages: targeted visibility, buyers verified by identification and paid subscription (250 CHF/year), simplified management of online NDAs.

This prior qualification filters out the curious and guarantees serious contacts. Consult the businesses for sale to discover active listings.

2. Direct professional network (employees, competitors, suppliers)

Your sector network can reveal potential buyers: key employees wishing to progress, competitors seeking to expand, strategic suppliers or customers.

Advantages: in-depth knowledge of the sector, facilitated transition. Disadvantages: risks to confidentiality and emotional complexity, especially with internal employees.

3. Experts and specialised partners

Fiduciaries, lawyers, M&A advisers and brokers have networks of qualified buyers. Their expertise enables rapid identification of relevant profiles for your sector.

The Leez partner network offers this option without obligation. These experts can accelerate the process, but are not essential for all successions.

4. Professional associations and chambers of commerce

Cantonal chambers of commerce, sector associations and business events enable discreet networking. This approach preserves confidentiality but requires patience and time investment.

The contacts established are often of high quality, but the process remains slower than other channels.

5. Targeted direct approach

Proactively identify strategic buyers: companies expanding in your sector, specialised investors, executives in career transition seeking an opportunity.

This method requires thorough research and a personalised approach. More time-consuming, it nevertheless generates highly qualified contacts motivated by your specific sector.

Essential criteria for selecting the right buyer

Identifying candidates is not enough. Selecting the right buyer requires rigorous evaluation according to several complementary dimensions.

Don't rush into the first offer. The proposed price is just one criterion among others. The buyer's ability to sustain your business matters just as much.

Financial capacity and credibility

Verify the candidate's financial strength: available personal contribution, access to bank financing, guarantees offered. Request proof of funds or bank pre-qualification.

On Leez, the paid subscription constitutes a first filter of seriousness. But thorough verification remains essential before engaging in detailed negotiations.

Skills and sector experience

Assess managerial skills, experience in your sector or in transferable areas, and the candidate's strategic vision.

A good buyer is not necessarily a sector expert. Their learning capacity, adaptability and entrepreneurial experience can compensate for a lack of specific sector expertise.

Vision and acquisition project

Understand the candidate's real motivations and project: continuity, development, transformation? Is their vision compatible with your values and your vision for the business?

This compatibility is crucial if you are attached to your company's legacy, your teams and your customers. A strategic misalignment can compromise the succession.

Human and cultural compatibility

An often underestimated but decisive dimension. Assess the buyer's ability to integrate into the company culture, manage existing teams and maintain customer relationships.

Technical skills are not enough. Consult our guide to properly prepare your first meeting and deepen this human evaluation.

Qualification methods and selection process

A structured process enables you to objectively evaluate each candidate and progress gradually in the relationship. This methodology reduces risks and optimises your time.

Each stage provides complementary information and naturally filters candidates who are less serious or unsuitable for your succession project.

Stage 1: Initial filtering

First selection on file: candidate profile, cover letter, apparent financial capacity. Quickly eliminate profiles that are manifestly unsuitable.

On a platform like Leez, this filtering is facilitated by the prior qualification of buyers: mandatory identity verification and paid subscription that exclude unserious contacts.

Stage 2: NDA signing and initial exchanges

Protect confidentiality before any exchange of sensitive information. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is essential before sharing financial or strategic data.

Leez offers online NDA signing that simplifies this administrative stage. Initial exchanges by email or telephone to validate mutual interest before a meeting.

Stage 3: Meetings and in-depth interviews

Organise structured meetings to evaluate the candidate in depth. Prepare your questions, your presentation documents and your evaluation criteria.

Consult our guide to prepare these meetings effectively. You can progressively involve expert partners to refine your evaluation.

Stage 4: Mutual due diligence

Reciprocal audit phase: the buyer analyses your business in detail (finances, legal, operations), you verify the strength of their project and financing.

This stage is decisive. To understand the process from the buyer's side, consult our article on the 8 steps to a successful acquisition.

The advantage of a qualifying platform like Leez

A digital platform that qualifies buyers from the outset offers concrete advantages for your search for a buyer. It combines visibility, qualification and administrative simplification.

Leez is not a consultancy firm, but an infrastructure that facilitates connections between serious sellers and buyers, with tools to secure the process.

An automatic first filter of seriousness

The Leez qualification system combines mandatory identity verification and paid subscription (250 CHF/year). These two barriers automatically exclude the curious and unqualified contacts.

You save considerable time by avoiding unproductive exchanges. Each contact received comes from a verified buyer financially committed to their search.

Administrative simplification and confidentiality

Digital management of NDAs, progressive confidentiality levels, secure exchanges on the platform. The infrastructure facilitates each stage of the process without imposing an external consultant.

Transparent pricing for the seller: 490 CHF to publish your listing, no commission on the final sale. You maintain total control of your succession.

Targeted visibility among active buyers

Buyers present on Leez are actively searching and have invested in an annual subscription. This financial commitment demonstrates their seriousness and concrete motivation.

Your listing benefits from optimised visibility among a qualified audience ready to take action. Publish your business for sale to access this network of buyers.

Finding the right buyer for your business requires time, method and a structured approach. Succession platforms, your professional network, specialised experts, sector associations and the direct approach constitute complementary sources for identifying qualified candidates.

Selection is not just about financial capacity. Sector skills, strategic vision and human compatibility are equally decisive in ensuring the continuity of your business. A rigorous qualification process, from initial filtering to mutual due diligence, enables you to evaluate each candidate objectively.

A platform like Leez simplifies this search by giving you access to a network of verified and active buyers, whilst preserving the confidentiality of your approach. Publish your business today and benefit from targeted visibility among serious buyers, without commission on the sale.