How to Write Ads that Attract and Pre-Qualify Business Buyers

Writing business-for-sale ads is an exercise in fine balance.

• You have to entice prospective buyers about the current and potential strength of your business without even slightly stretching facts, which you’ll have to warrant as accurate at the time of an actual purchase.

• You have to tell enough about your business to make buyers think they’d like to know more but you can’t tell so much that readers – particularly competitors – can piece together the facts into a description of your business.

• You have to keep ads short yet build enough interest and trust to prompt prospective buyers not just to respond but to respond with information about their financial and business capability to make a purchase.

• You have to indicate enough about your business size and price to attract interest from those qualified to make the purchase while allowing those who don’t match up with your asking price to rule themselves out.

• And maybe most importantly, you have to make your business stand out from the crowd of other businesses listed in the same place, whether it is on an online business-for-sale marketplace, a classified ad, or an ad in a trade publication.