Don’t be afraid to negotiate.

A lot of us fear confrontation and negotiating. It can feel awkward or un-natural for some of us. It is important to understand that negotiating is simply about communicating expectations. It is very uncommon to sell a car, a house, a clinic without some negotiating. At Healthcare Practice Sales, your broker is an experienced negotiator and can handle this process with professional ease.

Negotiation is a process.

Acknowledging the reality that negotiation is a two-way street, can help make the process less unnerving. Both parties (the buyer and the seller) need to gain something from the transaction and be happy with the result. Give and take is a natural progression in this process.

Is everything on the table.

Negotiation is often more than just about the money. What is the deposit? How long will the handover process be?  What chattels, fixtures and fittings remain with the clinic? When will settlement occur? Is stock included? Are all financials up to date? Price can often be compensated by other factors that work to your advantage.  Consider everything!

Communicate with care and guard your emotions.

By staying calm, reinforcing your desire to work together and choosing your words wisely, you can make all the difference. With Healthcare Practice Sales as your broker, we understand the importance of choosing your wording correctly to achieve the best result when we sell your clinic.

Try not to take the negotiations too personally. Negotiation when buying and selling a clinic is part of the deal. Most deals cannot be done without negotiation. Try to keep your emotions in check. If an offer is submitted lower than you expected, this isn’t a personal attack on you. This comes part and parcel with selling a clinic.

Be Reasonable.

With Healthcare Practice Sales, your clinic has been valued to determine the correct market value. Many factors are taken into consideration when valuing your clinic.
To be reasonable, you must be willing to listen to the market and the feedback. Taking the appraisal price and recent sales in the area into consideration, this will give you a better understanding of an achievable goal.
Never forget to think about your end game. What are you really after? How long do you realistically want to stay in your clinic? How much do you want to make this partnership work? What are you willing to give up in return? What is your bottom dollar?

It’s not about winning or losing.

The goal is to work together. Both parties need to find a middle ground that they are happy with. This process is about give and take, not winning or losing. You are both looking for a specific outcome in this sale of the clinic.
By understanding that you won’t be ‘losing’, you will be able to see the process for what it is – your next step towards your new goals. If an offer falls through and you don’t end up working together, it is not a loss. It is a learning curve for the next offer.

A sale that didn’t proceed is not a sale.

Many sellers experience the frustrating process of losing a sale under the terms of the agreement. Price and conditions have been agreed but the purchaser may not be able to get finance or a clause in a contract allowing the purchaser to walk away, such as subject to selling a property.
If this happens, try to move forward and continue the process. Many sellers hold on to the price of a lost contract and fear it will happen again. This is often not the case.
Don’t hold on to the price of the offer if it didn’t come to reality.

The last thing to remember:

Don’t lose focus when you think the deal is done.

Once you have finished the last of the negotiations, there is an understandable tendency for all parties to relax and start making assumptions about the process. If you are selling your clinic, it is just as important now to continue to push forward and keep the clinic profitable for the transition. If you drop the ball now, this may hinder the due diligence process and potentially the sale.

It is important not to assume that the contract will run through smoothly without any further involvement. In some cases, this may happen however for the rest of us, it is important to stay involved. Make sure your accountant has provided all the financials and your solicitor is going through the contract in a timely manner. Provide all documentation that is requested and be as transparent as possible.

You are on the home stretch – this process will be worth your time and persistence.