Between 70% and 80% of businesses listed for sale never find a buyer — not because they aren’t good businesses, but because they weren’t prepared to be bought. Here’s what actually kills a sale, and how a disciplined sell-side process fixes it before it costs you the deal.
General figures aggregated from Exit Planning Institute research and lower-middle-market M&A industry surveys as of 2025–2026 — not an assessment of any specific business. Your outcome depends on your financials, buyer competition, deal structure, and diligence findings.
Most brokers list a business and wait for inbound interest. Chetrock’s team started in manufacturing operations before moving into M&A, so we run sell-side the way an acquirer’s underwriting team actually reads a business — fixing what would surface in diligence before a buyer ever finds it.
See your Value Gap“Before finding Chetrock, I had tried several other brokerage platforms and unfortunately had some very negative experiences… From the very beginning, working with this team was completely different. Every step of the process was handled with the highest level of professionalism and care.”Eleonora E. — Seller - E-commerce Wedding/Events Brand
Reflects the experience of an owner our team personally advised through a prior brokerage engagement, continued independently through Chetrock Capital. Individual results vary and past transactions do not predict future outcomes.