Key business processes, in a buyer's eyes, are the ones that bring money in and keep it coming: selling and pricing, keeping clients, producing or delivering the service, invoicing and collecting, running the team and tracking the numbers. For each one, the buyer checks two things: does it work, and does it work without you?
How a buyer looks at your processes
A buyer won't ask for your "process map". They'll ask simple questions, often during due diligence: who prepares the quotes? How are prices set? Who talks to your five biggest clients? Who closes the month? What happens when the production manager is on vacation?
Behind each question, they want to know whether the next few years of revenue will hold after you leave. A key process that rests on you, or on one person, is a risk. And a buyer makes you pay for risk: in the price, in the terms, or in the length of your transition.
That's why it's worth looking at your processes through their eyes, long before you meet them. The first step of the path is precisely about drawing them.
The six families of key processes
1. Selling and pricing
This is often the first thing a buyer examines. They want to know how clients come in, who prepares quotes and on what basis prices are set. A written pricing grid the team actually follows reassures them. Prices "in the owner's head" worry them.
What they'll ask to see: the pricing method, the history of quotes won and lost, who signs.
2. Keeping clients
The buyer looks at concentration (what share of sales comes from the largest clients) and above all at who holds the relationship. If your big clients call you, that's a major risk.
What they'll ask to see: the list of main clients, written agreements, the name of the person responsible for each account.
3. Producing or delivering the service
They want to understand how the work gets done, how consistently and with what quality control. They also look at who can solve problems when a machine breaks down or an order goes sideways.
What they'll ask to see: production procedures, quality control, the maintenance plan, complaints and how they were handled.
4. Purchasing, invoicing and collecting
The cash cycle: purchasing, inventory management, invoicing, collections. Slow receivables or poorly tracked inventory complicate the discussion about how much working capital stays in the business at closing, an adjustment that can affect the amount you receive. Ask your accountant how it would be calculated in your case.
What they'll ask to see: purchase approval rules, receivables aging, the inventory method.
5. Running the team
Who does what, who backs up whom, how people are hired and trained. The buyer wants to see a structure that holds without you. Our article on the org chart and roles a buyer wants to see covers this in detail.
What they'll ask to see: the org chart, job descriptions, agreements with key employees.
6. Tracking the numbers
The buyer wants reliable, regular financial statements produced by the team, not rebuilt by the accountant once a year. Those numbers will be used to calculate your normalized EBITDA, the basis for the price discussion.
What they'll ask to see: monthly statements, the month-end process, the indicators you track.
Depending on your sector, add compliance processes: permits, health and safety, standards specific to your industry. A buyer will check those too.
An example in Montérégie
The following case is invented. Luc, 66, owns an industrial bakery in Saint-Hyacinthe that supplies grocery stores and restaurants: 45 employees, about $8 million in revenue, a good reputation and no family successor.
Going through the six families with his operations director, Luc sees that production is solid: written recipes, documented quality control to meet food safety requirements, planned maintenance. Invoicing and collections are well handled by the accountant.
But three families are a problem. Prices for the big grocery chains are negotiated by Luc alone, every year, with no written method. The two largest clients only know him. And there are no monthly financial statements: Luc tracks sales day by day, but nobody else sees the margins.
He draws up a simple plan: a written pricing method with his sales director, meetings where he gradually introduces her to his two big clients, and monthly statements produced by the accountant. Nothing spectacular, but those are three questions where a buyer would have got poor answers.
Your checklist
This week, sit down for an hour with your right-hand person and, for each family, answer yes or no:
- Is the process written down, even on one page?
- Is someone other than you responsible for it?
- Does a second person know how to do it?
- Can you show proof that it works (reports, history, indicators)?
- Would it run for two weeks without you?
Every "no" is a work item. Start with families 1 and 2, which affect revenue. To decide what to do about the gaps, see the processes most small businesses are missing, then the step where you learn to document business processes.
Three owner blind spots
Confusing "it works" with "it works without me". A process can deliver excellent results because you watch it closely. The buyer wonders what happens once you're gone.
Betting everything on production. Many owners come from the trade and polish operations first. But a buyer usually starts with sales and clients.
Waiting for the letter of intent to get started. Once a buyer is engaged, it's too late to build a track record. A process that has existed for two months proves little; a process that has run for two years speaks for itself.
From the map to the data room
The proof you gather here will be used later. It goes into the data room, the space where the buyer and their advisors check everything. An owner who prepared their key processes ahead of time arrives at that stage with answers rather than promises.
Do it with a pro
Alone, it's hard to see your business through a buyer's eyes: you know the reasons behind every exception too well. We examine your key processes the way a buyer would, then our regional partner helps close the gaps, long before the sale. To see how this work sets up what comes next, read our sell my business page.
In step 1
Map your processesFrequently asked questions
- Does a buyer really ask to see my processes?
- Rarely by that name. They ask questions: who prepares quotes, how prices are set, who follows up with clients, who produces the monthly statements. Each answer shows whether a process exists and whether it depends on you. Due diligence is, in large part, a review of your processes.
- Which processes do they look at first?
- The ones that protect revenue: how the business wins and keeps clients, and how it sets prices. Then production or service, collections, the team and the numbers.
- Does everything need to be documented before I meet a buyer?
- The key processes, ideally yes. Not in a thick manual: a short procedure, a named owner and proof it works without you. The rest can be in progress, as long as there's a clear plan.
- Does it differ by type of buyer?
- The emphasis changes. A competitor looks mostly at clients and pricing. An investor looks at the management team and the numbers. An employee buyer already knows the operations, but their bank will want the same proof. The key processes stay the same.
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