Naturally, the process of a merger or acquisition are complex because you are courting your direct opposition as potential buyers. While bpo buyers are plentiful, sellers are harder to source. Why? Because selling your contact center comes with some vulnerabilities and protecting yourself against the competition comes first. In this article, we discuss acquisitions, how they work, challenges to watch for, and how a trusted third party can benefit the process.

The Contact Center Acquisition Process

In an acquisition, a company purchases another company and its resources. This is one of the ways to grow a contact center business. For instance, an acquisition can help it to expand into new markets and acquire new assets. As a result, the business can also become more competitive. 

How Acquisitions Work
The acquisition process involves several key steps, which we outline below:

1. Creating a Strategy
   In the strategy phase, the buyer and seller define their goals for the acquisition, their ideal type of company to do an acquisition with, and what they want the process to look like ideally. Current financial positions and future projections need to be carefully considered. Other important factors to consider are company size and culture, products and services offered, and types of customers served.

2. Connecting with Companies
   After creating a strategy, a buyer starts searching for ideal companies. When it finds a company it is interested in, it will send it a letter of intent, describing a proposal for an acquisition. On the seller side, once a seller is interested in selling, they will create a detailed document about their company to present to buyers. The buyer will use the information in the document to evaluate the strength of the company. A SWOT analysis may also be performed to evaluate a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

3. Negotiating a Deal
   During the negotiation stage, the buyer will use information about the company it wants to acquire and its valuation to present a proposal. The two companies will negotiate the deal and then sign it once they have come to an agreement.

4. Due Diligence
   During the due diligence phase, the buyer evaluates the company’s operations, financials, and culture in more detail before finalizing the purchase. After this process is completed, the final contracts are signed to close the deal.

Considerations

There are many considerations when buying or selling a contact center business. Here are some key points to keep in mind:

• As a buyer, find out and be considerate of the seller’s reasons for selling a contact center business.
  
  
• Be aware of the difference between “friendly” versus “hostile” acquisitions. During a friendly acquisition, the buyer involves the seller’s shareholders and board of directors in the acquisition process. But in a hostile acquisition, the buyer does not involve the board of the seller company.
  
  
• Be sure that there is enough potential financial gain from the acquisition to make it worthwhile.
  
  
• Consider whether the seller company’s mission, culture, structure, roles, and resources can be well matched to your current company and goals and prepare a transition plan.

The Benefits of Using a Trusted Third Party

A trusted third party can offer a neutral perspective and guidance for the steps in the contact center acquisition process – and beyond. They can give you a more objective view of the valuation process and help with research, planning, negotiations, closing, transition, and implementation.

CH Consulting Group provides unparalleled expertise in the Contact Center and Customer Experience (CX) verticals. We have a nationwide team of industry veterans that can assist you to achieve exponential growth, manage change, and generate profit. For a comprehensive CX assessment and strategic plan customized for your unique business needs, connect with us here today.