How to Create Buyer FOMO for your Business

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When you’re selling a business, nothing drives price and terms like FOMO, fear of missing out.

I’ve seen deals where the psychological power of competitive bids doubled the final sale price, and others where due to the seller never creating it, buyers negotiated them down to the wire.

Here’s how to create demand for your company to get buyers rushing to pay.

Why FOMO Works in Business Sales

In M&A, buyers aren’t just weighing your business. They’re comparing it to everything else they could buy with the same money. When they feel like someone else might take the deal, their focus shifts from "Do I want this?" to "I don’t want to lose this."

That psychological shift changes everything:

• Price sensitivity drops.

• Negotiation pace increases.

• Terms become more flexible.

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How to Create Buyer FOMO Without Lying

The best FOMO isn’t manufactured, it’s market reality. Here are tactics that work:

1. Have unique assets, and emphasize them
When you have a strategic asset, whether it’s location, brand or intellectual property, then the price is entirely negotiable by you because it’s unique. Hammer this home in your sales marketing and you can trigger a bidding war with bigger market players.

2. Run a Structured Sale Process
When you list the business quietly and talk to one buyer at a time, there’s no urgency. When you open a process to multiple pre-qualified buyers with a deadline for offers, urgency is built in.

3. Use a “Soft Bid” Round
Ask interested parties to submit initial non-binding offers by a certain date. Let them know you’ll shortlist for a final round. This naturally tells them they’re in a race.

4. Set Deadlines (and Stick to Them!)
Don’t let negotiations drag on forever. Make it clear that you’re reviewing offers by a certain date. Buyers will prioritize you if they know the clock is ticking.

5. Keep Momentum in Communication
Go quiet and buyers assume the deal’s dead. Keep them updated regularly so they know things are moving even if that movement is with another party.

When Not to Push FOMO

If you’ve only got one interested buyer, FOMO becomes transparent bluffing. In those cases, it’s better to focus on relationship-building, demonstrating value, and exploring creative terms.

Quick Tip:
Create your competitive environment before you go to market. Build a shortlist of likely buyers, and open discussions in parallel. It’s much easier to create FOMO when you’ve got more than one serious bidder from day one.

Market Pulse:
Right now, we’re seeing the strongest buyer urgency in niches with recurring revenue and high barriers to entry. In more commoditized industries, buyers are taking their time and sellers who can’t generate competition are seeing lower multiples.

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Here’s to your success,
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