Intelligent - We Sell Businesses -

Danni Page

My partner was looking for some advice on how to proceed with the sale of our business. I found both Matthew and Mark to be extremely helpful and amiable through the whole process. They have some stellar advice and we’re not pushy (unlike other brokers I have been in contact with) this led to me choosing Intelligent as my broker of choice to sell our business. My account manager Mariam has also been extremely knowledgeable, helpful and a breath of fresh air! She keeps me regularly updated with interest and I’m looking forward to finding the perfect buyer!

Ford Shackcloth

Absolutely Useless

Six years ago I was flattered into listing my business for sale with Intelligent by a high Valuation Fee. I paid an equally high Listing Fee, taking what I thought would be the opportunity to sit back and watch the enquiries and appointments come flooding in. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I have experienced complete and utter ineptitude at every possible turn over the last 6 years and, to rub salt into the already open and gaping wound, I have recently been served 28 days notice that my business will be ‘withdrawn from contractual obligations and removed from sale’. Presumably for my added benefit, I will ‘receive a further email confirming once the 28 days are up’. The fact that my business has been for sale for 6 years perhaps tells you all you need to know about Intelligent.

I’m not sure how much merit there is in using this forum to list line by line everything that went wrong for me, although I could. Others have given blow by blow details and I’d urge you to familiarise yourself with these posts both on Trust Pilot and Google (via Maps). I’d also encourage you to visit the Intelligent website, register your interest in buying a business and see how you’re treated. This is after all what someone buying your business will experience.

I engaged Intelligent in good faith and whilst that can mean different things to different people, to me it meant consistency, specifically in terms of personnel, but more generally about campaigns, promotions and overall account management.
When my 28 days is up, I’ll have had close to 20 different ‘account managers’. Yes, you really did read that correctly. 20. Each time you get a new one you’re starting again. And in the blink of an eye, they’ve gone and the process repeats.

If you’re looking for a reason as to why my business remains unsold, it’s difficult to see past this endlessly revolving door. At one end of the spectrum I consider their actions to be disingenuous and dishonourable and at the other, downright reckless. Wherever I land on the spectrum though, consistency is absolutely what I did not get.

For what it’s worth, I found my account managers to be largely illiterate when it came to talking about business, they were poor at qualifying enquiries, poorer still at managing expectations and, perhaps most unforgivably, useless at getting back to people when they said they would.

There must be good agents out there, sadly Intelligent isn’t one of them.

Sarah Scaife

Rang Intelligent as I’m in the early stages of thinking about selling my business. Mark was very helpful and gave really useful advice. He took the time to understand me and my company.

Alex M

I contacted Intelligent for some general business growth advice and Mark answered the phone. Generous with his time, very honest and referred me to someone who specialised in the help I needed. Brilliant service

Tom Greatorex

I think one of the best ways to judge a business is on how they deal with a complaint. I wasn't happy at the amount of time it was taking for the sale of my business to go through. It dragged on way to long and it was clear to me the buyer was never going to complete.
Once i had made it clear how unhappy i was with the situation to Intelligent they acted swiftly. They set a deadline for buyer to complete. She failed to meet it. At which point Intelligent apologised, covered all the solicitors costs i had uncured in the sale process, offered to release me from my contract with them or re-market my business for sale again. Basically they covered all my costs and opened up all my options.
I believe this shows Intelligent to be a company of great honesty and integrity. I'm looking forward to re marketing with them and have every confidence they will find the right buyer this time. Id recommend their service.

James Amos

I have had a very positive experience with Intelligent. Initially they sent someone around who was polite and friendly and he guided me through the process providing a valuation which I was happy with. Then I was assigned an Account manager. Sharon was brilliant, she had good advice when it was needed and always returned my calls within the hour nothing was too much problem and all leads were followed up meticulously. Thanks!

Maxwell Ashworth

Very dissatisfied with their service. Currently have a business listed with them. Charged £1400 in advance.

We received no pro active calls from our account manager and when we called we were told to stop because we would receive calls on a scheduled date.

We are recommended to reduce the price of our property/business and when we ask for advice on what would be suitable our account manager advises he can't tell us as he has not seen the business or property.

The only times we received a call from IBT is when we complained about being approached by another business in joining a syndicate to take them to court. Or to have a free valuation, after we were already on the market with them. The other times were in relation to offers £150k to £85k below our asking price, or by a senior manager to tell me that they were doing what they can to sell the property and not to worry about the approach to take them to court.

The monthly statistics that they send are inaccurate and I was told by our account manager that this is because of the way they list interest. The statistics therefore do not mean anything to me and so are not worth sending out.

We never received confirmation of any offers in writing. We left messages for the negotiator to call us with regards to counter offers and never received calls back, and the reasons for not returning calls differed depending on who we spoke to.

We wish we never listed our property with this organisation and we are looking forward to providing our months notice to get out of the contract.

This company, looks to me like they only make money from upfront fees. Feel conned and embarrassed.

Jedi kids

Extremely disappointed. Initially very positive and efficient but the moment we went live on the website we may as well have fallen off the face of the earth. I would have to call for updates. When I did, my account manager didn't even know how to spell my name let alone the name of my business..
on several occasions!!
Struggled for weeks to get a sign put up. Eventually done by a firm from 10 mins down the road. And at the end of the contract..they told me I would have to pay to have the sign brought down!
Their strategy for selling our business was wrong. And when I made suggestions for changing the strategy I was met with a generic plan which was clearly not relevant to our type of business.
Throughly unpleasant experience. Would not recommend. Not treated personally. Never felt confident that they were doing everything they could to market us appropriately. Definitely not value for money. A real let down!