An intermediary finds buyers. It does not replace the lawyer who structures the deal or the accountant who prices it — knowing that distinction before you brief anyone saves a second, more expensive conversation later.
Key takeaways
STEP 01 OF 10
A business broker or M&A advisor typically represents the seller directly, prices and packages the business, screens inbound interest, and charges on the outcome. A listings platform instead advertises confidentially and connects the seller to self-directed buyers — deavo describes itself plainly as “a listings platform — not a broker. We help sellers advertise confidentially… we never represent either party or take a success fee”, and elsewhere states its primary customer is brokers themselves, to whom it sends “supply and pre-qualified buyers rather than competing with them.”
The two are not mutually exclusive: a seller can list on a platform while also retaining a broker to run the process, or use a broker exclusively for a higher-touch sale. Decide which job you are hiring for before evaluating candidates — marketing reach, negotiation, or both.
A third option some sellers overlook is running the process without any intermediary at all — direct outreach to a short list of known strategic buyers, competitors or industry contacts. That route saves any commission or platform relationship entirely, but it puts the full burden of screening, staging disclosure and negotiating on the seller (or their lawyer and accountant), which is a real cost even without a dollar figure attached to it.
STEP 02 OF 10
Treadstonelaw’s own step-by-step roadmap for selling an Ontario business places brokers in its FAQ, not its core sequence, and is direct about the limit: a broker is “often helpful for finding buyers and marketing the business — but a broker is not a substitute for a lawyer and accountant on structure, tax, and the agreement.” Deavo makes the identical point from the platform side: it does not “represent either party, provide advice on a transaction, or take a success fee,” per its terms of use.
The practical consequence: retain your lawyer and accountant regardless of which marketing route you choose, and brief the intermediary on marketing and buyer screening only — do not let the marketing relationship substitute for the structuring one.
STEP 03 OF 10
A traditional broker commission is negotiated and outcome-based. A listings platform may run on a different model entirely — deavo states it is “100% free in v1 — no listing fees, no buyer fees, no success fees, no paywalls anywhere” for sellers, buyers and brokers alike, and separately promises existing listings stay free if paid features are introduced later. Whichever model you use, get the trigger for any fee — a signed LOI, a closed sale, a specific buyer introduction — in writing before marketing starts, not after an offer arrives.
STEP 04 OF 10
An intermediary who markets from unreconciled or optimistic figures is setting up the exact collapse deavo warns about: numbers that “surface partway through due diligence, after a buyer has already spent time and legal fees getting to a signed letter of intent — exactly when a seller has the least room to walk away.” Hand the intermediary the reconciled current and prior-year financials, matched to GST/HST filings, before they draft the first piece of marketing material — see preparing the marketing documents for a sale for the reconciliation checklist itself.
STEP 05 OF 10
An intermediary who does not know that sales, key customer relationships and licensing all run through the owner personally will market the business as more transferable than it is — and the gap surfaces at exactly the wrong moment. Brief them with the same five signals deavo names: sales handled personally by the owner, key relationships with no second point of contact on staff, undocumented processes, no second-in-command, and licensing or reputation tied to the individual.
STEP 06 OF 10
If the intermediary is a broker, get the listing agreement’s exclusivity period, territory and commission trigger in writing. If a buyer surfaces later through the letter-of-intent stage, treadstonelaw’s LOI guidance notes exclusivity there is typically 30 to 90 days and almost always binding, even though most other LOI terms are not — make sure the intermediary’s own engagement terms do not conflict with that later exclusivity commitment.
Two exclusivity periods running on different clocks — one to the intermediary, one to a specific buyer at the LOI stage — is a common source of disputes if either one lapses without both sides noticing. Calendar both dates the moment each is signed, and confirm in writing what happens to the intermediary's exclusivity once a buyer moves into the LOI's own exclusivity window.
STEP 07 OF 10
Whether the intermediary or the seller’s counsel issues the confidentiality agreement, settle it before the first inquiry. Deavo’s model routes the NDA through the platform itself — “every access request arrives with a structured buyer profile: budget, funding status and experience” before any document is released. A broker-run process typically has the broker vet the buyer first and route signed NDAs to counsel. Either can work; ambiguity about who is the gatekeeper is what fails.
STEP 08 OF 10
Confirm the intermediary’s policy on aged listings and on leads that go quiet — a platform with AI screening of every published listing for scam and plausibility signals, with flags reviewed privately by operators is managing lead quality differently than a broker cold-calling a personal buyer list. Neither is wrong, but the seller should know which filter is protecting their confidentiality before relying on it.
Ask specifically what happens if the engagement ends without a sale: does a listing stay live under the same terms, does the intermediary retain any rights over buyers they introduced during the engagement, and is there a tail period during which a commission is still owed if one of those buyers eventually closes through a different channel. A tail clause with no defined end date is worth negotiating down before signing, not after a dispute arises.
STEP 09 OF 10
A Confidential Information Memorandum is deliberately positioned between the anonymous teaser and everything a buyer eventually sees once a deal is closer to firm, released only after a confidentiality agreement is signed. Many brokers draft this themselves from the seller’s financials; on a listings platform the seller (or an AI drafting tool reviewed by the seller) typically does. Either way, have your own advisor review the CIM before it goes out — it is the first document a buyer will hold you to.
STEP 10 OF 10
Agree with the intermediary on a specific point — a number of weeks, or a number of qualified inquiries — to review whether the current approach is producing serious buyers. A treadstonelaw roadmap frames the whole process as running through eight ordered phases from preparation through closing and transition; an intermediary relationship that is not producing movement toward the letter-of-intent phase within a reasonable window is a decision point, not something to wait out indefinitely.
No Canadian source publishes a typical business-brokerage commission rate, so treat the schedule below as a hypothetical for arithmetic only, not a benchmark to expect. Suppose an engagement letter sets 10% on the first $1,000,000 of sale price, 6% on everything above that, and a $30,000 minimum fee, applied to a sale that closes at $1,850,000.
10% × $1,000,000 = $100,000. 6% × ($1,850,000 − $1,000,000) = 6% × $850,000 = $51,000. Total commission = $100,000 + $51,000 = $151,000 — comfortably above the $30,000 minimum, so the minimum does not bind at this price.
Now run the same schedule against a smaller sale at $250,000: 10% × $250,000 = $25,000, which is below the $30,000 minimum — so the minimum binds instead, and the fee is $30,000, not $25,000. This is exactly the kind of clause worth testing against your own likely sale price before signing an engagement letter, because a minimum fee changes the effective rate most sharply on smaller deals.
The two models are not just priced differently; they allocate risk differently. A commission-based broker is paid only if a deal closes, which aligns their effort with the outcome but also means they will typically prioritize listings likeliest to close quickly. A no-fee listings platform has no comparable financial stake in any single sale closing — its incentive runs through volume and screening quality instead, per its stated model of sending brokers supply and pre-qualified buyers rather than competing with them.
Neither incentive structure is inherently better; they simply reward different things. A seller with a straightforward, easily valued business may do well on a no-fee platform; a seller with a complex structure, a narrow buyer pool, or a need for active negotiation support has more reason to pay a commission for a broker’s direct involvement.
No — nothing requires one. Many sellers use a listings platform, direct outreach, or their own network instead. The decision turns on how much active marketing and negotiation support the sale needs, not a legal requirement.
Yes, and some sellers do — the two are not mutually exclusive. Confirm in writing which channel is entitled to credit for which buyer, so a fee dispute does not surface if the same buyer approaches through both.
That depends on the engagement, but most intermediaries work from the teaser and CIM tier and route qualified buyers into the full room once the seller signs off — see building and controlling a data room for how that staging works.
The fee trigger, the exclusivity period and territory if any, who controls NDA release, and who owns the buyer relationship if the engagement ends before closing.
No. An intermediary manages marketing and buyer screening; the room itself still has to be assembled, staged and access-controlled, whether the intermediary, the seller's counsel, or a platform holds it — see building and controlling a data room for that separate task.
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