Company sales rarely come out of nowhere. Long before a deal is signed, companies that end up being sold tend to share certain patterns in their data: how their capital is built up, how their reserves have grown, who holds the shares.
For the people who advise business owners, that window matters. A private banker who already knows the owner is in a very different position from one who hears about the sale afterwards. The same goes for the accountant planning a succession, or the advisor helping with the tax and estate questions that follow.
Readiness to Sell, now live in openthebox, is designed to help you find that window. Here's what's in this release.
Readiness to Sell Score
A 0 to 100 score and a tier, at the top of the company profile
Open a scored Belgian company and Readiness to Sell is the first thing you see on the profile: a score from 0 to 100, a tier, and the key signals behind it.
The score reflects how closely a company's data resembles the profile of Belgian companies that were sold. Where there isn't enough data to score a company reliably, the profile says so clearly, rather than showing a number it can't back up.
Why it matters: you can tell at a glance whether a company deserves a closer look, before you spend time digging into its filings.
The Full Explanation in Insights
See exactly why a company scores the way it does
A score on its own doesn't tell you much, so every score links through to a full explanation in the Insights view.
What's included:
- The areas that contribute most to the score
- A comparison with companies that were sold
- The measures that have changed
- A help sheet explaining how to read the score
Why it matters: you can judge the signal for yourself and go into a conversation knowing what's behind it, not just that a number is high.
Readiness to Sell in Advanced Search
Filter on tier to build a shortlist
In Advanced Search, Readiness to Sell has its own filter group with five tiers, from "Very strong sell signal" to "No clear sell signal". Select one or more and combine them with the filters you already use, such as region, sector or company size.
Why it matters: instead of a list you'll never get through, you start with a shortlist of the companies that look most like companies that sold.
How It Works
Built on the data openthebox has always been strong in
We started with a simple question: what did Belgian companies look like in their data before they were sold?
Our team trained a machine learning model on companies that sold and compared them with the rest. The model looks at information such as paid-in capital, reserves, turnover and shareholder structure, and learns which patterns sold companies had in common. Every scored Belgian company is then measured on how closely it resembles that profile.
Getting it right took a lot of iteration. Size alone can make a company look like a candidate, so the team made sure large companies don't score high simply for being large. The tiers were recalibrated after early versions flagged too many companies as strong matches. And because a number on its own isn't very useful, every score comes with the signals behind it, so you can judge for yourself whether a company deserves a closer look.
Before launch, the feature was tested with customers, which shaped both the wording and where it sits on the profile.
How Professionals Use It
One signal, put to work across advisory roles
Private bankers and wealth managers. A company sale can change an owner's wealth overnight. Readiness to Sell helps you spot which business owners in your region or sector share the signals of companies that sold, so you can start building the relationship early.
Business and corporate bankers. Look at the companies in your portfolio and see which ones are showing signals typical of a sale. Be the first call when things start moving, not the last to hear about it.
Accountants and succession advisors. Succession advice lands best when it isn't a last-minute conversation. Readiness to Sell helps you see which clients and prospects show the signals, so you can bring up exit and succession planning at the right moment.
Family offices, estate and tax advisors, business lawyers. Wealth, tax and estate questions peak around a company sale. Use Readiness to Sell to find the owners who are most likely to need that advice next.
In every case, the workflow is the same: filter on Readiness to Sell tier in Advanced Search, open the companies that stand out, and read the signals behind each score before you reach out.
What It Is, and What It Isn't
Readiness to Sell is a research signal. It tells you which companies look most like companies that were sold, based on our data, so you can decide where to spend your time.
It isn't a prediction that a company will be sold, and it says nothing about what an owner intends. A company can show every signal and never sell. That's exactly why the signals behind each score are visible: the score points you in the right direction, and your own judgement and relationships do the rest.
A note on scope: Readiness to Sell currently covers Belgian companies only.
Start With the Companies That Matter
You already know openthebox for its depth of Belgian company data. Readiness to Sell adds a way to decide where to begin: fewer hours on companies that show none of the signals, and more time on the conversations that count. We'll keep refining it based on how customers use it.
Readiness to Sell is available as an add-on and in our higher packages.
Want to see how it works on the companies you follow? Book a 20 minute demo and we'll walk you through it.
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