Do brands matter when selling a restaurant?  We think so, along with the 80,000 buyers in our database.  Learn why brands matter when selling a restaurant.

The ten most valuable brands in the world, according to Forbes, in order, are:

1. Apple
2. Google
3. Microsoft
4. Amazon
5. Facebook
6. Coca-Cola
7. Samsung
8. Disney
9. Toyota
10. McDonald’s

Branding matters.  It becomes such a part of the public consciousness that no one asks for a soda, they ask for a Coke or a Coca Cola.  No one says, "Do you have a facial tissue?"  They say, “Can you hand me a Kleenex?”

According to Inc. Magazine contributor and the President of Uppercase Branding, Mike Pile, “a name is the most powerful and cost-effective communication tool there is.”  He goes on to say that, “No marketing message will be used as widely or as frequently as the brand name.  It is the single most profound form of business communication.”

That takes us to We Sell Restaurants, our brand name.  Our brand is descriptive.  Our brand is successful.  Our brand is part of a marketing engine that allows us to meet our vision to sell more restaurants than anyone else. PERIOD.

The United States Patent and Trademark office agree with us. They granted to We Sell Restaurants, the ONLY authorized use of the term “We Sell Restaurants” for business brokerage in the principal registration of our Service Mark #4,663,265.  Feel free to look it up.   

Does branding matter?  It certainly does.  Virtually every single month, we task our attorneys with sending “cease and desist” letters to other business brokers who want to “piggy-back” on our good name with social media hashtags under We Sell Restaurants, using our name on their home pages, copying our brand colors, our photos, and using it in descriptions of their services.   

Trust us.  We’re flattered.  But our customers are not fooled.  They know there is only one brand selling more restaurants than anyone else.  Here are just a few statistics.

• We Sell Restaurants is the most highly ranked name when searching restaurants for sale.  That means anyone looking to buy a restaurant sees this powerful name first, not that of a “one-man” shop or someone with limited listing counts.
• We Sell Restaurants has a listing inventory or just at $150 Million Dollars. That makes us the largest in the world in terms of listing inventory.
• We Sell Restaurants has over 530 restaurants for sale, dwarfing any other brand in the nation. Those listings are active and available for sale.  We do not “fluff” up our listing count by leaving sold listings in the mix. 
• We Sell More Restaurants than anyone else. PERIOD.  Our sold listings are published on our website (separately from our “available” listings) along with raving testimonials from our clients.   
• We Sell Restaurants services 42 states nationwide.  We are credentialed, licensed and national in reach, unlike other brands.
• We Sell Restaurants has more than 80,000 in buyers in our database and we send 6.4 Million emails per year on our inventory leading to more closed transactions.
• We Sell Restaurants educates our brokers with the longest training program in the industry.  We provide more hands on training, more specialized knowledge and the only testing in the nation to achieve the status of “Certified Restaurant Broker.”  That sets our brokers apart and is also a trademark of our company. 

It is no wonder We Sell more restaurants than anyone else.

Think about that the next time someone offers you their Restaurant Broker “knock off” brand.  Do you want facial tissue or the real deal?  Are you going to have that unbranded, “cheaper” quality or do you want the premium brand that delivers results?

Listen.  We’re flattered that there are plenty of people trying to imitate our success. Just make sure you know what you’re buying before choosing a fake or watered down attempt to sell restaurants. There’s a reason brand names have higher market equity.

Robin Gagnon, Certified Restaurant Broker®, MBA, CBI, CFE is the co-founder of We Sell Restaurants and industry expert in restaurant sales and valuation. Named by Nation’s Restaurant News as one of the “Most Influential Suppliers and Vendors” to the restaurant industry, her articles and expertise appear nationwide in QSR Magazine, Franchising World, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, and BizBuySell. She is the co-author of Appetite for Acquisition, an award-winning book on buying restaurants.