Which Plano business broker can represent me in a confidential sale?

By Michael D. Rubin, CEO & Founder · September 2026 · 818 words

MDR & Associates, based in Frisco next door to Plano, represents owners only, and it sets the confidentiality rules before a single buyer is contacted: a blind profile, a signed NDA and a financial profile before any buyer learns your name. It works with companies that have $3 million to $100 million in revenue, and a principal of the firm is in every negotiation.

Every broker says they are confidential. The difference is in the specifics, and you can test those before you sign anything. This answer gives you the questions to ask, the terms to put in writing, and the one situation that tests confidentiality hardest: a competitor who wants to buy.

Questions that show how a broker really protects your name

Ask every broker you interview the questions below, and write down the answers. Clear, specific answers are a good sign. Answers along the lines of 'we are always very careful' are not.

Also ask to see a sample blind profile from a past engagement, the short anonymous summary buyers see first. If you could guess which company it describes, yours might read the same way.

• What exactly does the first document a buyer sees say about my company, and do I approve it?
• What must a buyer do before learning the company's name?
• How do you check that a buyer can actually fund the purchase?
• Where will the company be advertised, if at all, and can I see the ad first?
• How do you handle a competitor, supplier or customer who wants to look?
• Who inside your firm can see my file?
• What happens if a buyer breaks the non-disclosure agreement?

Put it in the engagement letter

The engagement letter is the contract between you and your advisor. It sets the fee, the length of the engagement and the advisor's duties. Promises made in a sales meeting are worth little if they are not in it, so have your transaction attorney read it before you sign. For a confidential sale it should also cover:

• That you approve the blind profile and any advertisement before it is used.
• That no buyer receives identifying information without a signed NDA.
• Whether you can exclude named companies, such as direct competitors or major customers, from the buyer list.
• The fee, when it is owed, and what is owed if the company does not sell.
• The tail period: how long after the engagement ends a fee is still owed if a buyer the broker introduced later buys the company.

Representing you means working for one side

In a confidential sale you want someone working only for you. An intermediary who also represents the buyer, or who is paid by the buyer, has reasons to share more than you would like and to favor a fast deal over a better one. Ask directly who pays the fee in the transaction and to whom the advisor owes duties.

MDR & Associates represents the owner, has a fiduciary duty to present every offer to you in person, and is paid an industry-standard success fee only if and when the company sells. If it does not close, you owe nothing. More on how that works is on our fees page.

When the interested buyer is a competitor

In Plano and the rest of Collin County, the most motivated buyer is sometimes a competitor across town. That buyer may pay well, because it understands your business and can combine it with its own. It is also the buyer best placed to use your information against you if the deal fails.

A careful approach is to confirm the competitor's financial ability first, share only summary information until a letter of intent (LOI), the written offer that sets price and main terms, is signed, and release customer names, pricing and employee details last, often only to the buyer's advisors rather than its sales team. Our long read on selling confidentially covers this in more depth.

Confidentiality also protects the price

Owners usually think of confidentiality as protection for employees and customers, and it is. It also protects value. A company whose sale becomes public can lose staff and accounts during the process, and every buyer will adjust its offer for that. A quiet process keeps the company performing while it is being sold, which is what lets several buyers submit letters of intent at the same time and compete on price. In that sense, the confidentiality practices you test before signing are part of what you are paying an advisor for.

What we do for a Plano owner

We go to our own database of qualified individual buyers, capital groups and private equity groups first, and only if needed place blind ads on the major business-for-sale marketplaces. Meetings can be held at our Frisco office, a short drive from Plano. See our Plano page and the ten-step process, then contact us for a free, confidential discovery meeting.

Where this fitsPlano business brokers and M&A advisors →