acquisitionThe company I work for sells drug testing equipment, and we’re in direct competition with another company that also sells the equipment, as well as provides training on how to use them (for a charge), and writes the policy for corporates around drug and alcohol testing.
Recently we entered into talks with the competitor to buy the section of their business that sells the equipment, leaving them free to concentrate on training and policy-writing.
Now the (partial) acquisition is going ahead, and we need to send out a letter to the competitor’s customers letting them know that from now on, they’ll be ordering from us. The letter will be sent from the competitor, and we’re working together on writing it.
We’ve received a draft letter from the competitor, for our feedback:
Dear [customer name]
I am writing to you as a loyal supporting customer and a proficient user of [equipment brand]. Some of you reading this will have had a business association with me for a decade. Others may be more recent, but for however long our association has been, I would like it to continue.
However, over the last twelve months or so, I have been looking for ways that you can perhaps be better served and that I can be left to concentrate on my core strength of providing professional scientific and legally robust advice and training to collectors such as yourself and corporates on their Drug & Alcohol Policy.
[competitor’s business name] has had lengthy negotiations with [our business name]. The outcome is that we have agreed to enter into a cooperative arrangement, which, whilst retaining our own corporate entities and identities, is fundamentally a merger of interests. [Our business] is the pre-eminent distributor of drug and alcohol screening products in [country] and will be taking transfer of [competitor’s business’] distributorship with [supplier] (the importer of [equipment brand] and associated drug screening product).
We believe that the combined purchasing power of [our business] and [competitor’s business] could well lead to economies that will better control the end cost of product to you. Similarly, when new product comes available, through developments, there may be a wider suite of product to choose from. Please do not feel that [competitor’s business] is abandoning you as this is not the case. We remain in place to render advice on technical, scientific or procedural advice. The only thing changing from a practical standpoint is the product ordering regime.
We continue to promote [equipment brand] as the best professional product currently available for the collection and screening of urine for the purposes of drug detection.
With [competitor’s business’] sole distributorship through [supplier] transferring to [our business] we acknowledge that (as currently) you have a choice with whom you deal, but we sincerely believe that the combined strength, depth of knowledge and sheer economies of scale from both companies working in this collaborative partnership will serve you better than before.
Accompanying this email as an attachment is instructions on future ordering from [date of the acquisition].
As stated earlier, we remain available as an advisory and promoter of your endeavours in the drug screening arena. We will continue to promote your business as part of our network of qualified collectors.
It remains for me to collectively thank you for the business we have enjoyed together and hopefully over the next few months I will have the opportunity of thanking each of you individually for the support you have rendered.
Sincerely, [competitor’s business owner]
I feel that this letter is slightly too focused on the negative (“please do not feel that [competitor’s business] is abandoning you”).
How can this be improved? Is there any generic advice for writing acquisition letters to customers?
Are there any general guidelines around:
(I have read an article about it before, but my Google skills seem to have failed me this time. I’d appreciate it if anyone could point it out, or something similar.)
There were no answers to this question.
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