Buying a Business: Get to know the Seller first.

To get a sale done, the business broker needs to almost be invisible.  The relationship between the seller and the buyer needs to become a relationship of trust.  They say that for a sale to go through there has to be 6 contacts/discussions/meetings that occur between these two individuals.  Without that, something just isn't there.

So if you are buying, and you want to buy a specific business, you need to make those contacts.  They may be a call, or a lunch.  There is a degree of courting that needs to be here.  A good business broker will realize this and if you don't know better, you may feel like the business broker is trying to get you two to go on a date. 

Selling a company is personal.  Particularly if it's something that the seller built themselves.  It is a part of the seller.  And even though circumstances have in one way or another pushed them to this step of selling they still will likely have an emotional attachment to the company and consequently will have to trust you one way or another. 

Rushing through a purchase is never a good idea from almost any point of view, let the seller know your intentions, talk open and frankly with them, then once that is established, you can start negotiating like your life depends on it.  But if the seller doesn't have some degree of interest in you specifically at the point of negotiation (ask any business broker or business brokers) ; you'll have a hard time.