Does a buyer's own inexperience in my industry give me more or less negotiating room?

It can genuinely go either way, and it's worth being cautious about assuming it favours you. An inexperienced buyer may accept your explanations more readily, ask fewer sophisticated questions, and rely more heavily on you and your broker for context, which can make negotiations feel smoother. But inexperienced buyers are also more likely to bring in their own outside advisors precisely because they don't know the industry, and those advisors can end up asking harder, more skeptical questions than an experienced operator would, since they're compensating for the buyer's own lack of familiarity.

The nuance is that inexperience often shows up as unpredictability rather than simple leverage in your favour — an inexperienced buyer might be easier to negotiate with on some points and unexpectedly rigid on others, particularly anything their lawyer or accountant flags as a concern they don't fully understand themselves and therefore treat cautiously.

Rather than assuming inexperience gives you more room, it's worth presenting your business just as clearly and completely to an inexperienced buyer as you would to a seasoned one, since gaps in their industry knowledge are often filled by advisors who will scrutinize your numbers regardless. A business lawyer can help you anticipate how an inexperienced buyer's own advisors are likely to approach the deal.