Leveraging a Team Approach for a Successful Business Transaction

Building a successful business requires a team approach. Navigating a sale is no different. While the process of a sale can seem daunting — possibly even more challenging than running the business itself — a strong team can make your M&A transaction feel easier and ultimately more effective.

At Symmetrical, we’ve acted as trusted consultants to business owners during sales and know how to work as key members of a team to achieve the best possible deal. As members of sales teams ourselves, here’s what we’ve learned about why leveraging a team can help make for a successful deal.

The Many Moving Pieces of M&A

There’s a lot that goes into the sale of a business behind the scenes: tax expertise, financial analysis, strategic planning, legal reviews, and more. That’s a lot for any one person to handle. In fact, by assembling a team with diverse skill sets, you can put yourself at an advantage by matching your team’s skills with the task at hand.

In our experience, there are a few key team members involved in any deal:

The Benefits of a Team Approach

Selling your business is a major decision, and it’s important to be prepared. By assembling a team with financial, legal, tax, and strategic expertise, you’ll be able to run your negotiations more quickly and efficiently, producing a better deal overall.

You may also consider tapping existing employees to become part of your M&A advisory team. This can help generate employee buy-in to the deal, which is extremely helpful for company morale. Not only that, but your existing employees have greater familiarity with your business than outside advisors and can offer a key source of inside knowledge into the workings of the business and its strengths.

Finally, the team you assemble ultimately reflects on you as the seller. When the seller crafts a strong team, the buyer receives a kind of positive reinforcement that the transaction they’re pursuing is a smart and strategic choice . The best acquisitions are the ones with a seamless corporate fit — and your M&A team offers the first indication of your two sides working together.

We’re a Part of Your Team

We take a team approach to M&A. We don’t arrive on day one and start issuing orders about your business; we seek to integrate into your existing team, offering our insight along the way as we guide you through the sale process. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business through a sale.

A business acquisition might not seem like much more than a mathematical equation. Perform a cash flow analysis, review comparable businesses, project future earnings — eventually, you wind up with the magical number that is a business’ value.

While these numbers are certainly important, they don’t tell the full story. Whether it’s brand recognition, employee treatment, or company legacy, there is a whole range of elements that not only contribute to a business’s success but add additional value. At Symmetrical, we help business owners understand their true business value beyond the dollars and cents, helping them get the best deal possible. Here are a few key factors that contribute to a business’s true value.

Employee Treatment

How employees respond to a merger or sale is one of the most important indicators of a deal’s long-term success. That’s part of the reason why a strong cultural fit between a buyer and seller is so important: If employees can tell that a buyer shares their culture, their transition will be easier, and they’ll be more likely to start contributing right away.

The upshot is that positive employee treatment can be a major asset in a deal. Employees who feel like their company invests in them, listens to them, and keeps them informed about corporate developments will be much more likely to buy into a potential sale and will trust that the company is keeping their best interest in mind. Buyers know that this kind of corporate culture is not easy to build — and it can add considerable value to a deal.

Legacy

Legacy can be a tough thing to quantify. Like brand recognition, it can only be built slowly over time. The reason a company’s corporate legacy can add value to a transaction goes beyond mere reputation. Why? All of the factors that contribute to legacy — client relationships, customer satisfaction, and employee dedication — directly impact the business in a positive way. Emphasizing your business’ reputation and legacy of great service is another way to add value to a deal beyond the raw figures.

Exit Terms

The terms of the deal itself can also affect its final value. This is where understanding the buyer’s needs along with your own in the course of negotiation becomes critical. The ideal exit terms might be completely different from one buyer to the next: One buyer might be eager to keep the seller involved during the transition period to help achieve better continuity, while another buyer might want a clean state once the deal is closed. If you can align your own goals with those of the buyer, this represents an opportunity to add value to a deal.

Exit terms can add value to a deal through a mechanism like an earnout. In this case, a buyer and seller negotiate additional cash payments in the event that certain performance metrics are met. This could be beneficial to a seller confident in the future path of the business and willing to bet on its long-term success. 

Whatever shape a final deal takes, it’s essential to remember all of the elements beyond the numbers that contribute to a business’s valuation. By emphasizing durable characteristics like legacy and employee satisfaction, sellers can help achieve for themselves the best possible deal. Our team has a deep understanding of what really defines business value, and we can help your business reach its true worth in a deal. Get in touch with us today to learn more about exploring the sale process.

Selling your business is a major decision, and once you’re ready to take the plunge, it can be tempting to dive into a deal as fast as possible. But timing is everything in M&A. Maximizing your business’ value has as much to do with when you sell as it does your corporate fundamentals. The Symmetrical team works with business owners to strike when the timing is right — and to achieve the best deal for our clients. Here are a few things we look for when considering the best timing for a transaction.

Understanding Economic Cycles

Markets are frequently fluctuating, and as you would expect, better deals come in times of economic growth. In growth cycles, companies are buoyed by rising valuations and often compete to expand and shore up market share. Their access to capital improves, enabling them to explore deals. These are great times to be a seller.

The challenge is that it’s difficult to know how long these times will last — and they also vary by sector. One sector of the economy might be poised for growth while another is preparing for turbulent times and cutting costs. As a seller, it’s important to keep an eye on micro and macroeconomic trends simultaneously. The sellers that have success in M&A are the ones that are predictive rather than reactive — so that when companies are able to expand, you’re ready to seize the opportunity.

Choosing a Moment of Peak Value

Just as it’s important to think about when a buyer’s economic fortunes are at their best, it’s also critical to begin a sale of your business only when your own business is at peak value. But how can you identify peak value?

It starts with economic performance. A time of declining revenue typically isn’t the moment to explore a sale. However, while your business’ past performance and present fundamentals will help attract suitors, what will ultimately close a deal is convincing a buyer that your firm’s future performance holds even more promise. In other words, achieving your business’ peak value is largely about framing how your business will enable a buyer to thrive in new ways. Not only will this separate your firm from other potential targets, but it will also help you achieve the best deal.

Weighing the Regulatory Environment

As a seller, it’s important to understand the buyer’s regulatory environment. Regulation and government legislation can have a major impact on economic performance, and as a seller, you should be aware of these factors when exploring a sale. Just like with economic cycles, think about the future here more than the present. Under the incoming Republican administration, for example, we would expect a favorable M&A regulatory environment over the next few years.

Achieving the Right Timing for Both Sides

Ultimately, an M&A deal can only reach peak value when the timing is right for both sides: the buyer and the seller. By thinking proactively and analyzing market and regulatory trends, it’s possible to have a better sense of when buyers will be looking to make a deal.

Our team can help you analyze the market so that when the moment is right for you and a buyer, you’re prepared to make a deal and maximize the value you’ve worked so hard to build. Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help set the stage for success.

A brave new world is upon us in the M&A field. Artificial intelligence is already starting to change the way firms conduct transactions. While AI can be a boost to companies looking to sell, it also requires knowledge to harness the power of this technology. The Symmetrical team is constantly evaluating changes to the M&A field. Here’s how we anticipate AI will transform the M&A landscape.

Identifying Targets

Finding the right target for an acquisition — or from the seller’s side, the right buyer — is ultimately the most important part of an M&A deal. No amount of good work on a deal can overcome a bad match between two companies.

One of AI’s great strengths is its ability to churn through large amounts of data. Previously, the work of finding potential targets for a deal required tracking down piles of data on companies — and then sifting through them. Artificial intelligence makes this work considerably easier. Not only can AI analyze data rapidly, but it may be able to propose targets that wouldn’t have otherwise been on a company’s radar. For a business looking to sell, AI can also provide insight into what types of buyers are likely to be the best fit and most interested in a deal.

Changing Due Diligence

Due diligence in M&A has already been disrupted once. The advent of virtual data rooms (VDRs) completely changed the way an M&A deal takes place, providing a secure, virtual place for representatives on both sides to review company fundamentals.

AI has the potential to add even more efficiency to this process. For instance, AI could be able to automatically organize documents that have been uploaded to the VDR, streamlining analysis by team members.

AI technology could also offer summaries of documents, providing high-level takeaways and acting as a first line of defense, suggesting key areas for team members to review themselves. (It’s important to remember, however, that AI can make mistakes, which is why a human review remains essential.)

Determining Company Valuations

When it comes time to determine company valuation, there’s a role for AI to play as well. Not only can artificial intelligence assist with the internal calculations that produce a company valuation, but it can also scan the reams of publicly available data on similar transactions to get a better sense of your company’s market value. This can ensure that if you decide to sell, you maximize your company’s value.

Where People Meet Technology

There’s a common misconception that AI will replace humans. At least when it comes to M&A, that’s not the case. Or at least it shouldn’t be the case. The power of AI isn’t that it does a deal for you — from finding the target to performing the due diligence to closing — but that it streamlines the process, and maybe even generates new ideas that you wouldn’t have otherwise considered.

The way we see it, AI becomes most impactful when it’s deployed strategically by professionals. Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we’re using new technology to help business owners get the best possible deal when it comes time to sell.

Now that we know the result of the 2024 election, we can start to look ahead to what the economy might look like next year and beyond. While a Kamala Harris presidency would have likely meant higher business taxes, most observers believe a Trump presidency will extend the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which may jumpstart an M&A sector that has at times been somewhat stagnant. Here’s a brief look at what’s driving the current M&A environment.

Current Trends in M&A

The current M&A market is one of mixed signals. A recent report from Ernst & Young does a good job of capturing the state of affairs:

– Recent deal frequency is stagnant, while value is down. In October 2024, there were 108 deals, for a total value of $96 billion; by comparison, October 2023 saw 109 transactions for a total value of $260 billion.

– Overall year-to-date deal value has increased, reaching $1.32 trillion, a five percent increase from 2023.

While the October M&A market wasn’t necessarily booming, there have still been some pockets of M&A activity. Mergers of RIAs in the financial sector broke the record for monthly transactions in October, for instance, with 39 total deals, up from the prior record of 33 in January 2021

Lower Interest Rates May Help Middle-Market M&A

What to make of these trends? It’s important to recognize that we’re in a transitional phase, as one presidential administration ends and another begins. That may be one reason why recent overall deal volume hasn’t been on the rise; firms could be waiting to have a better sense of the economic outlook and direction of the country before completing a transaction. Every four years, it seems both buyers and sellers tend to pause and wait for the election outcome. This cycle has been no different, and we’re already seeing a rise in inquiries from both sides expressing interest in potential transactions.

When it comes to middle-market M&A, we expect a strong market going forward. One major source of that strength is an anticipated decline in interest rates.  Lower borrowing costs for buyers mean we may see more deals with a straightforward cash structure, lowering negotiation timelines.

Changes to Government Regulation

The incoming Trump administration will likely prompt a burst of M&A activity for a couple of reasons. If tax cuts are extended, businesses may feel the economic environment is advantageous and pursue transactions accordingly. Additionally, the Trump transition team has made it clear they intend to pare back anti-trust regulations. Concerns over anti-trust regulation can often have a major chilling effect on deals; a shift in government policy might make firms more bullish on M&A. 

One area that could constrainfuture M&A is tariff policy. Trump has spoken about imposing 60 percent tariffs on China and an across-the-board 20 percent tariff on all other goods imported to the United States. Some economists believe this could revive an inflationary spiral, which would likely put a damper on M&A activity.

Our View at Symmetrical

While the M&A market will always have its ebbs and flows, the combination of an incoming administration favoring lower business taxes and the decline in interest rates would suggest a favorable landscape for middle-market M&A. Our team at Symmetrical can help you consider the pros and cons of selling your business, and if you do decide to sell, we’ll be at your side through the entire process. Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help.

They say not to judge a book by its cover. Well, when it comes to M&A, the truth is that buyers often make snap judgments based on a business’ executive summary.

Why is an executive summary essential for finding the right buyer, and what goes into crafting an effective one? At Symmetrical, our team works with sellers to create strong executive summaries for businesses in a wide range of sectors. Read on to find out more about what goes into an executive summary and how this can lay the groundwork for the successful sale of your business.

Why an Executive Summary Matters

Think of an executive summary like a cover letter in a job application, or the pilot episode of a TV series: This represents your first impression, and the goal here is to grab a buyer’s attention and get them wanting more.

This is important for a number of reasons. First, buyers looking to make a strategic acquisition usually consider a number of different companies. A strong executive summary can help your business stand out among the fray.

Even more importantly, an executive summary is a way for a seller to capture the attention of buyers, which will most likely lead to a successful deal. One of the key elements of any good M&A transaction is the connection between the buyer and seller. The executive summary is the first test of this connection and can be designed to appeal to buyers that will fit well with your existing business.

Four Key Questions: Who, What, Why, and How?

Any good executive summary should answer four key questions: Who, What, Why, and How?

What is your business?’

Who are you as a business? (This can be both a philosophical question about your company values and a practical one about your employees and leadership)

Why are you going to market now?

How will you benefit the buyer?

Keep in mind it’s not enough to just answer these questions. It’s how you answer them. Attention spans are short, and you should strive to make your executive summary a compelling read. Brevity is your friend. This isn’t the place to dwell on the nuances of your corporate history. Those details can come later.

Think From the Buyer’s Perspective

What is a buyer trying to accomplish?

Most of all: adding value. This is why any executive statement should contain a value statement — a section that explains your company’s place in the market, its strategic importance, and what it can offer to a buyer. This value statement is arguably the most important component of the entire executive statement and typically appears at the top of the document.

Interested in Taking the Next Step?

At Symmetrical, we understand that the best deals are the ones with a seamless match between seller and buyer. And an executive summary represents the first step toward attracting the right buyer. Our team will work with you to learn your business, and then design an executive summary that achieves your goals. To learn more about how we can help kickstart the M&A process, get in touch with us today.

The decision to sell your business isn’t just a transaction; it’s also a complicated legal equation. From navigating NDAs to performing due diligence to determining the structure of a deal, a solid legal strategy is the foundation upon which a successful M&A transaction rests. At Symmetrical, we know how to help business owners navigate the legal terrain of M&A. Here are a few key legal considerations to consider when advancing toward a sale.

Non-Disclosure Agreements

Negotiating a sale with a buyer is always delicate. The risk of leaks can jeopardize the entire process, and sometimes a deal simply doesn’t make it over the finish line. An NDA can help provide peace of mind during a negotiation, ensuring that your business’ financials and intellectual property won’t spread beyond the confines of the deal room. This is an essential component of any merger and one we highly recommend.

Due Diligence

Due diligence might sound more like a financial consideration than a legal one. However, customer contracts, leases, employment agreements, and other agreements may contain provisions that are triggered by certain transactions, making a thorough legal analysis essential for many deals. In addition, depending on your type of business, it may be wise to look at your intellectual property and patents to determine how they fit into an M&A deal.

Deal Structure

The structure of a deal is one of the most important parts of any negotiation. As with due diligence, it’s also something of an underrated legal calculation. Many sales, for instance, will have complex tax implications and/or require shareholder approvals, both of which are legal questions that ought to be accounted for during the negotiation. Other legal frameworks that may be part of a transaction include representations and warranties (a way of ensuring that the information shared by both parties of the deal is accurate) and non-competes (a clause that’s frequently requested by buyers who are looking to ensure the seller doesn’t go and start a competitor).

The Importance of Early Legal Planning

At Symmetrical, we know how difficult it can be to find the right M&A transaction. That’s why it’s essential to think about the legal components of a sale early in the process — so that there are few surprises when it comes time to close the deal. To learn more about how Symmetrical can help you navigate these legal considerations, get in touch with us today. We’ll make sure you leave no stone unturned during your M&A journey.

Any time you make a big purchase, you likely perform some kind of due diligence ahead of time, whether it’s a home inspection or something as simple as checking reviews before making your anniversary dinner reservation. The due diligence process, in other words, is usually thought of as the responsibility of the person making the purchase.

Sellers should also be proactively engaging in due diligence. One way our team at Symmetrical helps sellers accomplish this is by helping prepare their financial records, which can be a powerful way to attract potential buyers. Here’s what you need to know about the seller-side due diligence process.

Why Due Diligence?

Buyers looking to acquire another business inevitably perform due diligence, but proactively jumpstarting the process as a seller offers multiple advantages.

For one thing, it can show prospective buyers that your business is taking the process seriously and is invested in getting a deal done. By doing a thorough look under the hood of your business, you’ll be better equipped to answer any questions a buyer might have and to propose solutions to any potential problems a buyer might want addressed. In addition, you’ll gain a better sense of your company’s growth potential and competitive advantages, which will be a big help at the negotiating table.

What Due Diligence Entails for Sellers

One way to think of due diligence from the seller’s side is to gain an understanding of your company’s value. The main way to accomplish this is through a Quality of Earnings analysis. This analysis can include a range of metrics but typically focuses on EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. In some cases, we find that sellers actually underestimate their company’s value, and it’s only until the Quality of Earnings analysis that sellers realize the proper valuation of their company.

Other Types of Due Diligence

While an internal financial analysis is the most common type of due diligence for sellers, it’s far from the only kind of due diligence you can perform in advance of a sale. Sellers can also compile reports on the legal implications of a sale or produce analyses of the market and synergies that would be gained through a sale. These reports can be useful to you as a seller by giving you a better understanding of the value of your business in ways that aren’t necessarily captured by the bottom line.

At Symmetrical, we’ve seen firsthand how sellers who perform due diligence in advance of a sale often end up with the best deals. In M&A, trust and transparency are essential, so an engaged seller who begins the due diligence process in advance is often considered a major asset among buyers. Get in touch with us today to see how we can jumpstart your due diligence process and make the sale of your business a success.  

Deciding to sell your business is one of the hardest decisions you’ll ever make. The second hardest might be picking the right M&A firm to help you through the process.

How do you differentiate between the various M&A firms and their promises? What questions should you be asking of firms? How do you ensure the right fit?

At Symmetrical, we’ve been on the receiving end of these questions more than a few times, and we have a pretty good sense of what businesses are looking for when they’re about to embark on a transaction. Read on to hear our perspective on how to find the best M&A firm for your business.

Consider Industry Experience

Mergers and acquisitions are all about relationships. The relationship between the buyer and seller is critically important, but don’t forget to consider the relationships your M&A firm has as well. An M&A firm that works with specific industries or specific kinds of businesses will not only have valuable experience in handling the type of transaction that’s relevant to your business, but they’ll also have considerable knowledge of all the players in the corporate landscape. This can be an extremely valuable asset when it comes time to search for prospective buyers.

Focus on Corporate Philosophy

Just as you’d seek a seller that aligns with your corporate identity, approach your conversations with potential M&A firms with the same key question: Are we a good fit?

Of course, that can be a tough question to answer directly, which is why it’s important to ask as many questions as possible to try to get to know the M&A firms you’re meeting with. How do they find prospective buyers? How do they ensure corporate synergy between the two parties in a deal? How do they handle common pitfalls during a deal? Are they after the first deal or the best deal?

The more questions you ask, the better sense you’ll have of a firm’s corporate philosophy. Just remember: It’s all about fit.

Other Important Questions to Ask

The questions you ask an M&A firm may depend on the specifics of your business, but from our side of things, there are a few general questions we always like being asked:

What strategies do you use to come to an accurate valuation?

What steps do you take to ensure privacy during negotiations?

How many deals do you typically do in a year?

How many team members from your firm can I expect to work with us on the deal?

Are you open to providing referrals?

Now … Any Questions for Us?

At Symmetrical, we believe finding the right corporate fit between buyers and sellers is essential. You should feel the same way when selecting an M&A firm to help you with your transaction. If you can’t already tell, we’re happy to answer any questions you might have about the transaction process. What are you waiting for? Get in touch with us today to start a discussion.

What makes a successful transaction? As the seller, it’s easy to focus most of your time on finding the right buyer — ensuring they share your company’s culture and long-term vision.

In this post, we’d like to shift the perspective a bit and think about what makes a transaction desirable from the buyer’s side. One of the key elements a buyer looks for in a sale is a strong management team.

Why Strong Management Is Important to Buyers

For a buyer, an experienced, proven management team is one of the best traits a company can have. From the buyer’s perspective, strong management is essential for integrating a new company into the existing corporate framework. After all, these are the people who will become leadership figures in the post-transaction landscape, and the buyer needs to have confidence that these managers can be successful working for them.

A company with a strong, dominant CEO and weaker management, on the other hand, is usually not nearly as valuable to a buyer. Once a transaction is complete, that CEO might be out of the picture entirely. No one wants to buy a top-heavy structure with a weak foundation.

An effective management team can even help enhance the company’s sale value as long as the seller understands a good management team for what it is: a valuable asset.

How to Build Strong Management in Your Business

One of the keys to a successful transaction as a business owner is keeping your leadership team involved throughout the process to ensure buy-in. Building a strong management team is no different: It requires engaging your team early on and trusting them to work on your behalf.

It’s important to remember that building a strong management team is a process that takes time. If you haven’t built and invested in your leadership team over the years, when the moment of a sale arrives, it will be too late.

Our team at Symmetrical has helped numerous business owners navigate a sale, and we have a deep understanding of the company assets that appeal to buyers. Whether you’re a business owner thinking about a potential sale years down the line and are looking to build the management team that helps you accomplish that goal, or whether you need guidance on how to integrate your existing management team into a sale, we can help. Get in touch with us today to discuss the specifics of your business and your long-term goals.

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