Sold well. Once.
From mandate to money in the bank — run like the $100m sales are.
One buyer is a price. A market is a value.
Holding an offer? It joins the process on the same deadline as everyone else — it never sets the price alone. Holding nothing? Then nobody has been asked yet.
The shape of a completed process: the whole market asked, one clock, one winner.
Too big for a broker. Too small for the big firms.
Below $5m, businesses are listed. Above $20m, they are properly run to market. In between sits the band this practice is built for.
Built below $5m. A listing, an appraisal, and whoever calls.
The work is identical to a $50m deal — and almost nobody is set up to do it at this size.
Built for $20m and above. Below it, yours is the smallest file in the building.
Six stages. One clock.
Every stage overlaps the next, because the work does. Nothing waits for a hand-off. The timetable here is indicative — yours is set in the mandate.
- 00 · Sale readinessOnly if needed · before the clock starts — bookkeeping in order · accounts cleaned · the story researched
- 01 · PrepareValue range · story · diligence file
- 02 · ResearchBuyer long list, scored — you approve it
- 03 · Go to marketAnonymous first · timed together
- 04 · Screen & gateAccess earned · offers on one deadline
- 05 · NegotiateParallel offers · real deadlines
- 06 · CloseDiligence from the prepared file
Stage 00 is the honest one. Some businesses should not go to market yet. If the books are messy or the story is unproven, we fix that first because going out early is how value gets left on the table. We only start when the machine is right.
Deals rarely die of price. They die of drift.
What separates a good process from a bad one is not effort. It is what was built before anyone was called.
Run loosely
- The business is listed — and everyone waits to see who calls
- Buyers drift; weeks between touches, interest cools
- Diligence surprises surface late and cut the price
- One buyer, no tension — take it or leave it
- Answers differ between buyers; credibility bleeds
Run on the machine
- Every buyer researched, with a thesis for why they should own it
- Every follow-up scheduled — one clock, held
- Diligence prepared before launch; nothing left to find
- Parallel offers against real deadlines — real tension
- One Q&A register: asked once, answered once
Same business. Millions apart.
A worked example: one company, one day, the same EBITDA. Nothing about the business changes. What changes is the process it is sold through.
One buyer, no process. The story asserted, not proven — so every risk they find is priced at their number, not yours.
Clean numbers, add-backs defended, growth sourced with receipts, risks named first — nothing left for a buyer to discover and discount.
A thesis for why each buyer specifically, offers on one deadline. The multiple is not asked for — it is forced by the alternative bidder.
Sourced, with receipts — not a hockey stick
A risk I name is priced; a risk they find is punished
Why they should own it, in their language
More than one bidder, one deadline
Illustrative worked example. The gap is not a forecast — it is what evidence and a contested room add to the same EBITDA.
Six kinds of buyer. Six different reasons to pay.
A broker lists your business and waits. I map every party with a reason to own it, and approach them directly.
The direct competitor
Ends a five-year fight in one transaction.
The adjacent platform
Same customers, different product. Your revenue bolts on.
The strategic in your vertical
Buys five years of head start rather than grinding it out.
The international beachhead
Runs your model overseas and needs an Australian entry.
Private equity
Rarely wins — but makes everyone else bid properly.
The approach you already have
Comes inside the tent, on the same deadline as everyone else.
Controlled access, at every stage.
Four gates. Each one says exactly what a buyer receives — and exactly what they must have done to earn it.
The blind teaser
One anonymous page, sent before anything is signed — enough for a buyer to price their interest. Nothing that identifies you; nothing a competitor could act on.
Your name, and the numbers
Identity is revealed only now. The Information Memorandum and financials follow — watermarked per viewer, tracked page by page, so I know who is really bidding before they say a word.
Contracts & people
Client names and key terms — only for the two or three who have proven, with a written number, that they are real.
The sensitive core
The most commercially sensitive material, opened only for the final contenders whose offers justify it. Diligence is answered from the file built at the start — and price and terms are finalised under real competition. Exclusivity comes last: given once, only for a number worth protecting.
Paid to beat your threshold.
A threshold is agreed in writing before anything is signed. The fee is built around beating it.
What the business is worth, and the gaps a buyer would find — closed first. No fee, no mandate. If the number is not there, I tell you in writing, and you keep the work.
Every dollar comes back out of the success fee at completion. From month three you can leave on 30 days’ notice — the total is capped by your decision.
A minimum applies up to the threshold. The real money is made only on the value the process finds above it.
The science removes error. The art moves the price.
The science
The financial model a buyer’s analyst can open and audit. The Information Memorandum. The buyer research. The staged data room, the version control, the one Q&A register so no two buyers ever get different answers. All of it can be systemised — and all of it must be flawless, because a weakness found late is repriced at the buyer’s number.
The art
Knowing what a buyer is actually solving for, and building the case in their language. The approach call. Reading the room and the silences. Holding tension between bidders without breaking rapport — and steering to the outcome you want, not the one they opened with. This part cannot be systemised. It is a person, in the room, for months.
Most advisers improvise both. I industrialise the science — so all the judgement goes into the art.
No “contact us for pricing”.
You should be able to work out roughly what this costs before you ever speak to me.
The preparation phase carries no fee and no mandate. If the number is not there, I tell you in writing and you keep the work.
Nothing. You get the opinion of value and the gaps a buyer would find, at no cost.
A monthly work fee, credited back in full out of the success fee at completion. From month three you can leave on thirty days’ notice.
A success fee. A minimum applies up to a threshold agreed in writing, and the material money is only on value found above it.
Agreed in writing before the process starts, including what happens if a buyer meets your price and you decide not to proceed.
The questions I actually get asked.
What does it cost to find out what my business is worth?
How long does a sale take?
What size business do you work with?
Will my staff and customers find out?
Get an opinion of value.
What it is worth today, what a buyer would find, and whether now is the time. In writing, before anything is signed.
No pitch, no obligation · about thirty minutes · phone, video or coffee