If you look over the shoulder in this video there is a lifeguard tower at Haleiwa Alii Beach Park on the North Shore of Oahu. The lifeguards on the North Shore are some of the best on the planet — and there is a reason for it. They grew up on the beach. They know where the reefs are. They have watched the water for hours and decades on end. They know where the danger zones are. That is exactly what a great M&A advisor does. Learn the full framework in Exit Ratio 360™ and at Exit Ratio 360™ — the 360-point evaluation system.
Do I need an M&A advisor to sell my business?
Yes — and here is the honest reason why. Your management team tells you what you want to hear because they want to keep their job. Your business partners have skin in the game and their own perspective. A great M&A advisor is the one person in the room whose job is to tell you exactly what needs to be in place — quality of earnings, clean financials, decision bands, standard operating procedures, org charts, recurring revenue, client concentration below 20 percent — and give you a realistic timeline to get there.
Do I need an M&A advisor to sell my business?
Yes. Your management team tells you what you want to hear because they want to keep their job. A great M&A advisor tells you what you need to hear — exactly what needs to be in place before you go to market — quality of earnings, clean financials, decision bands, SOPs, org charts, recurring revenue, client concentration below 20 percent — and gives you a realistic timeline to get there.
What is the difference between an A plus deal and a C deal when selling a business?
If your industry is trading at seven to ten times EBITDA, the deal grade you earn determines where in that range you land and whether you can break above it. An A plus deal — built with a Titan Thesis and five to two years of documented operational excellence — can get you eleven to sixteen times EBITDA. An A deal gets you a ten. A B deal gets you a seven. A C deal gets you a six. A D deal — standing for do not do it — gets you half of whatever the market is trading at.
What is the difference between an A plus deal and a C deal when selling a business?
If your industry is trading at seven to ten times EBITDA, an A plus deal with a Titan Thesis can get you eleven to sixteen times EBITDA. An A deal gets you a ten. A B deal gets you a seven. A C deal gets you a six. A D deal gets you half of whatever the market is trading at.
What does the lifeguard analogy mean for M&A advisors?
The lifeguards at Haleiwa Alii Beach Park on the North Shore of Oahu are some of the best in the world because they grew up in the water. They know the reefs, the currents, the danger zones — not from a manual but from decades of direct experience. They come out before the beach opens and assess the conditions. When conditions are bad they put up a warning sign. A great M&A advisor does the same — assesses where your business stands before you ever engage a buyer, and tells you — sometimes hard — what needs to change before you are ready to go to market.
What does the lifeguard analogy mean for M&A advisors?
The lifeguards at Haleiwa Alii Beach Park on the North Shore of Oahu are among the best in the world because they grew up in the water and know the conditions from decades of experience. A great M&A advisor does the same — assesses deal conditions before you engage a buyer, tells you when you are not ready, and gives you the green flag when everything is in place to get the maximum multiple.
What happens when you go to market without an M&A advisor?
You go in without a lifeguard. You walk into a deal without knowing where the reefs are, where the current is, where the danger zones are. The buyer’s team has done this dozens of times. You have done it once. Every gap they find — financials not clean, owner dependency visible, no SOPs, no recurring revenue, customer concentration too high — is a pricing tool they use against you. They reduce the multiple, increase the hold back, extend the transition requirements, and restructure the earn out until the deal looks very different from the headline number that brought you to the table.
What happens when you go to market without an M&A advisor?
You go in without a lifeguard. The buyer’s team has done this dozens of times. You have done it once. Every gap they find is a pricing tool they use against you — lower multiple, larger hold back, extended transition, restructured earn out.
How does the Titan Thesis help you get a maximum multiple?
The Titan Thesis is the pre-built proof document that assembles everything a buyer would ask for before they ask for it — financials, quality of earnings, management depth, operational systems, customer data, decision bands, recurring revenue documentation, and the full story of how the business operates without the founder. When you walk into a deal with a Titan Thesis the due diligence process becomes offensive rather than defensive.
How does the Titan Thesis help you get a maximum multiple?
The Titan Thesis is a pre-built proof document that assembles everything a buyer would ask for before they ask for it — financials, quality of earnings, management depth, operational systems, and the full story of how the business operates without the founder. It changes due diligence from defensive to offensive.
What are the warning flags a great M&A advisor will raise before you sell?
The same warning flags the lifeguard raises before you enter the water. Financials not closed consistently. No quality of earnings documentation for the last three years. Owner dependency — all decisions run through the founder. Customer concentration above 20 percent in one account. No standard operating procedures. No org charts with documented decision bands. No recurring revenue. Contracts with no renewal terms. These are the reefs in the water.
What are the warning flags a great M&A advisor will raise before you sell?
Financials not closed consistently. No quality of earnings for the last three years. Owner dependency. Customer concentration above 20 percent. No SOPs. No org charts with decision bands. No recurring revenue. Contracts with no renewal terms. These are the reefs in the water.
How do you find the right M&A advisor for your business?
Ask three questions. First — do they have a plan or protocol to get you to the top end of the multiples? Not a general answer. A specific process with specific milestones. Second — are they willing to tell you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear? Third — do they understand your industry and your buyer market well enough to know what an A plus deal looks like for a business like yours? See also: 35 Questions to Ask an M&A Advisor.
How do you find the right M&A advisor for your business?
Ask three questions. Do they have a specific plan to get you to the top end of the multiples? Are they willing to tell you what you need to hear? Do they understand your industry and buyer market well enough to know what an A plus deal looks like for a business like yours?
Full Video Transcript
When people hear that I do M&A, one of the most common questions that comes up is — do I need an M&A advisor? I’m Scott Sylvan Bell coming to you live from Haleiwa, Oahu on a perfect day to talk about business sales, mid markets and M&A advisors.
I want to start by telling you a story. If you look over my shoulder right there, there’s a lifeguard tower. The lifeguards out here on the North Shore are some of the best on the planet, and there’s a reason for it. They grew up on the beach. They scuba dive, they snorkel, they surf out here, so they know where the reefs are. They’ve watched the water for hours or decades on end. Those lifeguards come out at 7, 7:30 and they prep the beach. They look at the conditions, they look at the waves. Today there’s a sign right here that says don’t go in the water — because there was just a big storm that shook the North Shore.
If we’re going to compare that to an M&A advisor — the M&A advisor’s job is to take a look at your deal and say don’t go in the water. If you want that A plus deal — if the market is trading at a seven to ten times multiple — then what you want is eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen times what your EBITDA is. That’s the maximum multiple. And that happens when you have a Titan Thesis, because a good M&A advisor is going to pull you aside and say, hey, time out. You’re not ready to put your business on the market. Your financials aren’t clear. You don’t have quality of earnings for the last three years. You have too much owner dependency. You don’t have standard operating procedures, you don’t have org charts, you don’t have decision bands.
If you’ve got the bare minimum, you get an A level deal. If it’s a B level deal you could get seven. If it’s a C, maybe a six. If it’s a D — standing for don’t do it — you’re probably going to get half of whatever the market is. A good M&A advisor is going to tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Find an M&A advisor that has a plan or a protocol to get you to the top end of the multiples. Just like this lifeguard. Aloha. Mahalo.
Related: Titan Thesis | 5-4-3-2 Framework | BENCH Framework | Exit Ratio 360™ | 35 Questions to Ask an M&A Advisor | Exit Ratio 360™ on Amazon
About Scott Sylvan Bell
Scott Sylvan Bell is a mid-market exit strategy consultant and the creator of the Exit Ratio 360™. He filmed this video at Haleiwa Alii Beach Park, North Shore of Oahu. His book is available on Amazon.