Questions Sellers Wanted to ask in Private

It was a great opportunity to sit on the Denver Business Journal “Table of Experts – M&A” recently. My fellow panelists were all specialists in their areas. One expert, Dan Roth, was in fact a featured writer in my last blog.

The formal discussion was fruitful with plenty of good questions and thoughtful answers, you can view the full discussion in this article.

What I found most interesting though, was the questions we were asked and the thoughts shared after the panel was over. A number of people came up after the event. I circled back with my fellow panelists to see if they had similar experiences. They all had. It seems there are certain issues sellers fear but don’t want to ask or admit in public. Some of these included:

• What will happen to my people after I leave?
• What will I do with myself every day, I won’t matter anymore
• If they change things after I go it’s like I was never there
• What if I change my mind?
• How do you prepare people emotionally?

I found these discussions both moving and humbling as I didn’t have any answers that seemed adequate. It’s easy to get caught up in the technical aspects of what we do as advisors and I hope to take this experience with me to be more aware that we are all human.

However, with regards to the technical aspects, I recommend checking out the aforementioned article, my fellow panelists gave some great advice responding to important questions that will be a great resource on the M&A journey.