Avoid M&A Pitfalls with Trust as a Guiding Principle

Avoid M&A Pitfalls with Trust as a Guiding PrincipleWe had Matt Hartranft in the studio today!  Matt is a partner and M&A attorney with Brutlag, Trucke and Dougherty. We spent a great deal of time discussing how established trust is essential in shortening the duration of the deal to closing, and in deal negotiations in general. Matt says that in the dealmaking world, trust is his guiding principle and is more than just a values based philosophy. We talked about how his stories tied in so well with our previous guests, Brian Slipka and David Horsager, who both focused on trust as their content topic, because it's impacting so many facets of the business world, especially the transaction space. Matt shared a story about a buyer of a client selling his business,who was a much larger organization and initially required revenue and profit guarantees from the sellers for the first year or two, until they got to know the employees and leadership, and then realized that they didn't need to question the integrity of what they initially thought was a risky unknown. This turn came about due to the honesty and behavior of the team they were acquiring; knowing they could trust in what they said made all the difference. Matt also said that the community of common players in the M&A space, especially in the Midwest are many times known, which can help reduce the amount of time a deal takes to complete, thereby reducing the billing invoices, etc. As we've said before on Poised for Exit, "trust is measurable". Listen to Matt's advice and stories here!Connect with Julie Keyes, Keyestrategies LLCFounder, Consultant, Author, Pod-caster and Instructor