FROM MIKE'S DESK
Most buyers walk into a seller conversation with a spreadsheet in their head. I walk in with three questions.
I learned this the hard way. Early in my career, I spent weeks analyzing a distribution business in the Mid-Atlantic - clean revenue, solid margins, reasonable asking price. I had the model dialed. I knew the DSCR to two decimal places. What I didn't know was why the seller was leaving. Turns out he had a non-compete dispute with a former partner that was about to detonate. The financials never showed it. One conversation would have.
Now I start every seller conversation the same way, before I touch a P&L.
Question one: Why are you selling, and why now?
I'm not looking for the polished answer. I'm listening for the hesitation. Sellers who are ready to exit have a clean story - retirement, health, a new chapter. Sellers who are running from something stammer. They pivot. They give you three different answers across two conversations. That gap is data. When a seller can't give you a straight answer about why they're leaving a business they built for twenty years, that's worth more than anything on the income statement.
Question two: What does the business need from a new owner that it isn't getting from you?
This one separates honest sellers from ones who will cost you money. A seller who says 'It needs someone with more energy for sales - I'm worn out' is giving you a gift. A seller who says 'Nothing, it runs itself' is either lying or has never looked at his own business clearly. No profitable business runs itself. If a seller can't name one thing the business needs, I'm already skeptical of everything else they're about to tell me.
Question three: If the deal falls through, what's your plan?
This is the one that tells me how motivated we're actually dealing with. A seller with a Plan B - another buyer in the pipeline, a plan to keep running it, a partner ready to buy them out - has options. Options mean leverage. Options mean they can walk from a negotiation that gets uncomfortable. A seller with no Plan B is a different conversation. They need this deal to close. That doesn't make them dishonest. It makes them motivated - and motivated sellers are where the real structure gets made.
The financials tell you what a business has done. These three questions tell you what you're actually walking into. After 35 years, I've learned that the second answer matters more than the first.
The Bulletproof method starts with the numbers. But the numbers are only half the picture. If you want to learn how I put both halves together - the math and the judgment - the free 28-minute masterclass is where I lay it out.
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