Editorial articles on exit advisory selection: methodology, process, pricing, and the documents that govern the engagement. Each article cites the underlying industry research.
Sell-side Quality of Earnings is documented to add 0.5 to 1.5x in multiple uplift in lower-middle-market transactions. The uplift, however, is not produced by the QoE document. It is produced by the preparation discipline the QoE forces. Owners screening exit advisors should evaluate the discipline directly.
Most lower-middle-market sellers go to market with a marketing package built from the seller's perspective: this is what the business is, this is what it does, this is what it earned last year. A buyer-lens audit reframes the same business through the underwriting lens of each buyer archetype, which is the lens that determines what the business will actually trade for.
The same lower-middle-market business presented to three different buyer archetypes can produce three meaningfully different valuations, not because the business is different but because the underwriting model is. The divergence is structural. Owners who understand it before going to market price their expectations more accurately and prepare more effectively.
The 60 to 180 days before a single buyer is approached are the most consequential phase of a lower-middle-market exit engagement. What happens during this window determines, more than any other variable, what the final transaction looks like. Most owners do not know what should happen here, which makes them unable to evaluate whether their advisor is doing it.
The engagement letter is the structural contract for the entire exit transaction. It sets the fee structure, the scope of work, the exclusivity terms, the termination rights, the tail period, and the deliverables. Most owners sign engagement letters without material modification, treating them as standard documents. The experienced read identifies several clauses worth modifying and several worth adding.