Leverage, Not Luck: Why M&A brokers win great exits

Trevor Stevenson-Platt

29 Dec 2025 — 4 min read

You built this with late nights and lucky breaks. Now you’re thinking about selling. Good. Most founders wait too long, take too little, then spend years pretending it was the plan. This is your shot to turn sweat into a great exit, not an almost.

Here’s the hard truth: deals aren’t won by the best companies; they’re won by the best process. The right M&A partner can be the difference between a life-changing outcome and a quiet regret.

You already know the stakes. Markets move. Buyers go cold. Growth stalls the moment you take your foot off the gas. Whispers make your best people jittery. One clumsy approach, one leak, one sloppy data request, and the numbers you thought would sing start stuttering. Your window is open today. Every month you wait, you’re rolling the dice on price, terms, and certainty.

What great M&A brokers actually do

A great broker doesn’t just find a buyer; they manufacture leverage. They package your story for strategics and investors, build a tight list, sequence outreach, and create real, polite competition.

They stop deal fatigue before it starts. They anticipate the questions that kill momentum, prepare crisp answers, and coach you before you walk into buyer meetings. They translate your messy brilliance into a simple growth narrative a buyer can underwrite.

They protect you. Confidentiality, timing, and information control are their daily bread. They keep you focused on running the company so your numbers keep climbing while the process hums in the background.

Ask yourself: if your top three buyers called today, could you run a competitive process without losing a quarter of growth, or would you guess, hope, and wing it?

Choosing the right partner, not just the nicest pitch

Most pitches sound the same: big buyer lists, big adjectives, big promises. Ignore the noise. Look for proof and fit.

Watch for these green flags:

Specific buyers named in the first meeting, and why they will care
A dated plan for preparation, outreach, and negotiation, with clear deliverables
A senior lead who stays in the deal, not a bait-and-switch after you sign

Ask blunt questions:

Which deals like mine have you closed in the past two years? At what size?
Who on your team will be in the trenches with me?
How will you keep multiple buyers moving at the same pace?
What happens when a buyer slows, retrades, or tries to widen the escrow?

Red flags are simple: vague buyer lists, fast promises of a giant number before they’ve seen your data, long exclusives with no performance checkpoints, junior teams doing the heavy lifting, and defensiveness when you ask about process.

How the process really feels from the founder's seat

The best brokers make it feel like a series of short, winnable sprints. First, they help you tidy the house: clean financials, key metrics, contracts, and a simple story that ties it all together. They build a crisp memo and light teaser, and sanity-check your numbers so you don’t get caught later.

Outreach starts quietly and controlled. Interest turns into calls, calls become first looks, and first looks turn into early offers. You’ll feel a gentle push to answer quickly, and a slower pull to protect your position. The broker balances speed and patience so you don’t lose heat or give up leverage.

Then comes the moment that separates an okay outcome from a great one: multiple offers with different prices, earnouts, working capital asks, and closing risks. A pro helps you see the full picture, price, terms, taxes, certainty, your future role, reputation, and energy. They help you say no cleanly so you can say yes when it counts.

Fees, alignment, and the quiet math that matters

Fees should make you win together. Expect a success fee that rises with the outcome, plus a modest retainer so they show up with a real team. The mix varies by size and sector, and it’s all negotiable within reason.

Obsess over alignment. Is their pay tied to the headline price only, or to the quality of terms as well? Do they push for the first decent offer, or keep multiple buyers moving until you see the true top of the market?

Ask for explicit milestones. When will materials be ready? When does outreach begin? Who gets access to deeper information, and when? What’s the plan if the first wave is soft? A broker who welcomes this conversation is signalling confidence, not fear.

Get your house ready so buyers see momentum, not mess

You don’t need perfection, you need clarity. Do the simple things that make buyers lean in:

Clean, timely financials, month by month, with clear trends
A plan to reduce any single-customer dependency
Documented processes so the business looks less founder-centric
Pipeline quality, not just big numbers, shows conversion and retention
Basic legal housekeeping, organised contracts, clean IP, no surprises

These moves do more than boost price. They lower perceived risk. Lower risk means better terms, less money trapped in escrow, fewer earnout traps, and a smoother close. Momentum is the game, measure it and show it.

The quiet story that sells, and the one that sinks you

Buyers don’t buy your past; they buy their future with your business. The right broker helps them see how your product, your position, and your momentum slot into their machine. They map where growth comes from in their world, new channels, cross-sell, geographic reach, and show why it will be easier for them than it was for you.

The wrong story is a founder-as-hero who must stay forever, a secret sauce that lives only in your head, growth that depends on one whale, or a product that needs a rebuild. Tell the truth. Don’t hide. Frame the gaps as already in motion, with proof.

You’re not trying to impress, you’re trying to reduce doubt. Certainty sells. Ego repels.

Key takeaway

Leverage beats hope. The right M&A brokers don’t just find a buyer; they manufacture competition, clarity, and certainty, the things buyers actually pay for.