Coming full circle to your initial motivation for exploring the sale of your company is the question of what role you will play in the new entity going forward.
For brokers like Hanks, Cantrell and the Rand team, signing on the dotted line was predicated on their intentions to stay in their leadership roles for an unspecified period of time.
For Ramirez, the merger with a sister company served as a springboard to the next chapter of her career—and for Palmer and McLaughlin, selling their companies opened the door to a world of new possibilities.
“The negotiations when I sold my company made me a lot smarter about mergers and acquisitions than I was going in,” McLaughlin says. “That’s how I know how vital it is not just to know what your goals for the sale are going in, but to seek out professional valuation and the services of an M&A professional to help you broker a deal you will value in the end.”
The voyage from start to finish may be different for every broker who contemplates the sale of his or her firm, notes Haase. But the bottom line should be the same.
“Every broker wants the best for his or her company,” says Haase, “and there’s great potential for everyone when mergers and acquisitions are handled in a thoughtful and collaborative way.”
But ultimately, the big question for any broker considering a sale should always be, “What’s in it for me?”