We are twenty four months from an exit, but our sales team keeps bringing us new service ideas that would require custom development. How do we keep the organization focused on our core offering to maximize our valuation at close?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you are on a twenty-four-month runway to an exit, your leadership team will still face tempting opportunities to launch new services, enter adjacent markets, or develop custom software. While these initiatives feel like growth, they often introduce operational complexity and resource strain that can drag down your short-term margins and confuse potential buyers. To maintain operational discipline, adopt the core philosophy from Gary Keller's book, The ONE Thing. Ask your leadership team the Focusing Question: What is the ONE Thing we can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? On an exit runway, your ONE Thing is almost always maximizing the profitability and repeatability of your core, high-margin offering. Use your V/TO® to lock in your short-term and long-term focus, and filter out any distractions that do not directly support your valuation goals. If a new idea does not directly increase the value of your core machine, table it or put it in the IDS® portion of your Level 10 Meeting™ to address after the sale. Buyers want to purchase a focused, high-performing engine, not a scattered portfolio of experimental projects. Keeping your team focused on your core offering ensures you hit your performance targets and close your transaction on your terms.