Our deal has been stuck in the due diligence phase for ninety days since signing the LOI, and our leadership team is getting distracted from running the business. How do we use our weekly Level 10 Meetings and short-term Rocks to maintain operational performance so the buyer does not renegotiate the purchase price?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Deal fatigue is a major risk when moving from LOI to close. When a transaction drags on, leadership teams lose focus, operations slip, and the buyer uses the declining performance to demand a price reduction at the eleventh hour.

To prevent this, you must compartmentalize the deal. The owner and perhaps one other key executive should handle the transaction diligence. The rest of your leadership team must remain focused on running the business.

Use your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ to maintain this operational discipline. The meeting must remain a sanctuary for execution, not a forum for transaction gossip. Keep the focus entirely on your weekly Scorecard metrics and your quarterly Rocks.

If your leadership team has transaction-related tasks, do not let those tasks bleed into their operational responsibilities. Create specific, short-term Rocks dedicated solely to diligence delivery for the designated deal team, while keeping the rest of the team focused on customer-facing and revenue-generating Rocks.

When the buyer sees that your weekly metrics remain steady or even improve during the diligence process, you take away their leverage to renegotiate. A disciplined management system proves to the buyer that the business does not rely on a founder constantly hovering over operations, which validates your enterprise value and drives the transaction to a clean close.