Our M&A attorney and accountant are constantly asking for data, and our leadership team is spending more time on diligence than running the company. How do we structure our weekly meetings and accountability during the ninety days between LOI and close to ensure we do not crash our quarterly performance?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The period between signing an LOI and closing the deal is notorious for operational collapse. If your leadership team spends all their time gathering documents for the buyer's Quality of Earnings review, your sales will drop, your margins will shrink, and the buyer will use that decline to lower the purchase price. To prevent this, you must run your business and the deal on two separate tracks. Your leadership team must stay focused on their quarterly Rocks and daily operations. Do not allow deal discussion to hijack your weekly Level 10 Meeting™. Instead, keep that meeting focused strictly on running the business. Create a separate, weekly deal-tracking meeting specifically for the transaction team, which should only include yourself, your financial leader, and your external advisors. Use this dedicated meeting to IDS® deal-specific issues and review outstanding diligence requests. By isolating the transaction noise, you protect your leadership team from burnout and ensure your operational metrics remain strong. Hitting your targets during due diligence sends a powerful message to the buyer that your business is highly systematized and fully capable of operating under pressure.