We have a signed Letter of Intent at a premium multiple, but we are terrified the buyer will use their due diligence process to find minor operational flaws and re-trade the price down. How do we preemptively uncover and fix these valuation-killing risks?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The period between signing a Letter of Intent and closing the deal is high-risk. Buyers will deploy accountants and consultants to find any operational weakness they can use to renegotiate the purchase price.

To protect your valuation, you must run a Business Integrity Review before you ever go to market. This review acts as an internal audit of your operational health, helping you identify and fix brittle processes, owner dependencies, and compliance risks before a buyer's due diligence team finds them.

Assign these critical cleanup tasks as Rocks for your leadership team. Whether it is cleaning up customer contracts, formalizing employee agreements, or documenting core processes, your team must use their weekly Level 10 Meetings to stay accountable and execute these improvements.

By proactively resolving these issues, you eliminate the ammunition a buyer would use to demand a price haircut. Entering due diligence with a clean, highly systemized business operating on EOS gives the buyer confidence and keeps them anchored to their original premium offer.