The preparation for our clean exit has turned into a second full-time job for my leadership team, and the sheer volume of due diligence requests is causing operational execution to slip. How do we protect our business traction while running a high-stakes exit process?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Preparing for an acquisition is exhausting, and letting your operational traction slip during due diligence is a surefire way to kill your deal. If your scorecard metrics drop and you miss your Rocks during negotiations, buyers will use that data to renegotiate the purchase price or walk away entirely.

To protect your business, you must divide and conquer on your Accountability Chart. Do not have your entire leadership team handle due diligence. Instead, designate a small deal team, typically consisting of the Visionary, the Integrator, and the Head of Finance, to manage the buyers and the data room.

The rest of your leadership team must remain completely focused on running the day-to-day operations and hitting their scorecard metrics. They should be shielded from the distractions of the exit process as much as possible.

Use your weekly Level 10 Meetings to maintain absolute discipline. Keep the agenda focused on operational traction. If deal-related issues start to derail the meeting, push them to a separate Same-Page Meeting™ for the deal team.

By isolating the exit-related workload to a few key seats, you ensure that the rest of the company keeps moving forward. This keeps your performance high, maintains your leverage with the buyer, and ensures you cross the finish line with your valuation intact.