_{Inside the Deal Room is where I share what’s happening behind the curtain as we source, negotiate, acquire, build and scale businesses through Vyterro and our deal ecosystem.}

If you're a first-time buyer, you might think an edition on using acquisition experience as a lever doesn’t apply to you. You might be right, but I’m going to try to prove you wrong.

If you’ve ever:

- Bought or sold real estate

- Worked in corporate M&A

- Worked in private equity/investment banking

- Helped with company transitions as a consultant or otherwise

- Worked at a company that was sold

- Worked at a company that bought or merged with another company

- Joined an educational community or hired a consultant to help you buy a business

- Had a friend, family member or business partner who’s done any of the above

- Or seen M&A happen in any other professional sense

…then you have more acquisition experience than you probably give yourself credit for.

If absolutely none of it applies to you, that’s okay too. Just bookmark this, go buy your first business and come back to it later.

The first three editions of this series focused on whether the other parties involved believe you can run the business and whether they believe you can actually close. This one is different. This is about showing the seller, broker, and bank that you're competent in the acquisition process itself. 

Do you understand what happens between the LOI and closing? Have you been through diligence before? Do you know how financing, legal documentation, and negotiations actually work? Can you identify problems before they become deal killers?

Whether that confidence comes from direct acquisition experience or adjacent experience is less important than most people think. What matters is showing the other side that you understand the acquisition process well enough that they won't have to teach you how to buy a business themselves.

Acquisition experience is another lever that depends heavily on what kind of seller you're talking to. For the mom-and-pop-type seller who wants an individual operator, I don’t overemphasize my experience. I still want them to know I’ve done this before, but I don't want to come across as too institutional or transactional. If you’re a serial acquirer like me, you have to avoid making the seller feel like just another number.

Instead, I position my experience as something that benefits them.

I'll often say something like:

"I've been through SBA acquisitions before, so hopefully my experience helps make this process a little quicker and less painful for both of us."

That communicates the point I'm trying to make. I'm not saying, "Look how many businesses I've bought." I'm saying, "I've been through this before, and hopefully that makes this process easier for both of us."

Something to note - I intentionally make the framing specific. If it's an SBA acquisition, I reference SBA experience. If it's a seller-financed transaction, I'll talk about prior seller-financed deals. The more relevant your experience is to the transaction in front of you, the more credibility it creates.

Acquisitions are complicated. If you’re reading this, you probably know that, but some first-time sellers don’t yet. There are multiple stakeholders, ever-shifting timelines, and dozens of moving pieces that can slow a transaction down or cause unnecessary stress. Having been through that process before allows me to keep things moving, solve problems faster, and make the transaction smoother for everyone involved. I make sure the seller realizes that.

If I'm buying a business through my fund, or we're acquiring a company to roll into an existing platform, I don't hide my experience at all. In those situations, acquisition experience is one of my biggest advantages. I'll talk openly about prior acquisitions, our integration process, the operating companies we already own, and the experience our team brings to the table.

Those sellers aren't usually looking for someone who's buying their first company. They're looking for someone who has done this before and can execute professionally.

The key, just like every other positioning lever in this series:

The goal isn't to minimize your experience or exaggerate it. It's to present it in a way that creates confidence for the specific seller sitting across from you. With the seller, you need to answer the question, “How much acquisition competence do I reveal and how do I frame it?”

If you're reading this thinking, "I've never bought a business before, so none of this applies to me," stick with me, I’ll get there. I want to show how to use the experience before we discuss what experience to use.

For brokers, acquisition experience is almost always a positive. Unlike sellers, they usually aren't worried about whether you've bought too many businesses. They're worried about whether this transaction is going to become a headache.

Every broker has dealt with first-time buyers who underestimate how complicated acquisitions can be. They miss diligence deadlines, don't understand the financing process, take weeks to make decisions, or need every step explained to them. Brokers don’t like those buyers.

That's why I don't hold much back when talking to a broker one-on-one. If I've done acquisitions before, I want to make that clear. I want them thinking: "This buyer knows how deals work. I won't have to babysit them."

Do not tell the seller you’ve bought one business and then make the broker think you’re Warren Buffett. That will confuse the other side and damage trust. It’s the same story, you just want to add more detail.

If I tell a seller, “I've been through an SBA acquisition before,” I might tell the broker, “I've closed two acquisitions in the last year.” Both statements are true. The seller hears enough to feel comfortable. The broker gets more specifics to enhance credibility.

One place this comes up all the time is financing. Nothing scares brokers more than banks that stall and kill deals. If a broker is concerned about lending, I love being able to say: 

"I've closed with this bank before."

Even better:

"I closed with this same bank three months ago."

That immediately changes the dynamic. It tells the broker we aren't guessing our way through the lending process. We've worked with this bank before, we understand their process, and we know they can get deals done.

If you haven't personally closed with a lender, that's okay. Maybe your acquisition partner has. Maybe your mentor has. Maybe someone in your networking group has. Simply say, “A friend of mine closed with this same bank three months ago.” It communicates the same confidence.

If you don't have that relationship yet, feel free to reach out. I'm always happy to introduce people to the SBA lenders I've worked with so you can start building those relationships even before you need them. Then you can say “my friend Evan closed with this bank three months ago”. Problem solved.

Instead, demonstrate that you already understand how the process works and have people around you who have done it successfully. Experience by proxy is sometimes just as effective as having the experience yourself.

Then, just like the seller conversation, you can tell brokers something along the lines of:

"I’m working with someone who’s been through this process before, so hopefully we can make this quick and painless for everyone involved."

That's all they’re really looking for. The easier you make the broker's job, the more likely they are to advocate for you, keep you informed, and help move the deal forward. Acquisition experience isn't valuable because it's impressive. It's valuable because it reduces friction.

Similar to the broker, there is no reason to downplay your acquisition experience with the bank. If you've done deals before, tell them. The bank is evaluating risk, and acquisition experience is another variable that helps them assess it.

From their perspective, prior deal experience suggests you understand the mechanics of buying a business with debt. You know what a transition plan is supposed to accomplish, how diligence ties back to underwriting, how seller financing works, and where acquisitions typically run into problems. That doesn't guarantee they'll approve your loan, but it does reduce one source of uncertainty.

Because of that, this is one audience where I generally put everything on the table. Acquisitions I've completed, deals I’ve consulted on, businesses I've transitioned and operated, etc. Anything that demonstrates I've been through the process before and know what I'm getting myself into.

Once you've successfully closed with a bank, you're no longer introducing yourself from scratch. They already know how you communicate, how you handle diligence, and what kind of borrower you are. Instead of being greeted with a "Should we give this guy a loan?" you get a, "Welcome back, Evan." That familiarity makes future deals much smoother and gives you another credibility signal you can and should communicate to sellers and brokers. 

A nice bonus - the same thing happens with brokers.

Once you've successfully closed a transaction together, they stop wondering whether you can get deals done because they’ve seen it happen. This is how you can get pocket listings and preferential treatment for competitive deals. 

A few months ago, I had a broker I’d worked with before bring me a strong deal. It was challenging to structure economically (large piece of real estate involved) but he knew I had the capability to creatively solve it. Without the prior confidence in me as a buyer, he likely wouldn’t have reached out to me directly in the first place.

 That's one of the reasons I value long-term relationships with both lenders and brokers so highly. Every successful closing makes the next opportunity a little easier.

It's definitely not required. Banks approve strong borrowers with no acquisition experience all the time. Likewise, they decline experienced buyers whose deals don't make sense.

The goal isn't to convince the bank that your experience overrides the fundamentals. The structure, cash flow and operations of the business still have to work. Acquisition experience simply makes it easier for the bank to believe you'll be able to navigate the challenges that come with buying a business.

Acquisition experience compounds. Even if you don't have much today, every deal you touch, every lender you work with, and every broker relationship you build becomes another piece of credibility you can carry into the next opportunity.

With that said, if you're still reading this and wondering how any of this applies when you haven't bought a business before, I'll stand by my promise to address that.

Rather than squeeze it into an already long newsletter, I decided to dedicate an entire bonus edition to the topic. It'll consist of nothing but practical examples of how different people can legitimately frame acquisition experience, even if they've never closed a deal. My goal is to make it comprehensive enough that everyone reading it walks away with at least one legitimate angle they can use.

After that bonus edition, we'll wrap up this buyer framing series with the fifth and final positioning lever: Reasonableness.