CASE STUDY l MANUFACTURING l OHIO
He came to us with a deal.
We got him 2.5x more.
Rick thought he had his exit figured out. A single conversation with Prevail revealed how much he had left to gain.
2.5x
Final price vs. seller expectation
20
Qualified buyers in 30 days
6
Competing letters of intent
100%
Employee retention through closing
THE SITUATION
A wake-up call from 40 minutes away.
Rick watched a competitor's business unravel after the owner was diagnosed with cancer. No succession plan. No one to run things. Customers eventually stopped calling. Rick's phone, meanwhile, started ringing, absorbing hundreds of thousands in new annual orders from customers who had nowhere else to go. The competitor eventually passed away, leaving his family to liquidate for pennies on the dollar. Rick knew exactly what that story meant for him.
THE CHALLENGE
He came to us with a deal in hand.
Rick had spent months finding a buyer on his own. He and the buyer had agreed on price. His accountant referred him to Prevail simply to validate the number and help with paperwork. But when we reviewed his financials, we found that Rick's agreed price was significantly below what the market was currently producing. He was speechless. The question became: accept a certain but underpriced deal, or trust the process?
OUR APPROACH
A process built around what mattered most to Rick.
Rick's priority wasn't just price; it was finding a buyer who would honor the employee culture and customer relationships his father had built. We designed a process that delivered both.
01
Defined the buyer.
We worked with Rick to build a detailed buyer profile; local family offices or industry players looking to acquire and operate, not flip, a legacy manufacturing business.
02
Targeted, confidential outreach.
Within 30 days, we introduced 20 screened and qualified buyers. 10 toured the facility. 6 submitted letters of intent.
03
Created competition at the top.
We narrowed to the two strongest buyers and asked for best-and-final offers, a proven mechanism to drive price without alienating serious parties.
04
Closed in 5 months.
Seven days after best-and-final, Rick had a purchase price 2.5x higher than anything he'd imagined. Closed five months from LOI, with every employee retained.
THE INSIGHT
Most sellers don't know what they don't know.
Rick is not unusual. Many business owners arrive with a number in mind, one formed from conversations with advisors, a rule of thumb, or a single buyer's offer. That number often has nothing to do with what the market will actually pay. Our job isn't just to run a sale process; it's to show owners what's truly possible before they leave value on the table without ever knowing it was there.
IN RICK'S WORDS
"Mark and his team are an outstanding partner for anyone considering selling their company and monetizing their life's work. His process delivered everything I hoped for, quickly."
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