Deal-Making, Valuations and Your Brand

We’ve all heard the old dealmaking saw about one buyer’s money being just as green as another’s – with its implication that the quantity of dollars always trumps quality when it comes down to the final strokes of a deal.

But with valuations and multiples already sky-high and the private equity space awash in more overhanging capital than at any previous time in history, buyers increasingly find they must tell a story that goes beyond numbers and terms to carry the day.

Dealmaking is an inherently hectic, high-pressure environment. Dealmakers are smart, thoughtful and capable individuals and most know deep down that they need to market effectively to differentiate their firms – but there’s always another conference call or seller negotiation or due diligence wrinkle that gets in the way.

Our work, day in and day out is to help firms in the deal-making space most effectively apply innovative and tech-enabled branding and marketing initiatives in a consistent and meaningful way.

A great example of our work has been with HBM Holdings, one of our longest running retainer-based clients. We serve them on a variety of fronts — from business development support, brand identity, portfolio company marketing supporting and PR.  Year over year, they've seen meaningful improvements in their deal flow origination — sourced both from intermediaries and directly with private company owners.

We successfully garnered a lot of press for HBM over the years, but we're particularly proud of a recent article in Middle Market Growth magazine, ' Human Capital Changes the Equation: Private Equity is increasing its focus on the people behind the portfolio.'

This piece focuses squarely on how HBM adds value to their portfolio companies and showcased HBM VP and Chief Human Resources Officer Amy Fields discussing the firm's approach to building great management teams. We hope you take the time to read it and get a sense of how we work with clietns to showcase their unqiue brand and market differentiation.

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