Tag: Covid-19 Crisis

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Authentic Business Relationships Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Leadership Authentic Negotiating Deal-Driven Growth

Deal-Making is About Relationships

deal-making is about relationships

Here we are at the end of 2020. What a year! Today, I’m offering up a solo-cast that leads back to the most basic truth about deals: deal-making is about relationships. As I share often, almost every business deal is either the start of a relationship, or the continuation of an existing relationship. There’s just no way around it, and it’s a key part of how I teach about the deal-making process.

Also, we just celebrated our 100th episode with guest Joe Apfelbaum! It was an incredible interview, and Joe shared awesome insights about his deal-making prowess and partnership experiences. 

Relationships are a Key Deal-Making Ingredient

Whether you’re in an acquisition or merger, or you’re creating deals with partners, vendors, or suppliers, relationships are a key element. You name the deal, there’s likely going to be a relationship being established, built, or leveraged. 

The journey towards a deal is usually paved by relationships as well. Your broker, your agent, your banker, your partner, your friend — these are the relationships that position us to know who we need to know, get people to the deal-making table, and start the deal-making process.

That’s what makes relationships such an important part of both business and deals, not to mention our day-to-day lives!

2020 Highlighted How Essential Relationships Are

In 2020, relationships played a key role in my life for even more reasons than usual. 

The support, guidance, connection, and opportunities that came from relationships during this hard, long year were key for me. Not just for growth, but for peace, strength, and stability. Now, more than ever, I know that connection with others fuels me, fuels my personal growth, and fuels my business.

I know that many of you have had to make major pivots this year, and I’ve seen again and again how relationships can truly pave the way to make those successful. Even as things have been hard, relationships with family, friends, and industry professionals often provided a key element that allowed us to turn things around, make the best of the options available to us, or otherwise find a way to navigate this year.

If you’ve been part of my relationship network this year as a client, a friend, a podcast listener or guest, a DealDen member, or otherwise: thank you. I truly appreciate you, and I hope to continue together with you into the new year!

Know, Like, Trust: Business Relationships Pave the Way for Deals

People want to do business with people they like. It’s just the truth! 

When it comes to deal-making, nothing much changes. When you’ve built that know, like, trust factor via real relationships, you’ll find opportunities seem to naturally appear. Why? Because when someone is thinking about who to offer a partnership to, who to strategize with, who to make a deal with, they feel best if they’re doing it with someone they know, like, and trust. 

Being in a relationship with someone builds confidence.

Worried that you’re not well positioned when it comes to relationships? Well, there is no magic pill that will develop them overnight! In fact, it can take a long time to build relationships. As the old Chinese proverb says, however:

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.

Another note: Just because deals are technically transactions doesn’t mean that your relationships should be described that way! People sense when you’re only interested in them because you want or need something. If you only set about to build relationships because you’re trying to get something, it won’t work the way you hope.

Instead, practice nurturing your current network. Add value. Seek to serve. Find a way to genuinely support someone else. Connect with people you’ve possibly just “not seen” in the past. If 2020 taught you anything, let it be that relationships matter and are always worth investing in.

Listen in to hear my full thoughts on the connection between deal-making and relationships!

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast..

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal-Ready Assessment today!

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Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Leadership Authentic Negotiating

Deal-Making During The Covid Era

The Covid Era

This week, let’s talk about deal-driven growth and Covid! In the past on the show we’ve talked about some of the opportunities that arise during challenging times. We’ve also discussed things to watch out for! Now that we’re over six months into this pandemic, let’s talk specifically about deal-making during the Covid era. 

Hard to Compare

First off, it’s hard to compare Covid with any other time in history. For one thing, there’s a dichotomy between industries that are doing incredibly well, and others that are failing and faltering. There are major questions about when things will turn around or come back. In addition, we’re all getting used to a “new normal”.

In the M&A market, in terms of bigger deals, most surveys have shown the market to be down about 30% in terms of deal volume. However, there are some exceptions. Transportation, food, and agriculture have started to come back up. In April/May most industries experienced a significant dip. But there has been a rebound in certain industries. On last week’s episode, David DeVoe noted that in the wealth management space there is a surge right now. As the stock market comes back up, deals continue to increase as well.

Honestly, 2020 has been a huge mixed bag. Technology, home exercise, delivery, and some others are seeing huge gains. As a result, they may be able to absorb some competitors or make other deals, while in verticals that are suffering, we are seeing fewer deals.

Deal-Making Isn’t Going Away

What I see is this: people are still optimistic about deals. There is capital available out there, and people don’t see the impact of Covid as a permanent situation. Deal-making isn’t going away, and there is an expectation that many industries will continue to grow, expand, and find ways to innovate.

Now, I recognize that there are many businesses, especially restaurants, gyms, and some retailers, that have gone bankrupt. However, even within that we’ll see reorganizations and reopenings, with many companies coming out with cleaner balance sheets and ready to do deals. 

Deal-making will continue, even as it may be done in new, creative ways we haven’t seen before. Even industries that are being hit hard now may find that they are better positioned for deal-making in the upcoming months than they ever have been before.

Creative Deal-Making Lessons and The Voice

There have also been someone-off, strange deals that have been fun to see. For example, I enjoy The Voice, and midway through last season they ended up going virtual. Honestly, it was clunky. Everyone was singing and judging from home, and there was no real audience.

This season, however, they’ve adjusted. They wanted to have the singers, hosts, and judges live, but also keep everyone safe. They created a “bubble” by renting out a Las Vegas hotel. This benefited the TV show, and I am sure also the hotel, which would have had decreased occupancy with Covid issues. The audience is shown on virtual screens to provide a greater sense of live engagement as well.

Now “The Voice bubble” is part of coming on the show, and enables quarantining and Covid safety measures that would be impossible with the old set up.

Sporting stadiums have also been working on creating bubbles and providing safe spaces for action! If you have real estate or a business with underutilized space, this is a great time to think about how you can use it creatively to engage in deal-making during the Covid era. How can you apply creativity to your business?

Back on Episode 25, Damon Gersh shared about the “choke point”. During 9/11 he controlled tons of contracts by locking up labor, which created opportunity. How can you create something similar in your business?

Covid Era Stats

In our law firm, we’re seeing the stats play out in the deals we’re making. Companies used to working and delivering results virtually are thriving overall. There is a lot of deal activity in that space! Financial services deals are very strong. As these are two significant industry segments for us, we have kept very busy.

Once you get into recession and values go down, there usually really are a lot of deal-making opportunities taking advantage of that downturn. So far, however, I haven’t seen much of that happening during Covid. Often, that stage happens 1-2 years into a recession, so it might still be headed our ways. However, we’re not in an across the board recession by any means at this time. This may still be somewhat temporary, in terms of overall impact. We just don’t know the full fall out yet.

As businesses adjust, people become more willing to get out there, and the government decreases their regulations as cases, hopefully, decrease over time, we may see an upward trend before we go too much deeper.

Of course some industries, like airlines and restaurants, may see much more long term impacts than some others. Bottom line, though: We’re not seeing mass scale fire sale deals yet!

Although those with capital may be a bit slower or more picky, the money certainly hasn’t dried up! About 88% of deals in M&A are strategic buyers, and during this time that makes sense. Shoring up your strengths and relationships are great things to focus on right now. The synergies that strategic buying creates are even more important in challenging times.

What Trends Have Impacted You?

I’d love to hear your experience within your own industry. What trends are you seeing? How have you been impacted? I’d love to connect with you on LinkedIn or Twitter and get a read on what you’re experiencing. You’re also invited to our monthly Deal Den calls, where we dive deeper to discuss specific challenges, opportunities and needs during this trying time.

To learn more about deal-making during the Covid era, listen in to the full show!

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

Categories
Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Leadership Authentic Negotiating Deal-Driven Growth

Going Virtual in the COVID-19 Crisis

Going-Virtual

From an early age, Manuel Pistner dreamt of becoming an independent entrepreneur. He started his first company in 2006. It has since grown to over 150 freelancers worldwide. As you can imagine, it was not an easy road to get there. Manuel’s unique business model, however, streamlined the process. His company, Bright Solutions, is a virtual team of freelancers. As a result, they each bring unique skills to complex projects. Consequently, this eliminates barriers that many static organizations cannot breach. Of course hiring freelancers often poses many of the same talent acquisition challenges as hiring full-time employees. Manuel utilizes different business management systems to maintain control and transparency within his organization. This ensures that everything gets done. It’s also means he has a clear understanding of how to best go virtual in the COVID-19 crisis.

Three Steps to Managing a Virtual Team

Managing over 150 people in 67 different countries might seem like a nightmare for many entrepreneurs. Manuel’s system, however, is tried and true. According to him, there are three things that need to be in alignment if your virtual team is to operate at maximum capacity.

One

Provide each team member with a detailed description of their role to hold them accountable.

Two

Ensure clarity around how each team member should collaborate.

Three

Provide each team member with the necessary tools to support your workflows.

This simple process has enabled Manuel to scale his business successfully. He did so while working remotely with people he has never met! You can apply these same methods in your own company as well. This is vital, especially during this COVID-19 crisis.

Working Remote in the COVID-19 Crisis
As the COVID-19 crisis takes hold, more and more teams are forced to go virtual. However, these teams are not hired or trained to operate on their own accord. As a result, there are a lot of challenges posed by this large scale transition.

Manuel provides some tips that might help ease the tension as things fall into place. First, make a designated work area where you won’t be interrupted or distracted. Next, you should structure your workday to avoid over-communication or panic. In addition, leaders must lead by output and not by availability.

All of these best practices will help your team manage their time, output, and communication. This is essential as they adjust to their new work environments. These tools will help you push through these difficult times and weather the COVID-19 crisis with success. Listen to the full episode here!

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

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