Tag: deal making

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Authentic Business Relationships Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Negotiating

Deals in a New Industry

Deals-In-A-New-Industry

Although Neil Rosen started his career as a teacher, he would later be driven to serial entrepreneurship by fate. Neil’s passions culminated in his first business, a children’s furniture store, which grew into five locations that were immensely successful.

The chain of stores provided Neil with the financial means to pursue his next great endeavor, which he ultimately achieved by selling the store to his employees. That was the first major deal Neil did, and it laid the foundation for his next businesses, while also teaching him the fundamentals of dealmaking.

Neil was able to keep the skilled management team on staff while receiving payouts over time, and it was a great deal for every party involved. But nothing would prepare him for doing deals as a pioneer of internet companies.

The School Report

Neil’s next business, The School Report, designed a program to gather 3rd party data about public school districts. That information was then sold to real estate brokerages and shared with potential homebuyers for a win-win-win. Although Neil started the business with his wife in their basement, it grew rapidly and brought a lot of new deals to the table.

He had technical experts providing services for equity. He used a participation interest vehicle to raise more capital without losing equity. He then raised venture capital. There were many different types of deals that Neil had to navigate throughout the lifespan of the business. But the difficulty of doing deals as an early-stage internet company prepared him for every challenge he would face moving forward.

Raising Capital

From the early days of commercial internet, through the boom and bust of the late 90’s and early 2000’s the landscape was changing and the learning curve was getting much steeper. When you are working with venture capitalists, there is an expectation of rapid growth. However, it is much more difficult to sell your ability to deliver in an industry that is just getting on its feet.

VCs were hesitant to work with internet companies at the time and it posed a lot of problems for Neil and his team. They had to pivot numerous times and even renegotiated with their VC to reduce its stake in the company before selling it a short time later. But a lot of valuable lessons came out of the experience, which Neil brought forth into his future endeavors with eWayDirect and Certain Source.

If you want to learn more about Neil’s journey, listen to his episode here: https://www.coreykupfer.com/podcasts/neil-rosen/. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn.

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 Negotiating

How to Be a Great Negotiator

Great-Negotiator

If you listened to my last solocast, you already know the primary reasons why negotiations fail. In this episode, we are going to take it a step further and discuss the top five ways to be a great negotiator.

Create and stay connected to a powerful context: Who are you when you walk into that deal? What is your energy? People can read your tone, body language, and micro-expressions, so focus less on ‘doing’ and more on ‘being.’

Be willing to do whatever it takes to get to your truth: It is a lot easier to put on a fake sense of bravado than to acknowledge you’re coming from a place of fear or scarcity. Do everything in your power to get the most out of your internal preparation so you can achieve a state of connection to truth and authenticity.

Identify and fully own your value: When you discuss pricing in a negotiation, you will have much greater success if you truly believe you are worth the number you are asking for.

Always be in integrity: Always make sure you are aligned with your inner truth. Great negotiators listen to their instincts and can tune into them on demand.

Have high expectations: If you go into a negotiation with high expectations, it may or may not work out, but your chances are a lot better. Holding high expectations directly affects your energy and context and is scientifically proven to improve results, so make sure to set the bar high.

Mastering the fundamental principles of dealmaking will turn you into a stellar negotiator; learning tactics and counter-tactics will not. Pragmatic methods and technical skills will help, but they are only supplementary. You need to become a deal maker at your core and negotiate from a place of clarity, detachment, and equilibrium. Following these five steps will help you get there.

If you are interested in learning more about why negotiations fail and want to hear examples, listen to my podcast episode, The Top 5 Practices of a Great Negotiator.

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

Current Trends in the Financial Services Industry

Current-Trends

Custodian BNY Mellon | Pershing, headed by Mark Tibergien, is primarily responsible for ensuring the safety of clients’ financial assets. But his firm also supports financial advisors in their growth. Since custody is highly commoditized in the financial services industry, Mark’s focus is value enrichment. He looks at the business of financial advice as the core proposition, which encompasses strategy and structure, people and processes, and managing the profitability.

In that context, Mark weighs the costs and benefits of a merger or acquisition, identifies the challenges of integration, and determines if there are any insights that will help buyers and sellers make informed decisions about the transaction. Mark and his associates at BNY Mellon | Pershing deliver higher value to their clients by serving as a resource and a trusted partner.

What to Look for When You’re Doing Deals

The reality is, some deals should be avoided entirely and you have to keep an eye out for key indicators. The market is booming right now because sellers are looking for liquidity and buyers want growth. Mark recognizes the extremely opportunistic scenario, but a lot of details are being overlooked due to the volume of deals. Buyers are drawn to a shiny lure and they fail to address important factors that drastically impact the health of the final product. Are you able to digest everything that is happening in order to create synergy and build a brand? Are the employees going to stay with the organization or move to a new firm? At the end of the day, the client comes first in a service-based industry, so you need to determine whether or not they will be better off post-transaction.

Beyond the Core Proposition

BNY Mellon | Pershing’s business model has value beyond the management of financial assets and they practice what they preach. The financial services industry is comprised primarily of small, closely-held businesses that underestimate the process. Many firms have not built businesses to last so they are seeking liquidity instead of investing in an enduring business. Succession is a growth strategy, not an exit strategy, and Mark is helping people open their eyes to that notion. Evaluating deals, the reasons for doing them and the impact of private equity, market cycle and other factors in this maturing industry are crucial as is expanding the diversity (including age, gender and race) is hugely important to the future of financial services.

Click here to listen to the episode of Fueling Deals where you will learn key indicators for determining whether or not you should do a deal and what Mark has brought from other industries into the financial services space.

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

The Origins of Barefoot Wine

Barefoot-Wine

Today, Barefoot Wine is an iconic household name, but founders Bonnie Harvey and Michael Houlihan had no lineage in the wine industry when they started the company. At the time, one of Bonnie’s clients was owed $300,000 for grapes provided on a handshake deal. Michael went to track down the payment and discovered the debtor’s winery had folded. So, instead of escalating the dispute, Bonnie and Michael took payment in the form of wine. The deal was contingent on their ability to brand and market the wine themselves—something they knew nothing about. However, Bonnie and Michael designed a brand with the input of the common man and produced a product that kept people coming back.

Listen to the Market

When Bonnie and Michael started pushing cases, they overcame significant hurdles by listening to the market. Their initial strategy did not go according to plan, but Bonnie and Michael detached themselves from the brand to achieve a sense of clarity and equilibrium in their deal negotiations. Instead of sending pallets to supermarkets, they started hand-delivering cases to mom and pop shops in the area. Instead of spending millions on commercial advertising, they built a brand through community outreach and pioneered ‘worthy cause marketing.’ Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of falling in love with their products; Bonnie and Michael took feedback with a sense of objectivity and delivered much more than the market had asked for.

Leverage Strategic Partnerships

Who are your strategic allies? Who gets rich when you get rich? Those are the questions you should think about when you wake up in the morning. Barefoot entered a massive distribution deal with Trader Joe’s, they incentivized their employees to align their goals and grow the company organically, and they joined forces with E&J Gallo to take the company to an entirely new level. Bonnie and Michael even found a trusted partner to give them industry financing without a need for venture capital or investors. Strategic partnerships are the lifeblood of Barefoot, and they continue to propel the brand forward.

Learn about their new audiobook, The Barefoot Spirit and if you are interested in hearing more from Bonnie and Michael, listen to my podcast episode, The Deals That Made Barefoot Wine a Household Name, with Bonnie Harvey and Michael Houlihan.

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

Wipe the Slate Clean and Meet Your Goals

Meet-Your-Goals

With the holidays upon us, we are looking forward to unwinding with our family and friends. But since we are also rounding out the year, the holidays are an opportunity to do a few deals with yourself before closing things out. Many of us fail to live out our New Years’ resolutions and goals because we fail to identify, address and complete the failures, unresolved challenges and limiting beliefs from the previous year. Those things roll over—and each time, the baggage gets heavier, making it harder to carry across the finish line if and when you re-up.

Take Stock of Everything

I have a completion exercise that I perform every year at the end of the year where I reflect on everything that’s happened. We need to take stock of all of our success, all of our failures, and get complete with ourselves about areas where we fell short. Before you re-up, I strongly recommend you do this so you can start with a clean slate. This includes the circumstances and relationships surrounding the unattained goals as well. Shed your limiting beliefs and get complete with yourself because you don’t want to bring any unnecessary baggage into 2020.

Celebrate No Matter What

Everything that happened—good or bad—served you in some way. Celebrate all of it because you deserve to honor yourself for everything you’ve accomplished and learned. By celebrating these events, you subconsciously shift your energy, focus on the wins and lessons, acknowledge yourself and clear the way to start planning and visioning for the next year. Then, it becomes more and more effortless to do visioning exercises from a clear and clean place. By creating an experiential mental image of your ideal future, your mind will start to work backward and figure out the steps you need to take to get there.

Click here to listen to my solocast where I explain more about the year-end deals I encourage you to make with yourself.

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

A Leap Forward With One Deal

Deal-Making

Matt Wavro’s company, Skyline Engineering, has a unique business model that sets it apart from other AEC (Application Engineering Company) firms in New York City. It is an MEP design firm (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing) operating in the building construction space, but they have four divisions that cover a full spectrum of services. Matt’s firm can take an entire project from start to finish including the concept phase, design, construction, materials testing, and quality control. It is only possible for them to offer such a wide range of specialties because Matt has done deals and strategic alignments to grow the business inorganically.

The Acquisition of Skyline Engineering

Believe it or not, Matt came across the opportunity to acquire an MEP firm on LinkedIn of all places. At the time, he was doing a lot of third-party inspection work, but his roots were in MEP so it piqued his interest. Every MEP project in New York City requires a special inspection, commissioning, and concrete testing, so Matt realized that there was a huge synergistic opportunity. Since he did not have the necessary capital to purchase Skyline outright, Matt approached the SBA, which helped him with a loan that only required a small down-payment and he negotiated an earn-out for the rest. It enabled Matt to tap into Skyline’s existing talent and client roster, while maintaining the former owners and provide them with a succession opportunity when they were ready to retire. Never assume you can’t get a deal done because you are too small or don’t have the capital – especially with a strategic acquisition, like Matt did, you can get creative and find a way to get the deal done.

Skyline’s Strategic Alliances

Skyline’s acquisition is a perfect example of why you should do these types of deals earlier; you will find there are a lot more options on the table. But the industry is primarily relationship-based. So, Matt formed a valuable strategic alliance as well. MWBE (Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises) are given special access to some opportunities, and other times it is even required. By partnering with businesses that meet the MWBE criteria, Matt can acquire new business opportunities he couldn’t access otherwise, and the MWBE businesses benefit as well. Matt’s deals enabled him to acquire Skyline and hit the ground running, so if you are interested in hearing more of the deals he’s done, listen to our podcast episode, Acquisitions and Strategic Alliances in the Design and Construction Industry, with Matt Wavro.

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

The Common Pitfalls of Negotiation

Common-Pitfalls-Of-Negotiation

Unfortunately, there isn’t a set of magical tactics and countertactics that will make you a legendary dealmaker. Negotiators don’t fail because of a lack of special knowledge regarding tactics and countertactic. They failed for 6 deeper reasons: lack of preparation; ego; fear; rigidity; losing your objectivity, and lack of integrity.

1. Lack of preparation: Eternal preparation: Do you know who is on the other side of the table? Have you researched the company, industry, current market and recent deals? Have you accounted for cultural differences? Internal preparation: Have you done the deep inner work to get clear on why you are doing the deal, what your objectives are and exactly what is acceptable and unacceptable on each material deal-term?

2. Ego: Check your pride at the door, forfeit your need for approval and own your value. Your goal in a negotiation is to meet your objectives; it should never be to win.

3. Fear: Fear creates nervous energy. It causes you to talk too much, listen too little, and concede to terms from a position of weakness. Determine where your fear is coming from and work through your fear before you go into the negotiation.

4. Rigidity: You are at a major disadvantage entering a negotiation with a rigid mentality about price, pace, and timing. Eliminate your preconceived notions and open yourself to new, creative ideas.
Lack of objectivity: You can’t let your emotions control the negotiation. The only time they will serve you is by signalling if something is off. Otherwise your emotions will prevent you from negotiating with a sense of clarity

4. Lack of integrity: If you enter a deal that does not align with your inner truth and moral values, it should be a signal that something is wrong. It doesn’t mean you should walk right away, but you might need time for deliberation or clarification. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t move forward.
If you listened to my last solocast, it is important to note that the top 6 reasons negotiations fail are closely tied to the fundamental framework of negotiation. If you are entering a negotiation with a sense of clarity, detachment, and equilibrium, it will be easier to avoid these pitfalls and meet your objectives. If you are interested in learning more about why negotiations fail and want to hear examples, listen to my podcast episode, The Top 6 Reasons Negotiations Fail, with Corey Kupfer.

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

The Fundamental Framework for Dealmaking

Becoming-A-Great-Leader

Negotiation is an important part of dealmaking, but it also impacts your business success as a whole. It is something that I cover extensively in my book, Authentic Negotiating, so I wanted to outline my fundamental framework in this episode of Fueling Deals. In thirty-five years of dealmaking, I have seen many tactics and counter-tactics. Some are manipulative and unsophisticated, and others are effective on the margins. But sound tactics will not take your deal across the finish line with the best outcome unless you have clarity, detachment, and equilibrium.

C,D,E

Clarity is the first fundamental principle of authentic negotiation, and it is composed of both an internal and an external body of work. Externally, you need all of the research and due diligence that will put you in a position to understand the party across the table, what the market is like, and what is fair. Internally, you need to do a deep inquiry into exactly what is acceptable to you and what is not. Very few people do the work necessary to get the level of clarity that is necessary for true negotiating success.

Detachment is the second principle, meaning you need to distance yourself emotionally from the outcome of your deal. After you establish clarity and understand each party’s terms, you should be prepared to walk if the deal doesn’t meet yours. It needs to be done from a place of clarity and reason rather than anger and frustration. Many people forget to check their egos at the door, but actively maintaining your detachment will help you rise above that.

Equilibrium is the third fundamental process. Even when you are coming from a place of clarity and detachment, it is possible to be overwhelmed by emotion in a tense negotiation. Your equilibrium will enable you to stay calm and connected to your sense of clarity and detachment. Anything that helps you center yourself in life can be used in a negotiation.

Final Thoughts

By including the fundamental principles of clarity, detachment, and equilibrium in your deal strategies, you will instantly see results. We are going to build on these in future solocasts as well, covering the top six reasons negotiations fail; the five steps to being a negotiator; authentic negotiation techniques; and the principles of CPR. But if you are able to get to clarity, detachment, and equilibrium, you will have an advantage over 90% of other negotiators. If you want to hear more about CDE, listen to my solocast episode, Clarity, Detachment, and Equilibrium, with Corey Kupfer.

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!