Podcast: 6 Questions Sellers Want Buyers to Ask

Mike:

Hi there. It's Mike Langford. Welcome to The Advisor Financing Forum, a podcast presented by SkyView Partners. This week on the show, we have our third episode of the Back to Business series with a discussion titled Six Questions Sellers Want You to Ask and Why Buyers Need to Listen. As with the previous two episodes, this is an audio version of a webinar that we hosted for the SkyView community. Aaron Hasler and Kara Miller are with me again for this conversation, each bringing their unique perspective on how a buyer should approach these six core questions. If you'd like to see a video of the webinar, you can find it on YouTube on the SkyView Partners channel. While you're there, make sure you give the video a like and subscribe to the channel so you can stay on top of all the great content that the SkyView team is putting out there to help you with your M and A financing needs. And of course, make sure you subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you like to get your podcast jam on.

Before we get started, if you have a question about anything we cover on the webinar, or if you'd like to explore your financing options for M and A, succession or any other use case, feel free to reach out to the team at SkyView by calling (866) 567-6282 or simply swing by skyview.com and click that get pre-approved button, or simply shoot an email to info@skyview.com and someone will get right with you. Okay. Remember we need 1.21 gigawatts as Doc Brown says, so hold onto your seats. This episode is going to be electric. Let's get back to business. Let's do it.

Hi everyone. Welcome to Six Questions Sellers Want to Ask and Why Buyers Need to Listen. My name is Mike Langford and with me again today are Aaron Hasler, a managing partner at SkyView Partners who leads advisory practice mergers and acquisitions consulting, and Kara Miller, managing director of banking and M and A services. This is the third webinar in the SkyView Back to Business in 2021 series to kick off the new year. If you happen to miss either of the first two, you can find recordings at skyview.com/educate. We are also publishing audio versions of each webinar on our podcast feed. Just search for The Advisor Financing Forum on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google, or any other major podcasting platform. Okay, let's get to it. Hi team. It's great to see you this morning.

Aaron:

Morning, Mike.

Kara:

Good morning.

Mike:

All right. We're going to crush it today. I can just feel it. We're right before we click the record button. We are high energy. This is really good stuff. And welcome everyone to this webinar. Really excited to have you as well, if you're tuning in for this show. All right. So one of the things we kicked around that came up in prep for this particular episode was that too often, when we see deals break down, it wasn't necessarily because the price was too high or they just couldn't think of some of the things about qualifications for the buyer or something like that. Deals tend to break down because the seller feels like the buyer really just isn't listening to their needs. I have some stuff that I want to get out there. I want to accomplish or whatever.

So I thought before we jump in to some of the key questions that we want to talk about, those six key questions, if you will, maybe we can talk a little bit about that. In your experience, what are sellers really saying when they back out of a deal or they get cold feet? And the reason why they're saying they do that is because they felt like the buyer wasn't listening to them or wasn't hearing them. Aaron, what have you heard over the years when buyers express that sentiment to you?

Aaron:

That's a good question. I think we've heard it a lot. I feel like it comes almost across on almost every deal. I think when the seller is saying that, when they're saying that they aren't feeling heard, there's a couple of things that's at stake. I think they really aren't being heard. I think sometimes the buyer's really focused on all of the other aspects that they have to accomplish in the transaction, the financing, the logistical support, the transition work, onboarding the new staff, and the buyer's own fear of just taking on the added responsibility. But I think the seller literally has said I don't feel comfortable yet with everything that we've discussed or I need to review it one more time. And I feel like there are some issues that I still haven't resolved within my own self to help make this transaction happen.

Mike:

Kara, how about your thoughts? You always come at this from a slightly different angle and it was really fun when we, the email back and forth. Katie Bruner, who teed up this topic, said, "Listen, Aaron and Kara have been doing this for years, but both of them oftentimes have different thought processes or different opinions as to the way to approach this type of a topic." What are your thoughts? What do you see in sellers when they are expressing that they're not being heard?

Kara:

I'll build on what Aaron said. I was talking to an advisor a couple of weeks ago. I said, "I bet you get offers to sell all the time. Have you ever engaged with a buyer? Tell me how that went." And she said, "I did. And I broke it off because he wasn't listening to me. I was telling him that he was rushing the process and he just kept barreling through at this really quick pace. And I thought, if he doesn't listen to me during this M and A process, we are not going to be able to collaborate as business partners. Even though I was only going to stay on for a year or two or three, his ability to listen to me now is indicative of what kind of a collaborative partner he's going to be down the road."

Mike:

Yeah. I can totally see that. It's exacerbating.

Kara:

You can't argue with it.

Mike:

You're sitting there and you're just not paying attention. You're not listening to me or you're not curious about me. You're more looking to get the deal done so I can totally see that. Okay. Let's shift into some of the actionable advice we have for buyers today because I love that that's been our approach so far for the previous two webinars as well and this one is that we're really hoping that if you're tuning in to listen to this, however you're consuming this, whether you're live here on the webinar or seeing it recorded somewhere or listening to it on the podcast, you're looking for something to do. You're looking at, give me some advice, some actionable steps. So each of the following six questions have a very specific purpose.

Not only will they help you develop a rapport with the seller, they are designed to facilitate successful deal structures that'll work for everyone, the buyer, the seller, and of course, the client. So let's start with the first one. And it's my personal favorite because I've used it in a bunch of different variations over the course of my life. It's the, tell me how you built your business question. Why would a buyer ask the seller this question and why should it be one of the first questions he or she asks? Let's start with you, Kara, on this one.

Kara:

It's one of my favorite questions. In a practical sense, this can bring insight into why an advisor got into the business in the first place, overviews their career experience, and maybe indicates what they veered away from. So Aaron and I were working with a buyer late fall, early winter, who got into the business because he was a rainmaker and he really enjoyed that. He built up a great book of business, started his own firm. And then he got mired down in the minutiae of financial plans and running the business, managing the lease or the build-out, whatever. So we knew that putting him back into an asset gathering role, which was his first love and his real passion, putting him in that role in the new company was going to be a win for both sides. But you need to ask very open-ended questions about, tell me how you built your business, and probe so that these types of nuggets reveal themselves.

Aaron:

Yeah. I agree with Kara and one of the things I really like about that, even though it is such an open-ended question is you really do need to hear that career summary and you need that seller to start to open up. And I think everybody likes to talk about themselves and their career, but then as the buyer, you really need to just ask that question and then be quiet. Don't ask, just let them talk and let them talk as much as they can because you gain insight on their career trajectory. Have they been a lone wolf their entire career, and they've always made their own decisions? Have they been partners in other firms in the past where a partnership didn't work out? They tell you a lot in that question and you really just have to train yourself as the buyer to ask that question and then do an active listening approach, but resist the temptation for a while to ask follow-up questions and just listen and almost let an awkward pause happen because if you just keep that seller going, you're going to find out a lot of information.

Mike:

I love this question specifically because it's open-ended but also I use this question a lot. I interview a lot of startup founders, a lot of company founders. And I always call this the origin story question because everybody is the super hero of their own story. You are the hero of your own story, you're building something. And then your business, if you built this business over the years, you think of it that way. You're thinking about the journey that you've been through. And so for somebody to ask that question, it shows, like you were saying, a deep interest. I want to understand you, the business, how this came to be, but it does, it opens up so many doors.

And I think you said, Kara, little threads you can pull on afterwards that they're revealing some things. That's really, really interesting. The next question is an interesting one to me that I'm not 100% sure how you guys asked this one. So I'm going to be fascinated to learn a little bit more. It's describe your values and vision. What is the buyer looking for here if they ask a seller to tell them about their values and their vision?

Kara:

Well, this is less of an open-ended question and requires a little bit more prompting, but again, like Aaron said, we definitely don't want to lead the seller to any ideas that they're not volunteering. So we have a list, and by far not exhaustive, of some top values and visions that we like to ask the seller about for the transaction and their life post-transaction. So it might be, how important is maximizing revenue from the sale to you compared to finding a particular match for your clients? How important is the brand name of the firm? And that would get at the value of legacy or continuing a particular service model or investment philosophy. So we have to ask a lot of more specific questions to get them to open up and reveal this.

And it's funny that some of them will say right upfront, maximizing revenue from the sale, that's my top priority, but I would say most of them, and Aaron, tell me what your experience is, I would say most of them start off by saying I just want to find the right person for my clients. And it's really a little bit more complicated than that. And the more they talk about it, I think the more authentically they start to own up to what their priorities really are because they might not realize them and you might have to take them through the conversation a couple of times to help them articulate it for themselves.

Aaron:

And I think what's super unique about our industry is that there hasn't been a precedent, Mike, of selling their practices up until the last decade. So most of these advisors that are selling the practice today, it wasn't like they started this business 30 years ago and said, oh, I'm going to sell this enterprise. It was, oh, I'm going to build this business because it's something that I can make an income on and I can service my clients and I can have this career. And then in the last 15 years, it started to become possible to really sell your practice for value. So I think a lot of these advisors just don't necessarily have, or they haven't set out and formulated their vision. And by asking this kind of vision and values question, you're finding out not only how do they operate their business. I think one of the things that we find so fascinating about these enterprises is they really mirror the personality of the owner because they are small enterprises, but then you're forcing that seller to think about what it is that's important to them and their business.

And I think a lot of times they haven't spent tremendous amount of time reflecting on it. And so this is a conversation that starts them thinking. But I think you almost have to ask this question repeatedly as you're building a relationship with a seller, this process is going to take you four to six months. And so I think you need to check in on this question again and again, and see what's important to that seller and what's changed because as they go through this self-discovery process, their preferences do change. And so as they realize what's possible for them and what's possible for their business, as Kara mentioned, the easy way to answer it is this is what I want for my clients. Well, we know that's important because they've always serviced their clients and they've done a good job with it. But then it's all of these other little aspects of what's important to them that start to come out. And I think that takes a little bit of self-reflective time.

And we always say to both the buyer and the sellers, keep a yellow scratch pad by your bedside and carry that around with you and for the seller, it's thoughts and visions and values that they want to write down and for the buyer, it's questions and really the same thing. I think for every buyer, as you ask these questions, you need to be thinking about your own answer and how you would answer them because that's going to help you understand the seller and help you to build that business relationship.

Mike:

It's interesting to me. And I wonder if this is another component of it that might surface if you're the buyer and why you want to ask this question is like, when you ask somebody about their values and their vision, they start talking. Your first thing is like, what are my business values? Well, what are my personal values? But I would imagine one of the things that bubbles up in the surface is their philosophy of rendering financial advice and managing assets. It's not one single method of doing business. It's not, some advisors will come at it. Hey, listen, spend less so you can live a better tomorrow, whereas some other advisors may have a philosophy. Hey, listen, your whole life is a series of decisions. If you want to have a more vibrant, youthful experience and live a more conservative life and retirement, you're making that decision, whatever. There's probably a lot of things that go into it. And I think a question like this might surface those things and help you make a better decision about, am I the right advisor to acquire this business?

Aaron:

The number one advice I would give these buyers is that they need to ask these questions repeatedly and understand that these answers may change. And so we see a lot of difficulty in a statement that a seller might make, but then a couple months goes by and their opinion changes. It's just, it is what it is. It's a natural evolution of this process as they think about tremendous change in their life. And so if the buyer takes anything away from today's call, it's ask these questions, ask them repeatedly, expect change and embrace that change and work with it.

Mike:

Fantastic. It's fascinating, we've all had someone ask us this next question on the list a few times in our lives, probably more than a few times, but it's usually a seller who's asking this question to us. It's the, what is your timeline question. You've been in the car dealership where they're like, "When are you looking to make a move on this car? When are you looking to get a new car?" Or if you're out shopping for houses and you just go into an open house, like, "Oh, when are you looking to move? Are you looking to buy a house anytime soon?" So it's usually that question. But specifically you recommend that buyers ask the seller. When do you want to sell your business? And what's your timeline for this? Why are these time-related questions so important for the process?

Kara:

Asking this timeline question, of course, could refer to, when do you want to start the process of selling your business or by when do you want to close? So it's important to differentiate those two, but asking this question can help indicate their readiness to sell. So my experience is when an advisor says, "Oh three to four years," that's code for, I'm not ready to talk about this. I have no intention of beginning work or having any substantive conversations on this topic at this time. And we're in communication with many advisors and every time we talk about their timeline, it's always three to four years, three to four years, three to four years. And I talked to somebody in Pennsylvania a couple of months ago, he's in his 40s. He was brought into an RIA to take over from the founder. The founder's 78, and ever since he joined the firm 10 years ago, it's been, "I'm going to hand it over in three to four years." So asking this question indicates if they're really a seller and if they're not, move on or put them on a lower priority on the [inaudible 00:18:06] list.

Another reason that this is important to ask is they will indicate the pace at which they want to move forward and respecting that pace indicates that you're a good collaborator, like we said earlier, but you're also balancing that out with keeping the deal moving. So sellers can tend to get cold feet and press the pause button. And it's very difficult for the buyer to gauge that just the right balance of pushing the deal forward, providing a lot of reassurance, but respecting the pace of the seller.

Aaron:

Kara's touched on what I think is probably the trickiest aspect of working with the sellers and the seller relationships because as a buyer, you want to just push forward. You want to go, you want to complete this project. You want to get in front of the clients and move on with your business. And the seller doesn't want it to end. I was watching the replay of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New Orleans Saints last night. And you've got Drew Brees and Tom Brady who are these guys who are my age, so I think I'd still be [inaudible 00:19:16] in the NFL if I were them too. But you look at, at the end, there was a video clip of these two guys talking on the field and it's two, three hours after game time and they're still hanging in and soaking it up.

And that's your seller. Your seller is that, hey, I've lived the glory, being in front of my clients every day is this satisfaction, fulfillment that I don't get in other aspects. And it's really fulfilled me and driven me to build this business. And so as the buyer, you just always have to be cognizant of that. But I also recognize that as the buyer, you have to push the pace because there is a end for each of these sellers. And at some point you have to help them find that end. And so what we always look at is ask the question about the timeframe, but then help them identify what it is in that timeframe that's important to them, or what are those aspects or that pivot point that's going to force them or inspire them to sell. And if you can work with that, then you can sometimes speed up that timeframe. But it's an absolutely tricky issue. And I feel like it takes a real talent to be able to do it well.

Mike:

Yeah. I love that you recommend bringing it up though because it does force somebody to talk about when it is that they're thinking of doing. If they give you that three to four years, isn't it kind of like, I'm not 100% ready, but if you made me a godfather offer, maybe, that type of thing. But one of the things Kara and I talked about in depth on an earlier podcast was sellers looking for a longer glide path out of the business that they're not always just looking to pull the plug and exit when the ink is dry on the selling agreement. There's some of them, hey, I want to stay on for the next five, 10 years. And you may surface something like that with this question that okay, your timeline is, it's not that you want to exit the business 100%, that you're just starting to think about you want to wind down and maybe if that changes your negotiation in the deal.

It's really, I think it's such a smart question. I'm really intrigued by this next line of questioning and why you recommend it because you suggest that buyers ask the seller, what do you enjoy most in the business or about the business and what do you enjoy doing least? I have a feeling this is building on something you mentioned earlier, Kara, what are buyers hoping to surface with these types of questions? What do you like most and what do you least like about this job or your business?

Kara:

Yeah. Well, what's in it for the buyer in the answer to this question is an indication as to what they can offer the seller to make the proposition of selling a little sweeter. If the seller says, "Well, I don't like running the business. I don't like being the human resource person or figuring out the office space or I'm sick of financial planning. I love being in front of clients, but I need somebody to... I just don't like that part of it." The buyer can offer, well, we'll bring in a team. They will do all your financial planning prep. You can present and they'll do all the follow-up. So asking those questions helps the buyer propose some solutions that the seller either doesn't have the resources to enact, or just hasn't thought of.

Aaron:

One of the questions I like as a quick follow-up to this one is, what do you feel you've left undone in your business? And what else, if given more time, would you want to accomplish? Because as Kara described, one of the things that I think that these sellers are always looking at is well, if I just had six more months or maybe a year, I can fix this or I can do that. And then my business might be worth that little bit more, or my clients might be in that much better position. And so I think as the buyer, you're really looking at, what do you like to do? What do you feel like are the flaws in your business? Because there's two things. One, the seller is usually really proud of their business and what they've accomplished, but it's like, I always use this as a homeowner.

As a homeowner, you're most critical when you're looking at the outside of your home. Oh, there's a paint chip over here. Or the grass has a little brown patch over there. Those are the things I'm going to notice, but somebody who's driving by on the street says, "Oh, that's a beautiful home." Well, it's the same thing with these sellers. It's, they're always feeling, these are my issues with the business that I haven't had time to resolve. And so if you can answer those questions as a buyer, or you can help them identify some solutions, I think that goes a long way in helping a seller come to that conclusion that, hey, I've accomplished everything I need to accomplish. And I'm ready to allow for this person to continue to run my business and my enterprise.

Mike:

That's smart. That's smart. For the buyer too additionally, you're getting the seller to volunteer some information about, these are some things that need fixing, or these are things that may have gone untended to, and some things that might have gotten over-invested in. We tend to overinvest in the things that we really enjoy doing. We're going to spend more time on them. We're going to buy better equipment or hire better resources to facilitate the things that we're really good at. The things that we don't like doing, avoid doing. So you might know, okay, when I go to get in there, I've got to fix this or whatever, and maybe it's something you're really good at fixing. I think it's a smart line of questioning not only because it makes the seller feel more comfortable, but as a buyer, you're surfacing some stuff that you might want to be aware of.

So selling a business is a big deal for a financial advisor who might have spent 20, 30, 40 years in his or her life of his or her life building a business that is based on longterm client relationship. There's going to be a lot of emotions involved. And one of those common emotions is likely to be fear. And I imagine it's for that reason that you recommend asking the seller, what are your fears of selling the business? And we tipped a little bit on this, there's some apprehension. The end is near. I'm seeing that I'm going to exit this business and there might be a little bit of reticence to do so. So why do you recommend asking about the fears?

Kara:

Well, we want to address all of them. Most of them can be neutralized. And I'd say these fears are on a spectrum from rational to irrational. So on the rational side, a seller might say, "I run my business on yellow notepads and manila file folders. And I am worried that the buyer is going to come in with all sorts of new fangled technology and that it's going to be unpleasant for me to learn that." That's a rational fear and that's probably going to happen. But knowing it ahead of time, the buyer can make sure the seller is well-supported and not stressed out during that transition. And the seller can make it through that. They can continue to participate. On the irrational side, we hear about horror stories that happen during these transactions. I don't believe we have been involved in any of them.

And I think they're more likely to happen when a seller DIYs their own deal. When a seller says, "I don't need representation. I'm going to find my own buyer. I'm going to do my own due diligence. I'm going to negotiate on my own behalf and it's going to be great." And it's kind of like representing yourself in court. It's not advisable. And partly because there's a power differential too. The seller would be negotiating with their new boss almost, which is a weird dynamic. So some examples of horror stories, which I take their word that these happen. One said, "Well, I have a friend who sold their advisory firm, the buyer bungled it up. And he had to go back in there six months later and unwind the whole deal. And then a year later, he had to start all over again."

That could only come from DIY-ing your own deal. And then there are some fears that are very hypothetical, like, well, what if I engage in a situation where I'm going to get 70% cash at closing for my business and the remainder goes into escrow and is paid out in one to three years and then what if the buyer takes my name off the door and everything goes to crap? Then I won't get my money." And that's a scenario that's not likely to happen, but it's the type of irrational fear that needs to be neutralized.

Mike:

Makes sense. What are some of the fears that you've heard advisors express, Aaron?

Aaron:

Yeah, boy. I think it's everything from the buyer's going to run my business into the ground. My clients aren't going to like them. They're going to take a long time to transition. They're not going to be comfortable with the technology. My staff isn't going to get treated the same way or be protected in the same way. My clients may be confused by the new technology. But as Kara mentioned, I think a lot of times they're just fears the seller has that a savvy buyer can assuage. And what we're looking at for buyers to do is think of this like a client onboarding process. Financial advisors are working with us on a daily basis. You're meeting with a new client. They might've been referred into you. You don't know their situation. You're getting to know that person.

Identify what their history is within financial advice. Maybe they've had a bad experience. And so advisors have the skillset. They have the ability to work with these sellers. But I think when they're going through this business transaction, they think it is a business transaction when really it's an emotional transaction with a business portion attached to it. So I think the buyers have to keep in the mindset that it's a lot like onboarding a skittish client. It's going to take a little time. And our recommendation is one, have outside advice. We feel like obviously having that neutral party, that mediator, even if they're representing the other side, if somebody is representing a seller, just having that voice to be able to communicate and take some of the emotion or the stress out of the communication makes a big difference.

And then I think the buyer needs to create a team that, if I, as a financial advisor, am more of an analytical personality and I have less of that emotional EQ, then maybe I need to bring somebody in with me into these meetings, a team member, a support personnel or whatever that's going to help me manage that relationship and understand those emotions. And so it's about assembling the right team and putting together and really giving that seller a voice to express their fears, their frustrations, and then manage those emotions until they come to a good conclusion.

Mike:

I love that. I love the fact that you're bringing up and you hit them head on and actually ask the seller to express their fears because we're all nervous about stuff. Things happen. There's anxieties. But if you get through the what if scenarios, the old acronym that fear stands for false evidence appearing real. Our monkey brain at 3:00 in the morning always goes a little haywire, especially when there's a big event happening here. And your seller is not immune to that no matter how calm, cool, collected he or she may look across the conference table. So making sure you're addressing all those is really important. But now to the fun stuff, I think the sixth question is a fantastic one. And it's fittingly in our Back to the Future style theme for this webinar series. This is the time travel question. It's, what do you want to do after you sell your business? What's the future hold for you after this is done? How do you recommend that buyers talk about that and why, what's the logic here?

Kara:

Well, I think this gives everybody a carrot to look at, keep your eye on the prize. A lot of advisors will come into the process saying I have a vacation home, and I'd like to spend four, six week chunks of time there, or I'd like to travel more, or I'd like to take longer vacations. Or I would like to just come into the office for two hours a day and the rest of the day, I'm just enjoying my life.

Aaron:

It's one of the trickiest aspects in my opinion because we see, we talk to sellers all the time and they say, "I know exactly what I want to do. I want to... And here's how my week is going to be broken out." And they're prepared and you're like, "Okay, let's press the accelerator. You're ready to go." But I think more than not, we're speaking to sellers that have put all their life into this career, especially I would say the baby boom generation because they just were bred to we're putting our all into this business and we're going to work a lot of hours. And that's an interesting and fun generation to work with because it really is about, what else am I going to do? Or what else can I do? And I think as the buyer, you really have to ask this question continually. And if they don't have a clear answer, that may be a good indicator that this is going to be a hard transaction, or you have to identify a role within the business that they can do that's going to help them feel valued.

And you as the buyer have to help them come up with a good plan. And I think that's your best defense is a good offense. And it's, how do I incorporate this seller, how do I incorporate their skillsets, their personality into the business that I can make them feel valued and that I can have them around and let them decide on their own time when they want to fully exit out of the business? That's not an ability that every practice acquisition has. And I don't think we recommend it for every client, but I think it's certainly something that as you're a buyer and you need to continually be asking this question and assessing, is this person ready to sell? And do they have the hobby or activity that they can take on post-career?

Mike:

It almost seems like this is something that really good advisors are probably already pretty savvy at doing for their clients because everybody's had that example, like you asking your client, "Well, when do you want to retire? What do you want to do in retirement?" And the client says, "I don't want to retire. I want to stay working and I want to do..." Or they just can't, they haven't really spent much time in the future thinking about what they would do other than this. And so it's your opportunity to help them brainstorm, like, okay, are there places you always wanted to see that you haven't been? [inaudible 00:34:20] there's activities you might want to try that you've always had on your bucket list, you might want to do sooner. It's really, really interesting.

But to your point, if they're struggling to find an answer, that raises a bit of a red flag to we need to make sure that we get this covered. I had a bonus question that I threw in here that wasn't in prep, but I'm like, I use this question all the time in a sales process. And I was taught it a long, long time ago. And I'm dating myself. It was probably like 20 years ago for when you go for a job interview. This is the last question you should always ask when you're doing a job interview. And it's, is there any reason that you can think of that I wouldn't be the right person for the job? And when it's in a job interview and in this case, it's, is there any reason that you can think of based on everything you know about me and my business to date that you might feel that I'm not the right advisor or we're not the right firm to buy your business?

And I think that question accomplishes a couple of things. Number one, if the answer is, "No, you're awesome," great. The person just said, "No, you're fantastic. I want you to buy my business. You'd be the perfect advisor for my clients." If there's a pause and there's a, "Well," that's awesome as well because you get to address the potential objection. Have you worked with buyers to help them get sellers to this point in a different direction, like using different techniques as well? Because I've just loved, I've been in love with this technique for again, 20 plus years. So I'd just love to hear if you guys work on something similar.

Aaron:

I love that question too. And I think it depends on where in the country you're working with that particular client. Here at Minnesota, because everybody's got this Minnesota nice, you don't ask that question because I think you ask that question in Minnesota and a seller's going to say, "Oh, nothing. Everything's great." But so you have to say, "Tell me what you don't like about my business." And maybe you have to say that in email so they feel less confrontational. If you're talking to a client in New Jersey, you can just wake up and they can tell it to you whether you want to hear it or not. But I think it's a great question.

And again, I would recommend that for every buyer is, we talk about this at SkyView, but it's, you have to revisit these questions and you have to continually ask them, even if you've asked them before and do these kind of temperature checks along the way. But I love the question. I think it's super effective and you have to work with what fits your style best, or what fits that seller's style best in order to get the straight answer. So whether you're asking it in email, or you're asking through a third party.

Mike:

That's really solid advice because as a native Bostonian, who is now living in a foreign nation of Austin, Texas, I have been told, "Hey, listen, Mike, I love your style. You're so direct. You just don't sugarcoat things." But it is true not everybody... There are regional preferences. I like the fact of that advice that hey, make sure you know your audience. Know where you're operating in, and you might want to address it a little bit differently. That's really solid advice. Well, thank you very much, Aaron and Kara, for joining us today. Huge wisdom shared today. Really good, actionable advice for any buyer to get the conversation going in a meaningful way with the seller to make sure that the seller feels like they were listened to and heard. Most importantly, that they were heard.

If you want to learn more about SkyView, head on over to skyview.com. Hit that /educate area to get a recording of this webinar if you want to see it. It should be up the day after the webinar usually is when we publish these. And of course, you can always head on over to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or the YouTubes to get a version of this in podcast form as well. Well, it's been wonderful having everybody. We'll see you next time on the Back to Business in 2021 webinar series. Thank you guys.

Kara:

Thank you.

Aaron:

Thanks, Mike.

Mike:

Thank you very much for listening to this episode of The Advisor Financing Forum podcast. It's always a pleasure to have you with us. Make sure you subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform or YouTube because we've got a ton of great stuff planned for you. Here's thanks to Aaron and Kara again for joining us. Together, they've helped an incredible number of RIAs and independent advisors successfully navigate their M and A journey. So it's really cool to have them share their insights and wisdom on topics like this. Before we say goodbye, please feel free to reach out with your questions or suggestions for guests or topics for the show by hitting SkyView up on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or shoot us an email at podcastatskyview.com. And if you want to learn more about your financing options, simply call (866) 567-6282 or email info@skyview.com. Lastly, make sure you're wearing your mask, keeping your distance and be nice to each other. Okay? We'll see you next time on The Advisor Financing Forum podcast. See you. Bye.