What Not to Say to an Owner in Your First Meeting

When meeting an owner for the first time, your goal is not to instantly sign a deal. You first want to get to know them and make them feel comfortable about selling their business to you. In order to do this, there are some important questions to ask and subjects to broach, which I’ve covered elsewhere. Today, let’s focus on some of the topics that you should avoid.

Here’s what NOT to say to an owner in your first meeting:

Politics and Religion

In general, you want to stay away from anything potentially controversial. As with family thanksgiving dinners, you should avoid politics and religion. You don’t know the owner or their perspective, so don’t risk losing the deal by inadvertently offending someone. If they do start talking about one of these sensitive topics, gently guide the conversation back to safer waters.

If the owner starts speaking about politics and you’re in agreement, it may be ok to go to down that path, but it’s always safer to let them do the talking or to change the subject.

Getting Down to Business Immediately

At dinner you want to get to know the owner, so don’t be too focused on discussing the business. Far too often leaders forget about the human aspect of mergers and acquisitions. You don’t want to barrage the owner with a list of questions from a checklist. Many owners think of their company as their baby and are selling for the first time. It’s important to remember to connect on a personal level as well.

Talk about families, hobbies or their community. Inevitably some information about the business will weave its way into your conversations, but that should not be the primary focus. You’ll have plenty of time to discuss the business in the meeting the following morning.

Financials and Other Specifics

When speaking about the business, avoid pursuing too much detail, especially financial. Remember, this is an introductory meeting so there will be many unknowns that can be determined at a later stage once you have all the information.

Although you may be tempted to, don’t talk about valuation in the first meeting. The owner may be eager to discuss price and may even ask you a specific question, for example, “Will you pay $10 million for my company?” At this point in time, you haven’t seen their financials or their operations, so you can honestly say it’s too early to tell and that you need to see a lot more to determine if there is a strategic fit.

The owner may also hone in on other specifics such as if you plan to close any locations or if you plan to keep all the employees at the company. Again, it’s too early in the process to make decisions about such things.

Overall, your goal is to keep the conversation at the right depth during the first meeting. Talk about product opportunities, cultural fit, and why the combination of the two entities makes strategic sense. If the first meeting goes well, you’ll be back for more and you can work out all the details later on.

33 comments

Skip to comment form

  1. Reading your article helped me a lot and I agree with you. But I still have some doubts, can you clarify for me? I’ll keep an eye out for your answers.

  2. Reading your article helped me a lot and I agree with you. But I still have some doubts, can you clarify for me? I’ll keep an eye out for your answers.

    • umb on February 25, 2023 at 1:39 pm

    Reading your article helped me a lot and I agree with you. But I still have some doubts, can you clarify for me? I’ll keep an eye out for your answers.

  3. Reading your article helped me a lot and I agree with you. But I still have some doubts, can you clarify for me? I’ll keep an eye out for your answers.

    • amazy on February 25, 2023 at 4:30 pm

    Reading your article helped me a lot and I agree with you. But I still have some doubts, can you clarify for me? I’ll keep an eye out for your answers.

    • gate.io on February 27, 2023 at 10:09 am

    For my thesis, I consulted a lot of information, read your article made me feel a lot, benefited me a lot from it, thank you for your help. Thanks!

    • kda orb on February 28, 2023 at 3:15 am

    Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!

  4. Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!

  5. Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!

  6. I agree with your point of view, your article has given me a lot of help and benefited me a lot. Thanks. Hope you continue to write such excellent articles.

  7. Do you mind if I quote a couple of your articles as long asI provide credit and sources back to your website?My blog site is in the very same niche as yours and my users would certainly benefit from some of the information you present here.Please let me know if this okay with you. Thanks!

    • btcst on March 5, 2023 at 6:46 pm

    Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!

  8. Great information shared.. really enjoyed reading this post thank you author for sharing this post .. appreciated

  9. I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. So, do you allow me to do this? I want to share your article link to my website: gate.io

  10. I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. So, do you allow me to do this? I want to share your article link to my website: gate io

    • Log in on March 6, 2023 at 5:21 pm

    I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. So, do you allow me to do this? I want to share your article link to my website: Log in

  11. I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. So, do you allow me to do this? I want to share your article link to my website: gate io

  12. I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. So, do you allow me to do this? I want to share your article link to my website: gate io

    • Log in on March 7, 2023 at 10:43 am

    I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. This has provided a great help for my thesis writing, and I will seriously improve it. However, I don’t know much about a certain place. Can you help me?

    • Log in on March 8, 2023 at 1:42 am

    I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. This has provided a great help for my thesis writing, and I will seriously improve it. However, I don’t know much about a certain place. Can you help me?

  13. I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. This has provided a great help for my thesis writing, and I will seriously improve it. However, I don’t know much about a certain place. Can you help me?

  14. I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. This has provided a great help for my thesis writing, and I will seriously improve it. However, I don’t know much about a certain place. Can you help me?

  15. I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. This has provided a great help for my thesis writing, and I will seriously improve it. However, I don’t know much about a certain place. Can you help me?

    • gate io on March 8, 2023 at 10:29 am

    I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. This has provided a great help for my thesis writing, and I will seriously improve it. However, I don’t know much about a certain place. Can you help me?

  16. I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. This has provided a great help for my thesis writing, and I will seriously improve it. However, I don’t know much about a certain place. Can you help me?

    • gate.io on March 10, 2023 at 5:01 pm

    I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. This has provided a great help for my thesis writing, and I will seriously improve it. However, I don’t know much about a certain place. Can you help me?

    • gate io on March 11, 2023 at 5:19 am

    I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. This has provided a great help for my thesis writing, and I will seriously improve it. However, I don’t know much about a certain place. Can you help me?

  17. I have read your article carefully and I agree with you very much. This has provided a great help for my thesis writing, and I will seriously improve it. However, I don’t know much about a certain place. Can you help me?

  18. Cool. I spent a long time looking for relevant content and found that your article gave me new ideas, which is very helpful for my research. I think my thesis can be completed more smoothly. Thank you.

    • gateio on March 11, 2023 at 7:56 pm

    Cool. I spent a long time looking for relevant content and found that your article gave me new ideas, which is very helpful for my research. I think my thesis can be completed more smoothly. Thank you.

    • gate io on March 12, 2023 at 1:01 am

    Cool. I spent a long time looking for relevant content and found that your article gave me new ideas, which is very helpful for my research. I think my thesis can be completed more smoothly. Thank you.

  19. Spending time in Slot Book of Dead betting for money is very easy, especially because, you can not make impressive deposits. Also there is an opportunity to https://book-of-dead-games.com/ play in Demo Book of Dead it for free just to win, that’s why this game is loved by many people.

  20. Reading your article helped me a lot and I agree with you. But I still have some doubts, can you clarify for me? I’ll keep an eye out for your answers.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.