How to Choose the Right M&A Advisor for Your Business

You'll sell your business once. The advisor you pick shapes that outcome more than almost any other decision.

Four things that actually matter

• Relevant deal experience — not just any deals, but deals in your size range and roughly your industry
• A defined process — how they run it, not just that they run one
• Personal chemistry — you'll spend 6–12 months in the trenches with this person
• References from owners who actually closed with them, not just talked to them

Look past the firm name

You aren't hiring a logo. You're hiring the specific person who will run your deal. Ask who your day-to-day contact will be, how many active engagements they have, and how many they've personally closed in the last three years.

Warning signs

Big valuation promises with no comps to back them up. Refusal to explain the fee structure clearly. Vague answers about the buyer universe they'd approach. A hard sell to sign the engagement letter this week.

What good looks like

An advisor should be able to sketch, in the first meeting, a realistic valuation range grounded in comparable transactions, name the types of buyers they'd approach, and describe how their process creates competitive tension. If they can't do that clearly, keep looking.