Most deals are judged on the day they complete. They should be judged 90 days later.
By then the announcement has been forgotten. The congratulations have stopped. And the people inside the business have made up their minds about what has happened to them. Whether they stay. Whether they still believe the owner who sold. Whether the new one means what it said.
I have run integrations from both sides of the table, and the pattern is always the same. Value is rarely lost in the negotiation. It is lost in the first three months, quietly, one resignation at a time.
Decide what must not change
So the first conversation we have with a founder is not about what we are going to change. It is about what must not. The client relationships. The way decisions get made close to the work. The people the business could not run without. Write it down. Agree it. Then protect it, even when it is inconvenient.
Change the back office, not the front
There is plenty a group can improve straight away. Finance, payroll, legal, compliance, technology and the data underneath them. Done properly, those changes free consultants to spend more time with clients and candidates. Done badly, they arrive as a pile of new forms on the desk of someone who was billing well last month.
The rule is simple. The front of the business should feel the benefit before it feels the change.
Say it early, say it plainly
People do not fear change half as much as they fear finding out late. So everyone needs to know where they stand, what is happening and why, before the rumours get there first. That is not a courtesy. It is how you keep the people you paid for.
Measure the right thing
Revenue in the first quarter will tell you very little. The number I watch is whether the same consultants are still there, and still bringing in new work, a year on. If they are, the deal is working. If they are not, no spreadsheet will save it.
Better together is a promise. The first 90 days are when people decide whether to believe it.
Thinking about what comes next?
Every conversation starts with Nick Gordon, our founder. It is confidential, it commits you to nothing, and the best ones happen while the business is still performing.