By Brett Kaufman. 8 years using relationships to build sales pipelines, from political fundraising to a 7 figure business to running matchmaking for two communities. Over 1,000 introductions facilitated.

Before you go to market, warm up six relationships: an M&A advisor or broker, your CPA, a deal attorney, your wealth manager, the few companies most likely to buy you, and owners in your industry who already sold. Start one to three years out, because every one of them works better when they already know you and your business before the process begins.

You probably know some of these people already. The problem is that you talk to them once a year, usually about something else.

It goes like this. Your CPA files the return in April. You see the attorney when a lease renews. Your wealth manager sends a quarterly statement you skim. The competitor who once asked if you would ever sell has not heard from you in four years. Then one day you decide it is time, and every one of those people starts from zero.

I run matchmaking for two communities, and the rule I come back to is simple. An intro lands better when the other person already knows who you are. A sale is the biggest intro you will ever need.

Most owners walk into the sale cold

You are not alone. In an Exit Factor survey of 1,104 US small business owners, run by Researchscape in August and September 2026, only 15 percent had a formal, written exit plan and only 13 percent were working with a paid exit planning advisor. Yet 64 percent said at least half of their personal net worth is tied to the business.

The IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse for Q2 2026 found the same pattern from the other side of the table: between 60 and 90 percent of sellers had done less than a year of exit planning, or none. Lower middle market deals averaged 11 to 12 months from engagement to close.

And the Exit Planning Institute puts the outcome bluntly. In its words, only 20 to 30 percent of businesses that go to market actually sell.

Relationships will not fix all of that. But a lot of what separates the sales that close from the ones that stall is who was already in your corner, and who already knew your name, before the listing.

1. An M&A advisor or business broker

Do not meet your advisor the week you want to sell. Meet two or three of them a year or two out, and keep talking to the one you trust.

A good advisor will tell you what buyers will pick apart: customer concentration, owner dependence, messy books. That is far more useful at month 24 than at month 2. You also get to watch how they communicate before you hand them the most important transaction of your life. If they go quiet when nothing is at stake, they will go quiet during diligence.

2. Your CPA

Your CPA is about to become the most important person in diligence. Buyers will rebuild your numbers line by line, and a quality of earnings review will test every add back.

Tell your CPA your timeline now. Ask what a buyer would question in your last three years of financials and what to clean up first. CPAs also hear about deals constantly. Many advisors and buyers treat them as a referral source, which is why buyers court CPAs as a deal source. A CPA who knows you plan to sell in two years can quietly mention you to the right person.

3. A deal attorney

The attorney who did your leases may not be the one who should run your purchase agreement. Find a lawyer who does business sales regularly, and have a first conversation long before you need them.

Ask about entity structure, open contracts with change of control clauses, and anything in your past that would surface in diligence. Attorneys, especially estate and trust lawyers, also sit close to owners at the moment of a decision, which is why buyers watch them closely.

4. Your wealth manager

Most owners treat the wealth conversation as something that happens after the wire hits. It should happen first. What number do you actually need? What does the after tax amount look like under different structures? Do you need cash at close, or can you take an earnout or seller note?

Your answer changes which buyers make sense and how hard you push on price versus terms. A wealth manager who has been in the room for two years will give you a better answer than one meeting your sale for the first time.

5. The companies most likely to buy you

Make a short list. Competitors who are growing, larger players in adjacent markets, suppliers or customers who might want to own what you do. Five to ten names.

You are not negotiating. You are becoming familiar. See them at industry events. Congratulate them on a new location. Refer them a customer you cannot serve. When your advisor eventually takes the business to market, a buyer who already respects how you run things reads the materials differently than a stranger does.

This is also how quiet sales happen. Many deals never reach a public listing because the right buyer heard about it first. Buyers are already doing this to you, by the way. The good ones keep a long, patient rhythm with owners who said not yet. It works in both directions. You want to know the buyers as well as they want to know you.

6. Owners who already sold

Find two or three owners in your industry who sold in the last few years. Buy them lunch. Ask what they would do differently, which advisor they used, what diligence surprised them and how life looks now.

The Exit Factor survey found 44 percent of owners feel uncertain about their identity without the business, and 25 percent named the emotional difficulty of letting go as a barrier to planning. Someone who has been through it is the only person who can tell you what the year after actually feels like. They are often the best source for an advisor recommendation you can trust, too.

The real problem is staying in touch for two years

None of this is hard to understand. The hard part is the rhythm. Six types of relationships, maybe 20 people, kept warm for 12 to 36 months, while you still run a company.

Here is what usually happens. A strong first meeting, a promise to stay in touch, then nothing for nine months because a key hire quit or a big customer needed you. When you finally go to market, the advisor you liked has forgotten the details, the competitor has moved on, and the owner who sold is a name you half remember.

What I tell people: a light touch every few weeks is enough. A note to your CPA when you sign a big contract. Congratulations to a likely buyer when they open a new location. A question to the owner who sold when your advisor brings up an earnout. Each one takes a minute. Remembering to send it is the part that slips.

Ten minutes a day

That is the part I built FRONT OF MIND to handle. It opens on your 10 minutes for today, and each person on it comes with one line saying why today: they posted, their company was in the news, a follow up is due, you met at an event weeks ago and never followed up, or the relationship is going cold. Each draft is a text style message, 40 words max, in your voice. Nothing sends without your tap, and it learns from every edit.

Ask Liala out loud, “who do I know that is an M&A advisor” or “who do I know that sold a business,” and it returns the right people with why. Your contacts are encrypted. No one on our team looks at them. Export or delete anytime.

Start free with your first 25 contacts and see who comes up first.

See how it works