Exit Planning Advisor Deal Referrals: How CEPAs Pick Buyers
Exit planning advisor deal referrals arrive at the Decide stage, years after the first meeting. What CEPAs do, their ethics code, and how buyers stay recent.
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.
Exit planning advisor deal referrals happen at one moment: when an owner who has spent months or years preparing finally decides to sell. The Certified Exit Planning Advisor running that work is often asked who the buyer should be, and names the one they trust and heard from last.
Picture the meeting. This is an illustration, not a real client. An owner of a commercial landscaping company has spent two years with his exit planner. They fixed the books, hired a general manager, and took the owner off most customer calls. Now the planner asks the question the whole engagement has been building toward. Grow for another three years, or sell now? The owner says, “Now. But I don’t want an auction. Who would you trust with this?”
No banker has been hired. No listing exists. The planner has worked on this company for two years and knows which buyer would fit. The question is whether that buyer is you.
Why exit planners see owners first
Exit planners see owners first because owners hire them before they hire anyone to sell. The Exit Planning Institute says more than 8,000 advisors hold its Certified Exit Planning Advisor credential, and it frames the work as helping owners build value and align their business, personal and financial goals.
EPI also explains why owners are worried. On its State of Owner Readiness page, it says 51 percent of the American business market is owned by Baby Boomers who are set to transition over the next zero to ten years, and that only 20 to 30 percent of businesses that go to market actually sell. An owner who hears that does not want to gamble on a public process. He wants a buyer his advisor already vetted.
Here is the detail most buyers miss. A CEPA is a credential, not a job title. The Find a CEPA directory filters by advisor type, including financial advisor, wealth manager, CPA, attorney, insurance professional, commercial banker and business broker. So the exit planner in your phone may also be the wealth manager or the accountant you already know. Read wealth managers as a deal source, CPAs as a deal source and estate attorneys as a deal source for how those primary roles see the same owner.
Where in the process a buyer gets named
EPI teaches the Value Acceleration Methodology in three stages. Discover assesses the company’s value and the owner’s goals. Prepare runs 90 day sprints to reduce risk and take the owner out of daily operations. Decide is the periodic choice, every 90 days, between more growth and an exit, which can mean family succession, an ESOP, or a sale to a third party.
That gives you a calendar. Here is what I would do at each stage.
| Stage | What the planner is doing | What the buyer should do |
|---|---|---|
| Discover | Valuing the company, learning the owner’s goals | Be known. Share your box once, clearly |
| Prepare | 90 day sprints on management, books, customers | Stay recent with a reason each quarter. Never pitch the owner directly |
| Decide | Asking grow or exit, every 90 days | Be the buyer they think of when the owner says sell |
| After a sale | Closing out the engagement | Report back, thank them, send them your seller |
Most buyers show up only at the third row, after a banker sends a teaser. By then the planner may already have a name in mind.
Can exit planning advisor deal referrals include a fee?
Do not open with a finder’s fee. I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. Here is what the EPI Code of Ethics says, in its own words.
- Fees need written consent. Article 110.1 says a member shall not, in connection with a transaction involving a client, “hold, receive bargain for, become entitled to or acquire any fee, remuneration, or benefit without the client’s knowledge and written consent.”
- Relationships with the other side must be disclosed. Article 405.2 says a member engaged by one party to a transaction “shall disclose to the Client any influence, interest or relationship the Member has with the other parties” that could reasonably affect their judgment. You are the other party.
- Client information stays confidential. Article 108.1 says a member “shall hold in strict confidence all information concerning the business and affairs of a client,” and discloses only with the client’s consent or where law requires.
The code also yields to the planner’s primary profession. Article 101.1 says members comply except where that conflicts with their obligations under law or the codes of any nationally recognized legal, securities or accounting professional association. A CEPA who is a registered rep or a CPA carries those rules too.
So assume no cash. Build on reciprocity. You can send a planner owners you meet who are three years from ready and would benefit from preparation. That is the most valuable thing a buyer can give an exit planner, and it comes with no disclosure problem.
How do you stay in front of exit planners for years?
You stay in front of them with a small list, a clear box and a reason every couple of months, for as long as the engagement runs. Here is how I would run it.
- Find 10 to 15 CEPAs. Use the directory, filter by your state, and pick the ones whose primary profession serves owners in your sector and size.
- Show up where they gather. EPI lists 31 local chapters that run programs for owners and training for advisors. Check each chapter’s page before you assume who can attend.
- Give them a box they can match. “I buy founder owned commercial services companies in Texas, 1 to 5 million in EBITDA, I keep the general manager and the name.” The planner just spent two years building that general manager. Say you will keep them.
- Touch on their 90 day rhythm. A text near the end of a quarter, when sprint reviews happen, lands better than one in the middle.
- Send owners the other way. The owner who is not ready to sell to you is a perfect client for a planner. That intro is your strongest touch.
A sample text, under 40 words: “Met a fabrication shop owner in Austin who says he is five years out and has no plan. Thought of you first. Want an intro?”
For the long clock on the owner side, see the 18 month seller, and for every other source in the same chain, the hub on deal flow for business buyers.
The part that breaks
An exit planning engagement can run for years. Your attention runs for about one conference.
You meet three CEPAs at a chapter event, then close a deal and go quiet for most of a year. When the owner in their Decide meeting says sell, the planner names the buyer who sent an intro last month.
FRONT OF MIND opens on your 10 minutes for today. Each person has a one line reason why today: the planner you met at an event 50 days ago and never followed up with, the advisor whose firm was in the news, the referral partner going cold. Every draft is a text style message, 40 words max, and nothing sends without your tap. Ask Liala “who do I know that is a CEPA in Texas” and get the right people with why. Your contacts are encrypted. No one on our team looks at them, and you can export or delete anytime.
Start free with your first 25 contacts and see which advisor comes up first.