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 Summit follow up should start within 48 hours. Text the advisors who named an owner client getting close to a sale first, send every intro you promised second, and put the rest of the CEPAs, CPAs and wealth managers you met on a 30 day and 90 day touch, because their referrals arrive slowly.

It is Tuesday night in San Diego. You spent three days in a room full of people who sit across from business owners every week. A wealth advisor from Phoenix said one of her clients, a family owned distributor, is two years out, maybe less. A CPA said he gets asked for banker referrals twice a quarter. You nodded. You have both of their cards somewhere.

Nobody in that room was selling a company that week. The referrals from it show up a year or three later, and only for the people who stayed recent. I run matchmaking for two communities, and most of my attention goes to what happens after a room empties. Here is how I would run this one.

What makes the Exit Planning Summit room different?

The Exit Planning Summit is an advisor room, not a deal room. The official Summit site lists the 2027 Summit for May 2 to 4, 2027 at the Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center in San Diego. It is run by the Exit Planning Institute, which awards the CEPA credential, and EPI describes the Summit as a gathering of more than 1,000 advisors.

Per the Summit site, the crowd is financial advisors, CPAs, attorneys, consultants, investment bankers, wealth managers, business brokers, valuation professionals and CEPAs. The site lists more than 25 sessions, more than 80 sponsors, workshops, networking socials, and VIP events. The 2026 agenda also ran a golf outing, a VIP social called Partners and Pours, an awards lunch, a welcome social in the exhibit hall, and Sunrise Table Talks.

Three things follow from that.

1. The deal is years away. The advisors you met work with owners long before a sale. Their referral comes when the owner decides, which may be next quarter or in 2029.
2. Every advisor holds several owners. One CEPA with a full book is worth more to you than one owner, because she will make the same decision about a buyer or banker again and again.
3. The socials carry the real conversations. Sessions give you a topic. The welcome social, the table talks and the VIP events are where someone says “I have a client who should meet you.”

For how exit planners actually choose a buyer, see how CEPAs pick buyers for their clients.

Before San Diego: who to research and who to book

Walk in with ten names and a reason for each.

• If you buy businesses: CEPAs and wealth managers in the regions and industries you buy in. Ask about their owner clients in general terms, never for names.
• If you are a banker or broker: the CPAs and wealth advisors whose clients fit your deal size. They need a sell side partner they trust when an owner is ready.
• If you are a lender or attorney: the bankers and brokers in the room. They are the ones who will pull you into a transaction.
• If you are an advisor: the bankers, brokers and buyers you would hand a client to. Know them before your client asks.

Write one line next to each name about why. That line becomes your first text.

In the room: capture in 10 seconds

Capture three things after each conversation: the name, the owner situation they described, and what you promised. “[Name], CEPA, Phoenix, client is a distributor two years out, I said I would send my buy box.” That is the whole note.

Do it standing at the social, not at dinner. At an advisor event every story sounds alike: an owner, a timeline, a family question. Without the one detail, you will not know whose client was whose by Wednesday.

Exit Planning Summit follow up: who first in the 48 hours?

Sort by how close the owner is to a decision, then by how many owners the advisor holds.

Who you met	Why they go here	Send by
Advisor with an owner client near a decision	A timeline is already moving	Within 24 hours
Anyone you promised an intro	A slipped promise costs more than no promise	Within 48 hours
CEPAs and CPAs with a full book in your region	Long term referral source	Within one week
Bankers, brokers and lenders	Deal partners for when it does move	Within one week
Social conversations with no clear next step	Keep warm	Day 30 touch

Example texts, each under 40 words:

[Name], good meeting you at the welcome social. You mentioned the distributor client two years out. Here is the one line on what I buy, so you have it whenever the owner asks.

[Name], as promised from San Diego, connecting you with [Name] at [Firm]. She runs sell side processes for owners exactly the size you described. I will let you two take it from here.

[Name], your point at the table talk about owners not knowing their number stuck with me. If a client of yours needs a valuation first, I would like to be the call.

For the general triage, see who to follow up with first after a conference. More templates live in follow up texts after a conference.

What should you do 30 days after the Summit?

Send a second touch with a new reason to everyone in your top group. Advisors go back to their client meetings, and San Diego fades within weeks.

Use this checklist at day 30:

1. Did their firm post something new, or did they speak at a local EPI chapter? Note it.
2. Do you have something useful for their clients, like a market note or a valuation range for their industry? Send it.
3. Did you promise an intro you have not made? Make it today.
4. Who said “a year out”? Put a touch on the calendar every 90 days until that owner decides.

The math is simple and illustrative. Say you met 30 advisors and each one holds 20 owner clients. That is 600 owners who will someday ask “who should buy this?” or “who should run the sale?” The advisor names whoever is recent in their head. The long version of that clock is in the five year exit planner follow up, and the full before, during and after method is in the conference follow up system.

The system that does this for you

I built FRONT OF MIND because I watched people meet the right person, have a real conversation, then disappear for months. At the social, say a name and a sentence out loud, snap the badge or card, or take a selfie together, and it is filed under the event.

It opens on your 10 minutes for today. Each person has one line on why today, like you met at the Summit three days ago and never followed up, or a follow up is due, plus a drafted text of 40 words or less. Nothing sends without your tap, and it learns from your edits. In the fall, ask Liala “who do I know that is a CEPA in Arizona” 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 who from San Diego comes up first.

See how it works