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STRATEGIC SALE PLANNING

An OK exit happens to you.
A great exit is planned.

We spend 12 months warming up your best buyers, so when you sell, it's personal—and personal pays more.

WHY AUCTIONS FAIL

Most banks start an auction
and see who likes you best.

It fails for reasons that have nothing to do with your business. Long-term relationships are built on trust, over time—an auction gives a buyer six weeks.

Timing is never yours

The buyer is busy, waiting on capital, mid-reorg, or your category isn't this quarter's priority. In short: they don't know your business yet.

No knowledge, no trust

A stranger discounts numbers they don't trust. A year of coffees doesn't. The head of product hasn't had a day with your CIM—with us, they've had six months.

A month just to reach anyone

At a big acquirer, it can take a month to get to the one person who cares. Start at go-time and the clock is already against you.

THE SSP ENGINE

One engine, run for every buyer—
until they're at the table.

The same five steps, run on our channels and the founder's in parallel—then kept warm.

/ 01

Find the target

Identify the right buyer and the decision-maker.

/ 02

Reach out

Connect via our LinkedIn or yours—whichever opens the door.

/ 03

Email

Follow up by email, from us or yours (connected into our system).

/ 04

Book meetings

Convert interest into meetings on the calendar.

/ 05

Run the cadence

Follow-ups, email updates and reminders keep every buyer warm.

300+
buyers screened and mapped per mandate
~30
confirmed on the curated shortlist, worked in parallel
100%
run to a live meeting—or a clean no
SSP · WHO IT'S FOR

Same engine, two ways to run it.

ROUTE 01 · A FUND'S PORTFOLIO

We work with the fund.

  • We agree the portfolio companies we'll work with.
  • Each company gets the full SSP—deep dive, acquirer map, outreach, cadence.
  • Plus a strategic capital-planning document for the company.
  • Plus an Exit-Readiness assessment—our proprietary scoring—shared with the fund and the company.
ROUTE 02 · MANAGEMENT DIRECT

We work with you.

  • We work directly with you and your management team—no fund in the middle.
  • The full SSP: deep dive, honest valuation, acquirer map + shortlist.
  • Outreach and meetings booked on our channels and yours.
  • You just show up—we do the legwork, you keep building.
HOW THE 12 MONTHS WORK

From first coffee to celebration,
one year at a time.

  1. T−12 MONTHS01

    We start.

    A process takes three to six months; we begin a year out. Thinking this far ahead is hard, but long-term vision is what you've always been good at—this is no different, except we do the heavy lifting. We introduce you to potential acquirers and keep a regular meeting cadence. You show up, build rapport, and let them fall for the business.

  2. T−9 / T−6 / T−302

    Meetings, updates, coffees.

    Dots shared over time become lines. By go-time the buyer has already drawn the picture—they know the business, the people, and why they can't afford to lose you.

  3. T−003

    Go time.

    We transform from relationship builder to banker: decks, models, and materials for a wide process. We find the remaining acquirers and reach out.

  4. T+104

    NDAs managed.

    We run the paperwork so interest turns into a real conversation, cleanly.

  5. T+205

    Bids arrive.

    The buyers who spent a year with the business are the ones who move first—and highest.

  6. T+306

    Data rooms open; legal agreements worked.

    Diligence and documentation, driven hard so momentum never stalls.

  7. T+407

    We go out to celebrate.

    You built it once. You sold it once. Right.

Rather skip the warm-up? Some founders come to us at month zero. We start there too—it's called a Sale Mandate, and the full seven-step sale process is set out here.

Not ready to sell?
That's exactly when this works.

Five minutes while you walk to get a coffee. No pitch—just the truth about what your company is worth and who might buy it.

EMAIL USBOOK A CALL
THE SHIFT

“I'm focused on building, not selling.”

Good—keep building. Strategic Sale Preparation costs you one coffee a month. We find the buyers, warm them up, and book the meetings; you show up and talk about the thing you love.

When you're ready—in a year, or three—the relationships are already there. Long-term vision is what you've always been good at. This is no different, except we do the heavy lifting.

STRATEGIC SALE PREPARATION

We do the work.
You just show up.

Twelve months of buyer warm-up before you go live—the relationships already built by the time it counts.

  • Company deep dive
  • Honest valuation
  • Acquirer Map
  • Curated top-buyer shortlist
  • Outreach + meetings booked
  • Cadence, check-ins, follow-ups
  • Strategic narrative set
  • You: just show up.

20Seven is a sell-side M&A adviser working with founders and owners across Australia and the US. Strategic Sale Planning is our preparation product: we start twelve to eighteen months before a sale, value the business honestly, map every credible acquirer, and build the buyer relationships in advance so they already know you by the time you go to market.

QUESTIONS WE GET

The questions we get, answered straight.

Twelve to eighteen months before you want to be in market. A sale process itself runs three to six months, but the work that changes the price—buyers knowing the business, trusting the numbers, and having a reason to move—takes longer than that and cannot be compressed once a process has started.

An honest valuation first, so you know whether selling is worth doing. Then a map of every acquirer who could credibly own the business, a shortlist of the ones with the strongest reason to, and a year of introductions, meetings and updates so those buyers already understand the business by the time it goes to market.

An auction gives a buyer about six weeks to understand a business they have never seen, and a stranger discounts numbers they do not yet trust. It also assumes the buyer's timing matches yours—their capital, their reorganisation, their priorities for the quarter. Preparation removes both problems before the clock starts.

No. The point of starting early is that you keep the option open rather than closing it. If you decide in twelve months not to sell, you are left with a valuation, an acquirer map, and relationships with the companies most likely to buy you later—none of which expire.

A small monthly fee, with the economics weighted mainly to a success fee that is only charged if you sell. That is deliberately the opposite of a large upfront fee to produce materials, which pays the adviser whether or not a deal ever happens.

It is the opposite of a data dump. Early conversations are relationship conversations, not diligence—no financials, no customer list, nothing you would not say at a conference. Sensitive information only moves later, under an NDA, once you have decided a buyer is worth it.

An adviser engaged at go-time has to find, educate and win over every buyer inside the same few weeks they are also asking for a price. Strategic Sale Planning moves the finding and the educating twelve months earlier, so the only thing left to do in the process itself is the negotiation.

It costs you about one coffee a month. We find the buyers, warm them up and book the meetings; you turn up and talk about the thing you built. The heavy lifting sits with us precisely because your attention should stay on the business that is being valued.

Start the year now.
Sell it right later.

Five minutes while you walk to get a coffee. No pitch—just the truth about what your company is worth and who might buy it.

EMAIL USBOOK A CALL
GET IN TOUCH

Let's talk.

No pitch—just the truth about what your company is worth and who might buy it.

Send us a note

Tell us a little about your business. We'll come back to you with next steps.

Email
byron@20seven.xyz
Book a call
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