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Private equity deal-making is all about staying one step ahead. With the proliferation of data now available online, there is a vast amount of information available to deal teams in evaluating companies before they even get their hands on any confidential, company specific materials. This can present a huge opportunity for those who know how to harness it effectively. We’ve seen web-scraping become a valuable source of advantage in the deal process. In our experience at Coppett Hill, an increasing number of private equity firms have developed in-house tools and skills in using web-scraping to inform origination activities. However, firms are often not making use of publicly available data in assessing companies during the deal process, e.g. in assessing search marketing headroom, the competitive landscape, and customer sentiment. What exactly is web scraping? Web scraping, also known as web harvesting or web data extraction, involves using automated tools to collect information from websites.  Web scraping tools navigate through web pages, extract relevant data, and store it in a structured format such as spreadsheets or databases. More and more company data is now available publicly online, such as products, services, prices, employees, job postings, locations and customer reviews. For private equity teams, web scraping can offer a faster and data-driven avenue to assess markets, competitors, and target companies – gaining that all important speed advantage in a competitive auction process. Turning masses of data into insight... In addition to vast amounts of data, we now have access to powerful tools to process and augment this ocean of data. Many of us remember the manual data cleaning era of our early consulting days, spending hours (or even worse, or requiring outsourced teams to spend painstaking days) matching differing data types, ‘tagging’ data and aligning formats across sources. Modern models in Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing (NLP) mean data can be much more easily standardised, augmented and matched. Interpreting these huge datasets can also now be done much more efficiently, with the right know-how. Visualisation tools, such as Tableau and PowerBI, are able to receive large datasets and can be easily interrogated to drill down into key commercial points. For example, if you are comparing Google Review performance across a portfolio of locations, this can be easily displayed on a dashboard to show over- and under-performers, whilst also filtering for factors such as a minimum number of reviews, or filtering on locations by geography, tenure, etc. Practical Applications of Web Scraping Web scraping can be valuable across multiple facets of due diligence and corporate strategy. Especially in a deal process, the key is prioritisation, homing in on the key investment hypotheses that are driving the value creation plan and finding the right data to inform those. Here are some examples of where it can be used: Reach and online presence:  There is rich market and individual company level data in Google Search and third-party tools which can help to understand organic and paid search presence by keyword and geography. This can inform both market headroom and performance versus competitors. Pricing and product analysis:  By gathering data from competitor websites, deal teams can benchmark pricing strategies, compare product offerings, and analyse inventory overlap. Sentiment:  Web scraping tools can gather customer reviews, ratings and engagement on platforms like Google Reviews, Meta, G2/Capterra. This can then be parsed for themes using NLP models. This provides a real-time understanding of brand reputation and customer satisfaction, helping deal teams assess market sentiment toward a target company. Talent and organisational insights:  Platforms such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor contain data on team structures, hiring trends, employee turnover, and organisational focus (e.g. which teams or which locations are hiring). This information can provide early indicators of strategic priorities or potential challenges in talent management. Geographic and operational footprints:  Web scraping tools can analyse Google maps data such as locations, store performance, opening hours, and customer traffic patterns, enabling deal teams to evaluate a target’s regional presence and growth potential. Web scraping in action – practical examples of how teams can use data extraction for strategic insights Making practical use of web scraping requires more than just technical skills. In our experience supporting clients with this work, there are four key steps and things to think about at each stage: Data collection: Selecting the best source online, with trusted high-quality data (remember – Garbage in, Garbage Out ). Then choosing, or building, a custom web scraping tool relevant to that data source. Data cleaning and processing:  Using AI-driven techniques, you can process unstructured data to make it ready for analysis. This includes removing duplicates, normalising text, and categorising sentiment or keywords. Insight generation:  Interpreting the data, which requires contextualising it within the company's industry and focussing on the priority hypotheses or strategic objectives. In the time pressured context of a private equity deal, we would recommend combining this with Go To Market due diligence  to focus on the critical questions and levers. Visualisation and reporting: Especially with such large datasets, it is important not to get lost in the data and to drive to actionable insights.  Visualisations using tools like Tableau make it easy to understand key findings and make data-driven decisions. Although this might sound laborious, many of these projects can be completed in an agile and focussed way and take only a few days’ work, especially if you are familiar with the intricacies of each data source. Here are some examples of client questions where Coppett Hill has used web scraping to answer in both B2B and B2C contexts: How does the company score versus competitors across key purchasing criteria?  For a private equity-backed university group, Coppett Hill scraped reviews from multiple competitors to assess performance across key criteria. Using AI, we categorised, tagged and visualised historical data versus competitors. How does the product and pricing proposition of the target compare to competitors? When evaluating an online adventure travel marketplace, we scraped all holiday listings from the target and its competitors. By harmonising data on trips by destination and activity, we identified pricing trends, inventory focus and inventory overlaps. How can the business improve NPS and reduce churn?  By analysing Trustpilot reviews for hundreds of mid-market telecom providers, Coppett Hill identified key drivers of customer churn and NPS performance, enabling targeted improvements for our client. The future of data-driven deal-making As the volume of online data continues to grow, so does the importance of tools like web scraping in private equity. The ability to quickly transform raw data into meaningful insights provides deal teams with a competitive edge, allowing deal teams to extract, process, and analyse complex datasets quickly, helping them make informed decisions with confidence. If you’d like to discuss how you can use web-scraping in your due diligence process or value creation strategy , please contact us . All views expressed in this post are the author's own and should not be relied upon for any reason. Clearly.

Last year, Director of Revenue Operations was one of the fastest growing jobs in the US . Yet here at Coppett Hill we find that many businesses still lack clarity what the role can mean and its potential impact. The true value of Revenue Operations (RevOps) lies in building an efficient, scalable revenue engine by aligning processes, systems, and data across teams, helping address revenue leakage  and deliver seamless customer experiences.     Recently, I spoke with Nik Kumar, Head of Revenue Operations at Mention Me , to explore how RevOps works in practice, the challenges it addresses, and practical advice for building a successful function that gains internal buy-in.   Mention Me is a referral platform that helps marketers identify, acquire, and nurture their best customers through referral programs. To give a sense of the scale of their operations, approximately 2,000 companies engage with their marketing and sales funnel each year, with an additional 15,000-20,000 prospects in their CRM who meet their  ideal client profile (ICP).    Revenue Operations in Practice: engineering efficiency and growth   As Mention Me’s Head of RevOps, Nik works behind the scenes to connect marketing, sales, client services, and finance to streamline the entire client lifecycle, from lead generation to ongoing client management. While marketing and sales can be seen as the production line driving the business forward, Nik likens RevOps to factory engineers: connecting parts, identifying bottlenecks, and flagging issues for resolution. For instance, a drop in lead volume can have significant downstream implications for the output of this ‘factory’. Nik’s role is to anticipate and address these challenges before they disrupt operations: “If our inbound lead numbers are low, we’re going to face an expansion problem nine months down the line. My role is to keep the whole production line moving and predict where it might break before it actually does.”   This proactive approach requires constantly evaluating key questions, such as: How are leads acquired, nurtured, and handed off to sales? How are they handed over to the onboarding team once they become a client? Reflecting on this, Nik emphasises the difficulty of connecting these dots without a unified function overseeing the entire journey: “It’s impossible to provide insight across the entire process unless it’s handled by one function.”   To bring this to life, Nik highlights a couple of recent examples where RevOps has delivered tangible value at Mention Me. “I’ve been working with our Chief Growth Officer (CGO) to improve forecast accuracy,” Nik shares. “We’ve implemented automated visualisations that compare, as a percentage, our committed revenue on any given day of the month with the actual revenue closed by the end of the same month. This insight allows us to adjust our tactical in-month plays if the forecasted figure early in the month isn’t where we want it to be, ensuring we approach deals differently where needed. While forecasting hasn’t been our strong suit in the past, this visual has shown a stable line over the past six months, with our forecasts consistently within ±10% of the end of month value.”  Continuing on the value of predictive insight, Nik describes how his team have also helped address year-one churn, a primary concern for their Head of Client. “We realised we weren’t focussing on the right factors - we were over-forecasting client performance when they joined and not servicing them to the appropriate level. By identifying metrics that signal lagging performance within the first six months, we can now predict churn risks and highlight where actionable improvements are needed.”  These examples highlight the importance of understanding each component of the revenue-generating process while maintaining an end-to-end perspective. By establishing systems to flag potential issues before they arise, an effective RevOps function creates more proactive processes for identifying bottlenecks in customer acquisition and retention. “At which point,” Nik notes, “it’s about getting the right people in a room, presenting the issue, and explaining how they can solve it.”  Example analysis: Comparing the timeline of the sales process, from marketing enquiry to sales handover, between competitors  RevOps Challenges: Aligning Teams and Processes for Success   One of the biggest challenges in RevOps is managing competing goals across teams. “Misaligned targets – such as marketing focusing only on MQLs and sales only on closed-won deals – often lead to disagreements about source ownership and a lack of responsibility during deals,” Nik explains. This misalignment not only hinders collaboration but also makes it difficult to trace what went wrong in pivotal deals and identify areas for improvement. At Coppett Hill, we recommend that marketing and sales plans are aligned with companywide business development goals, such as new logos, retention and expansion, or ensuring the success of M&A integration. Clearly defining roles and responsibilities across teams, while uniting them around shared outcomes, is fundamental to successfully executing a go-to-market strategy .  RevOps can play a key role in achieving this alignment by providing teams with the tools and insights they need to collaborate effectively. Reflecting on one of his first RevOps successes, Nik shares: “Our sales team can now open an opportunity and see everything that’s happened with a prospect they’re working with. Having all the inbound activity, event participation, and interactions in one place provides invaluable talking points for building relationships and nurturing the deal. Having worked in account management for five years, I know how important that whole-picture view is – not just for closing deals but for the entire sales cycle.”   Insights like these do more than streamline processes – they also foster buy-in from teams by demonstrating tangible improvements to workflows and outcomes. When teams see how RevOps enhances efficiency and supports their goals, alignment becomes more achievable.   Building a RevOps Function: Where to Start and What to Focus On   Having discussed the challenges of misaligned goals in RevOps, Nik emphasises that the first step in building a successful function is addressing inefficiencies in core operations. “Things will often be more misaligned than they appear, even if you believe they are functioning well,” he explains. For example, when Nik joined Mention Me, opportunity generation was managed on spreadsheets, with a time-to-action of three days, and little accountability for lead follow-up. This left plenty of time for competitors to engage with leads first, making it an immediate priority. “By implementing the relevant processes, everything became more seamless and efficient, and we saw almost instant results, with more opportunities being generated.”   A key takeaway from our discussion was the focus on processes over tools. Nik notes, “You don’t need to be dogmatic about the tools you use. Instead, focus on the cohesion of the underlying processes in which the tools are utilised, understand where each process occurs, and what happens downstream. Once you’ve identified these and the corresponding gaps, you need to look at which opportunities will bring the most ROI when fixed.”   In deciding which areas are best to focus on, Nik recommends asking key questions at every stage of the customer journey:  How do we acquire leads?  What happens to a lead once it’s in the system?  How do we turn it into a potential deal?  What happens across the deal cycle?  How do we close deals and manage onboarding?  How do we manage clients during their lifecycle?  How do we identify and address issues before they impact customers?  Understanding the interdependencies between these stages is crucial. For instance, onboarding clients faster enables you to deliver value more quickly, which in turn simplifies renewal conversations. While implementing an end-to-end perspective may require significant shifts in your business, Nik highlights that “when executed effectively, you will notice improvements after a few months. Reporting, identifying areas for improvement, and targeting efforts become part of the daily routine, rather than sporadic realisations.”  In turn, when hiring for a Head of RevOps, technical expertise is secondary to curiosity and a persistent focus on improvement. “The technical part isn’t the focus; anyone can learn it”, notes Nik. “Instead, the ideal candidate is a problem solver – someone who isn’t afraid to question why things are done a certain way and to challenge the status quo. They need to be comfortable asking difficult questions.” This role requires someone who is constantly looking to fix inefficiencies, uncover opportunities, and make things better. Importantly, they should have the independence to remain impartial across functions, ensuring that their recommendations are rooted in what’s best for the business as a whole. This combination of strategic thinking and operational execution is what sets apart effective RevOps leaders.     Conclusion In providing a unified view of the customer journey – from marketing to sales to customer success – RevOps aligns teams, standardises processes, and integrates data-driven decision-making into daily operations. In today’s economic climate, where attitudes have shifted away from “growth at all costs”, investing in a RevOps function can provide you with a critical value creation lever, delivering insights that enhance both operational execution and strategic performance.   If you’d like to discuss how Re vOps could improve y our go-to-market performance, please contact us .

In my previous role I saw first-hand how different sales methodologies work, even within a single organisation. I also bear some scars for where they don’t. Within my Sales function I had team members negotiating multi-year agreements across multiple product lines with the world’s largest bookmakers, there were people selling complex technology and data products to engineering and product teams, and there were teams fielding inbound advertising requests for tomorrow’s newspaper. Each required a different approach to acquiring, retaining and growing customers. If you speak to any Chief Commercial Officer, Sales Director, or Head of Sales, they’ll tell you that B2B sales is both an art and a science. While individual sales skills and techniques can get you so far, having clearly defined and documented methodologies within a sales function is critical for value creation and preservation. Reasons include: Creating a more scalable sales function  – enabling quicker onboarding and ramping up of new recruits. Having an approach to training embedded within the sales team will further help with this Increasing pipeline velocity  – generating more qualified leads, increasing win-rate, reducing sales cycle Reducing key person risk  – better onboarding and ramp-up removes the likelihood of pipeline and sales value being concentrated in a small number of reps However, many businesses don’t use a clear sales methodology – particularly SMEs in the lower mid-market. This is often because they’ve been able to drive sales growth without anything in place. As businesses grow, so too do sales functions, which means the need for structure and scalability grows as well. AI's interpretation of a Sales Director considering which sales model to use   B2B sales models as a lever for go-to-market value creation Robust sales methodologies go hand-in-hand with a clear ICP and a detailed view of customer data , forming the foundations of a strong go-to-market operation. Our work at Coppett Hill focuses primarily on businesses in the mid-market, where sale methodology adoption varies. Some clients will adopt parts of established models, a combination of a few, or develop their own while others won’t use them at all. Critically, not all sales models are right for all businesses. Therefore, in this article I will break down the most well-known sales models, discuss the pros and cons of each, and highlight when best to use them. What sales models should I use for complex products and higher average contract values? 1.      Solution Selling  - Focuses on diagnosing the customer’s problem and positioning the product as the solution. Sales reps identify pain points and show how the product or service resolves these issues. Solution Selling was developed in the 1970s by Frank Watts, who first introduced it at Xerox. The idea was to shift from product-centric selling to solving the customer’s problems by positioning the product as the solution. Solution selling builds trust with prospects by addressing specific needs, helping potential customers to feel valued and understood. However, it can be time-consuming and requires deep product knowledge. Best for : high-touch B2B sales, especially for complex or customisable products and services. Suited to customers who know their precise needs. 2.      MEDDIC/MEDDICC  – Acronym for Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion, and Competition (Competitors) M etrics: Quantifiable measures of success that your product can influence, like revenue growth or cost savings E conomic Buyer: The person with the budget authority or the final decision-maker D ecision Criteria: The specific criteria or features the buyer is looking for in a solution D ecision Process: The steps the buyer’s organisation follows to make a purchasing decision I dentify Pain: The specific challenges or issues the prospect faces that your product can address C hampion: An internal advocate within the prospect’s organisation who supports your solution C ompetition): The competing solutions or vendors being considered by the buyer MEDDIC was created in the 1990s by Dick Dunkel and Jack Napoli at Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), where it helped drive significant sales growth. MEDDIC emphasises identifying and qualifying leads. It is highly structured, making it easy to track and maintain consistency, which helps reps to qualify leads and save time. However, it puts little emphasis on building rapport with potential customers. Best for : enterprise sales or industries with long, complex sales cycles and larger deals. In particular software and technology sales. 3.      SPIN  – Acronym for Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-Payoff – designed to guide prospects through their issues and highlight value in the product or service S ituation: Understand the prospect’s current situation P roblem: Identify and define the problems or pain points the prospect is experiencing I mplication: Explore the consequences of the identified problems, helping prospects understand the impact of not solving them N eed-Payoff: Lead the prospect to see the benefits of addressing the problem, creating a logical need for your solution SPIN Selling was introduced in the 1980s by Neil Rackham through his company, Huthwaite International. It was based on extensive research into successful sales techniques and involved analysing over 35,000 sales calls. SPIN builds trust by emphasising an understanding of the prospect’s situation before making an offer. It requires skilled questioning; otherwise, it can feel mechanical if not done naturally, which can be challenging for less experienced reps. Best for : complex buying processes, especially for products that require multiple stakeholders' buy-in. Ideal for companies selling high-ticket items where customers need to understand ROI. 4.      Sandler System  – Emphasises building trust by exploring the prospect’s pain points and decision-making process, then empowering the prospect to decide on their own. Developed by David Sandler in 1967, this system is designed to empower salespeople by teaching them how to build trust and effectively guide prospects toward self-discovery of their needs. Sandler  has grown to offer sales training based on this methodology worldwide. Sandler encourages transparency, which can shorten sales cycles, and lessens pressure by placing the decision in the prospect’s hands. However, can be time-consuming and it requires the buyer to drive the agenda. Best for : Businesses with longer sales cycles where relationship-building is essential, such as financial services or consulting. 5.      Target Account Sales (TAS)  – Strategic approach to key account sales that prioritises and adapts the sales process to the prospect’s individual needs. Focuses on higher value, top priority opportunities. TAS was formalised by Sales Performance International (SPI) in the 1990s, focusing on account-based selling strategies that prioritise high-value accounts. TAS maximises sales potential by focusing on high-value clients, allowing reps to develop a deep understanding of key accounts’ needs. However, this methodology is not scalable for smaller deals and requires extensive knowledge to be built up through research and communication, which can be time consuming. Best for : Enterprise sales, where higher customer lifetime value justifies a more intensive/costly approach. What sales models should I use for faster sales cycles and more straightforward products and services? 1.      BANT  – Acronym for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. A qualification methodology to determine whether a lead is worth pursuing B udget: does the prospect have the budget to purchase your product or service A uthority: is the prospect the decision-maker, or do they have influence over the decision N eed: does the prospect have a genuine need that your product or service can fulfil T imeline: is there a defined timeline for when the prospect plans to decide BANT was developed by IBM in the 1960s as a simple framework for quickly qualifying leads. BANT can help sales reps quickly qualify leads, helping them to focus on genuine opportunities. Given its formulaic nature, it is also relatively easy to implement, even with junior teams. However, as a methodology it can be quite rigid – focusing on tangible indicators like budget and authority can mean you miss out on long-term opportunities. It may also fall short when prospect decision-making is complex, or there is no defined timeline. Best for : transactional sales with shorter cycles, particularly where reps must process and qualify leads at scale – for example where the product or service is relatively straightforward. 2.      Inbound Sales  – Focuses on guiding the prospective customer through their own buying journey, with the rep acting as an advisor. Inbound Selling grew out of the Inbound Marketing movement pioneered by HubSpot founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah in the 2000s. It is heavily influenced by content-driven lead generation and digital marketing. Inbound Sales builds rapport with the prospect, providing a comfortable buying journey. However, it can be less effective if prospects are passive or undecided as to whether they need the product or service. Inbound Sales also relies heavily on effective marketing, which can be resource intensive given the volume of content required and number of events that the sales team are required to attend. Best for : companies with strong inbound lead generation strategies, where buyers can educate themselves about the product or service through content. 3.      Challenger Sales  – Uses industry and company insights and knowledge to challenge prospects’ current way of thinking and offer new perspectives on what they need. The Challenger Sale was developed by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson of CEB (now part of Gartner) in the late 2000s. It emerged from research identifying that top-performing reps challenged customers’ assumptions. Challenger Sales can often close deals faster and can quickly build credibility and authority. However, it requires reps to be well versed in the industry and comfortable to push back on prospects (diplomatically, of course!). Best for : highly competitive or fast-paced industries. Particularly where prospects do not realise they have a problem or need a new approach. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ The optimal sales methodology depends on a wide range of factors, including product complexity, customer type, sales cycle length, and industry dynamics. There is no hard-and-fast rule as which methodology is best, but generally having something in place – and a team that’s trained on it – is better than nothing at all. These methodologies are distinct from other decisions that Commercial leaders need to make about team structures and in-person versus remote selling. While having a clearly defined and well documented sales approach will help both value protection and value creation, it’s one of many factors that contribute to a successful go-to-market strategy. If you’d like to discuss how different B2B sales models can improve your go-to-market performance, please contact us . All views expressed in this post are the author's own and should not be relied upon for any reason. Clearly.

When assessing an investment opportunity, balancing short-term risk and long-term opportunity is critical. The go-to-market value creation due diligence work we do for our private equity clients typically covers three key areas: 1.      Assessing the overall maturity of customer acquisition, retention and growth activities 2.      Identifying short- and long-term value creation opportunities 3.      Understand and mitigating short-term go-to-market risks This third and final element is designed to help our clients avoid ‘catching a falling knife’. While private equity funds often target companies poised to create significant value through strategic expansion and operational improvements , investing in a business during a period of short-term instability can sometimes feel like catching a falling knife. The term ‘catching a falling knife’ is used to describe the risks of acquiring an asset that is undergoing some form of decline, under the false assumption that its fortunes will reverse. In this article I’ll explore how private equity investors can avoid ‘catching a falling knife’ and instead distinguish between short-term challenges and longer-term structural issues within an acquisition target. Understanding the 'falling knife' The analogy of ‘catching a falling knife’ often applies to businesses that face operational or financial challenges but are still viewed as valuable long-term opportunities. These businesses might have encountered short-term revenue or trading setbacks, changes in personnel, or shifts in market conditions. The risk for private equity investors is that these issues may run deeper than expected. The first few months post-investment in many respects represent the period of highest risk as the business may have limited cash headroom, and the Investor-Management working relationship is yet to fully form. Over a decade ago, I was part of a team supporting an investor that was looking to take-private a publicly listed 5-a-side football pitch operator. Recent trading had been soft, but there was general consensus that this was due to tough comparables and unseasonably wet weather. However, our work uncovered that local governments had been funding new pitch developments that were co-located with the underperforming sites, and that many new developments were planned. Our client decided not to invest, and the business was eventually de-listed a few years later at c.15% of its previous value. We stopped our client from catching a falling knife. Our role as advisors is to understand the drivers behind these changes, using a combination of data and experience to unpick underlying trends. Recognising and understanding the red flags When evaluating a business facing challenges, it is crucial to differentiate between temporary setbacks and fundamental weaknesses. From a go-to-market perspective, red flags can appear in many areas, including: Lack of strategic direction : Companies can often experience impressive growth due to good trading momentum and low-hanging fruit. However, once the short-term, tactical wins have been exhausted, there is a need for a well prioritised, scalable growth strategy. If Management doesn’t have a well-defined and operationalised ICP  and a clear view on where to spend the next £1 of investment , there may be underlying issues that need to be remedied. Changes in personnel : Investors rely on strong, experienced management teams to deliver growth. However, changes in personnel with the Sales and Marketing teams can often have as big an impact on short-term momentum as senior leadership. This is particularly relevant in B2B businesses, where the departure of a key sales contributor can severely impact the sales pipeline in the short-term (and potentially in the longer-term). Understanding pipeline health, and the extent to which this can recover, is critical in assessing whether issues are temporary or structural. Operational inefficiencies : While most operational issues can be solved, deep-rooted inefficiencies require more systemic change to prevent long-term problems. Operational inefficiencies can take many forms – from a go-to-market perspective, some of the most common we see are: Unsuccessful lead generation and qualification – marketing generates a high volume of leads, but these aren’t qualified or targeted, leading to lower conversion and higher churn Ineffective marketing spend attribution - without proper tracking and analysis of marketing efforts companies can invest the wrong amounts in the wrong channels, resulting sub-optimal returns Insufficient go-to-market reporting and insights – marketing and sales teams often generate significant amounts of data from customer interactions and digital campaigns. However, if this data isn’t analysed effectively or used to inform decision-making, opportunities can easily be missed Identifying short-term blips and mitigating the risk of catching a falling knife Conversely, short-term instability can sometimes present buying opportunities for private equity investors. Identifying whether a business’s decline is temporary or more structural is key to securing long-term returns. Here are some factors that suggest it may be a short-term blip: Clear value creation potential : Most of our work at Coppett Hill revolves around value creation for investors through go-to-market opportunities. If the business is facing short-term turbulence but has a clear path to strategic and/or operational improvements, it may be a sound investment. Go-to-market improvement  is one of the most tangible levers that management teams and investors can pull to create value. Strong industry position : If the company operates in an industry with significant growth potential, its troubles may be temporary. Private equity investors should assess whether the company has durable competitive advantages – such as intellectual property, brand strength, or a loyal customer base (as measured by financial metrics and NPS) – that will support long-term growth once short-term issues are addressed. Understanding leading indicators and the path to cash:  We often see historical events impacting trading momentum in the future. A key part of our go-to-market due diligence work is helping investors to quantify the likely impacts of these and recommending a course of action to mitigate them. A good example would be the loss of a key salesperson – this could take another 3-6 months to impact the pipeline, another 3-6 months to hit the P&L given the sales cycle, and then another 1-2 months to impact cashflows. In this example, providing insight on sales team onboarding and ramp-up can help investors understand the likely hole and how it can be filled. Alignment with Management : A critical factor for successful private equity investment is alignment between investors and management. If the management team demonstrates a clear, credible plan to address short-term challenges and drive the business forward, this can signal that the issues are temporary rather than systemic. Conversely, if Management ignore the issues, or worse deny them, this may suggest the potential for catching a fallen knife is higher. Conducting due diligence is essential for identifying whether a company’s issues are short-term or structural. Go-to-market due diligence plays a key role in that, given the importance of short-term revenue momentum during the early days of ownership. By understanding the root cause of the business’s challenges, investors can determine whether it can recover. Many investors will also look to offset the potential for short-term instability through deal structures such as earn-outs or deferred consideration, that seek to share the risk between sellers and buyers. The importance of balancing caution and optimism Private equity investors face unique challenges when navigating short-term volatility, as the illiquid nature of these investments means that catching a falling knife can be particularly costly. By conducting go-to-market due diligence and actively engaging with management, private equity investors can avoid costly mistakes and identify opportunities for value creation. Ultimately, the key is to distinguish between businesses experiencing temporary setbacks and those with more profound structural issues. If you’d like to discuss how to avoid catching a falling knife when making investment decisions, please contact us . All views expressed in this post are the author's own and should not be relied upon for any reason. Clearly.

In today’s data-driven world we have access to more information than ever before. At Coppett Hill, we use data to help our clients make strategic and operational go-to-market decisions, to unlock growth. But as the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out” (GIGO). Without good quality information, even the most sophisticated analysis will deliver unreliable outcomes. This post explores why clean, accurate data is the foundation of successful decision-making, and how poor data quality can lead to misguided strategies, wasted efforts and potentially costly mistakes. Understanding the GIGO Principle GIGO is a simple yet powerful principle – the quality of input data directly impacts the value of the output. If your input data is flawed — whether due to inaccuracies, omissions, or biases — the analysis will be skewed, and any decisions made on that basis are likely to be misguided. For businesses, this can mean missed opportunities and misallocated resources. To counter this, I’ve developed a habit of always asking where the data/information comes from, and how it was collected – a habit that I suspect many other consultants will recognise. Consider a company trying to define its Ideal Client Profile (ICP) . If the data used to understand existing customer lifetime value is incomplete or outdated, the analysis will provide a distorted view of customer ‘likeability’. Decisions based on these insights could result in poorly targeted marketing, unprofitable product launches, and misalignment with customer needs. Why clean, high-quality data is essential – avoiding ‘garbage in, garbage out’ Accuracy in decision-making : High-quality data provides the foundation for strategic decision-making. When data is clean, consistent, and relevant, it allows businesses to identify patterns, make forecasts, and evaluate risk effectively. Low-quality data, on the other hand, introduces uncertainty, forcing decision-makers to rely on assumptions or ‘gut-feel’ that could result in sub-optimal strategy. Efficiency in resource allocation : Decision-makers rely on data to allocate resources effectively, whether that’s budget, staff time, or technology investment. With accurate data, businesses can allocate resources confidently. Conversely, poor-quality data may direct resources toward less impactful areas, leading to wasted budgets and missed opportunities. The hidden costs of poor data quality While it’s easy to see the immediate costs of bad data, such as wasted time and missed revenue opportunities, there are also hidden costs that can be even more damaging in the long run. Increased operational costs : Poor data often requires rework. When errors are discovered, time and resources are allocated to correct them. How often do simple reporting requests result in hours (or even days!) of manipulation to give the desired answer? The time spent cleaning data or backtracking on misguided decisions could be better invested in productive activities if quality data were used from the outset. Decreased team productivity : When analysts and team members spend their time cleaning and validating data rather than conducting meaningful analysis, productivity suffers. Poor data quality increases frustration and decreases morale, as team members are constantly fixing preventable issues. I experienced this in a previous role, where the monthly board reports took 2-3 working days to create due to data silos and manual extraction – when reporting becomes a major undertaking itself, it can cause significant frustration within the team. Erosion of Trust : If decision-makers lose confidence in the data provided, they are less likely to trust future analysis. This trust is difficult to regain and can impact the effectiveness of future analysis. Teams may become more hesitant to rely on data insights, leading to a “gut-feel” approach that is inherently riskier. Implementing good data practices to avoid GIGO The good news is that organisations can avoid the GIGO pitfall by implementing robust data hygiene practices. We have seen these methods work firsthand for many of our clients, within operational finance systems, sales & marketing systems, and third-party media platforms: Defining clear data standards & definitions : Different departments may collect and format data differently, leading to inconsistencies. Define clear standards for data collection, entry, and processing across the organisation to ensure that everyone follows the same guidelines. Use a ‘data dictionary’ to define each dimension and metric consistently. If these change due to a shift in business strategy or organisational design, ensure that changes are backdated. Data within a business is often human generated – think Sales team members filling in opportunity details in a CRM system, or customers filling in feedback forms. With human intervention comes an even greater need for review and classification, to avoid inconsistencies which will impact your analysis. Data cleansing and validation : Establish processes to routinely cleanse and validate data, identifying and correcting any errors before analysis begins. Automation tools or data validation can help by flagging duplicates, missing values, or outliers, but human oversight is also essential for ensuring contextual relevance. For example, when we build Customer Data Platforms  we will often inspect many individual customer journeys to ensure that they are (a) logically complete and (b) correctly segmented. Investing in high quality data sources : High quality data often requires a financial investment. Whether it’s subscribing to reputable data sources or investing in data-gathering technologies, this upfront cost will likely save significant time and resources by providing reliable input for analysis. Regular data audits : Schedule regular audits to assess data quality and make improvements where needed. Audits help catch errors early and give stakeholders confidence in the data’s reliability. Additionally, regular reviews help identify evolving needs that may require adjustments to data collection processes. One tip we encourage is building data hygiene reports into your regular sales and marketing reporting (i.e. a standalone data quality dashboard for CRM data entry) to incentivise compliance among the sales team. Training and development : Equip team members with the skills and knowledge to recognise data quality issues. When your team understand the importance of high-quality data and know how to handle data correctly, the organisation is better positioned to maintain high standards over time. Prioritise quality data for quality outcomes The “garbage in, garbage out” principle is a reminder that even the best analytical methods can’t overcome the limitations of poor-quality data. By investing in quality data practices, businesses can make better decisions and more effectively allocate resources. As the reliance on data continues to grow, the importance of quality inputs cannot be overstated. When quality data is at the heart of analysis, businesses are not only better equipped to avoid costly mistakes but are also positioned to capitalise on the full potential of their data. In the end, making good decisions starts with good information. By ensuring your data is clean, relevant, and reliable, you’ll have the insights needed to make strategic choices that drive sustainable growth and success. If you’d like to discuss how to avoid ‘garbage in, garbage out’ within your Sales and Marketing systems, to ensure better go-to-market decision-making, please contact us . All views expressed in this post are the author's own and should not be relied upon for any reason. Clearly.

Here at Coppett Hill, we’ve been busy preparing for the upcoming graduate recruitment season. Over the next month, we will be attending careers fairs across the country – we’re looking for smart, motivated, problem solvers with some technical or analytical skills. If it sounds like this could be you, keep an eye out – we’re always keen to chat to ambitious, talented graduates. Working on our graduate recruitment process has given me the opportunity to reflect on my own experience interviewing for graduate consulting roles. Consulting interview processes are formulaic. I have no problem admitting now that the first few stages gave me sweaty palms – but they were broadly in line with what I understood an interview process to be like. ‘Don’t compare yourself to Lord Sugar. Don’t compare yourself ever to him.’ I distinctly remember the one stage which deviated from that understanding being the ‘case study interview’. If you’re looking to secure a graduate role in consulting, you’re going to have to tackle one of these at some point. Essentially, you’re given a brief on a business problem and asked to present a solution back to your interviewer. It is the closest that you can come to getting a flavour of the work which you might do in consulting without actually doing the job – think of it like a trial shift. There are, generally speaking, three types of these. You might (a) get the brief well in advance, or (b) get preparation time on the day, or (c) it might be totally ‘cold’ (for the purposes of this article we will be framing our advice around an interview where you have the brief well in advance, although this is of course transferrable to the other types). Whether you know the content or not, you can still prepare for the interview – you can be sure that your competitors will have done. Luckily, the Coppett Hill team are here to give you an edge on your competition with a series of top tips which I wish I had access to before tackling my first case study interview. We’ve also included a set of things to be wary of – these aren’t always obvious and can arguably be even more useful.   1)     Upon receiving the case study Let’s set the scene – after submitting countless CVs and cover letters, completing some frankly bizarre online games and reasoning tests, navigating tricky skills & competency-based interviews, finally, some success! You’ve been invited to attend a final stage interview – you skim over the email and read that this stage will be run in a case study format, and see the accompanying brief and some data to analyse. That is all the information you have to go off – time to start preparing right? Not quite. You could be leaving valuable information on the table. There’s significant value in asking questions before the case study, as our founder, Dave, mentions in his top tip: DK TOP TIP:  “If you get offered the chance to ask questions before the case study, do it, if it isn’t offered then still ask. You can check your understanding of the brief, work out what a ‘great’ answer will look like and also demonstrate your keenness” Working on the basis of limited information is inevitably going to put a ceiling on your performance. Don’t put yourself on the back foot from the get-go. It’s worthwhile also to ask some questions from a time management perspective – getting an expectation of how long you are expected to spend on the task could help you triangulate whether you are taking the right approach later on when you are carrying out your analysis. If there is something about the case study which looks unfamiliar, it is perfectly acceptable at this stage to flag it. Normally, if there is a specific technical skill which you might be missing, there is a way to accommodate this – remember, graduate employers are well aware of the fact that they are not hiring the finished article. Worst case, if it really isn’t going to work out, you avoid the potential of wasting both yours and your interviewer’s time. DK WATCH OUT:   “If the case study asks for a technical skill you aren’t confident in, be up front about it and discuss with the hiring manager. There will often be a way to accommodate this. Don’t try to ChatGPT your way through it and be caught out with on-the-spot questions” 2)     Understanding the question & structuring your analysis You’ve taken advantage of the opportunity to ask questions, made some pleasant small talk with your interviewer, and you are ready to crack on with the task at hand. With the wealth of resources out there, it is easy to come up with an idea of how you would like to present your answer to the question structure wise – the risk comes when this takes precedence over the question itself – missing this is an error which is difficult to recover from. It’s no poor reflection on yourself to clarify the question – Harry and Simone, both Project Leaders at Coppett Hill, touch on this in their top tips: SG TOP TIP:   “Fully engage in listening so you can understand and address the question being asked, rather than going into a standard generic approach” HvB TOP TIP:   “Make sure you are really clear about what’s being asked - ask questions to clarify, re-read the question, etc. Then work backwards from that” You’ve got a clear idea of what it is you are actually trying to achieve – now, it’s time to get stuck into some analysis. There are loads of great resources out there on how to structure your analysis – we’re not going to spend time going over very much covered ground in this article. There is one thing I think is commonly missed here however, and I’d like to offer my two cents on this point. It’s all well and good being able to stitch together a dataset and extract some compelling insights – one thing which never fails to be undervalued is common sense. For example, if you are drawing insight off the fact that one figure is consistently 12x the size of another, you are most likely looking at monthly/annual presentations of the same thing. JJ TOP TIP:   “Never undervalue a common-sense review. Being very methodical in applying these is sure to serve you well, and hopefully avoid any embarrassing moments” If you have worked on a complicated piece of analysis as part of your case study, when preparing to present this, the temptation may be there to dive head-first into the detail – whilst it may seem as though this would be a way to impress your interviewer, there is a danger that it could go the other way. A key consulting competency is the ability to adapt your communication style depending on your audience – be careful that you are not including more detail than necessary. Remember, the analysis enables the strategic recommendation (which is what people pay for) rather than the other way round. JJ WATCH OUT:   “Don’t unnecessarily bamboozle your interviewer – make sure you’re tailoring your communication style to the audience” 3)     Presenting your solution – or – answering the question Excellent. You’ve followed all of our tips so far, and your interviewer is impressed. You’ve made a good impression by clarifying the structure of the interview in advance, understood the question, analysed the problem with a common-sense lens and the only thing left to do is tie it all together. Somewhere in this step, many great candidates fall down for one simple reason – they don’t directly answer the question! Make sure to explicitly answer the exam question – without doing this, however clear your communication style, however much confidence you exude, however simply you are able to explain mind-bendingly complex analysis, you are going to struggle. Harry articulates this in his ‘watch out’ point: HvB WATCH OUT: “Answer the question! Don’t answer the question you want, but the one that the interviewer has asked. Even if your answer is wrong, if you’ve shown a structured and logical way of getting there (and even better, been able to identify where in the logic your assumptions might be wrong) then that’s better than just ignoring the exam question all together” It’s also worth touching on the dynamic between interviewer and interviewee. This is obviously highly dependent on the interview you happen to find yourself in – but Simone emphasises the value of being dynamic and nimble in her ‘watch out’: SG WATCH OUT:   “Most interviewers are trying to help you, if they are nudging you a certain way or questioning your answers, don't just blindly carry on down your original path” At the end of it all, it is always worth having some reflections ready to share – what did you find easy/hard, how would you adapt your approach if you were to take on the same task again? You will almost certainly be asked, and assessed on your response. So, there we have it – the benefit of decades of collective interview experience, successes and failures. If you’re reading this article in preparation for a consulting case study interview – best of luck! Once again, if you’re a graduate looking to start their career in consulting, we’re always open to conversations with ambitious and talented people – check out our careers page .

As we enter the ‘milkround’ recruitment cycle for university graduates, I’ve been reflecting on my own career path to date. Especially those first few years of my career and how the choices I made back then brought me to where I am now, as a Project Leader at Coppett Hill, in ways I never would have predicted or could have planned for. I thought it might be helpful for those of you thinking about your next job to share my experience and some reflections. As always, there’s been a healthy mix of proactive decisions and hard work along with a good dose of luck (and the mindset to make the most of it)! My current role is as a Project Leader for Coppett Hill. I was the first official employee, joining Dave when he started the business in 2023. My work set up is quite unusual; although the rest of the team are based in London, I am based in Vancouver, Canada, and work remotely except for a couple of trips to the UK each year (most importantly, to play croquet with the new Associates at the offsite!). I also work part-time, working 3.5 days a week across Monday- Thursday. My career started in a fairly typical way with internships and graduate programmes, but I’m really grateful that through the years that I’ve been able to learn about what I enjoy and what motivates me and start to shape a career around that. Pre University My first bit of career luck was getting a 6-month internship as a Research Assistant at Deutsche Bank during my gap year, from a tiny advert a friend found in the back of ‘Economics Today’ magazine. I’m not that old (!) so most jobs were advertised online and I’m still not sure why they chose to advertise this role solely in print. It meant the competition wasn’t too stiff and I got the one open position. I turned out to be the only junior in a fairly senior research team, so I had great exposure to senior colleagues. Commuting in the dark on the 7am train to London Bridge whilst my friends were enjoying their fresher terms definitely gave me additional appreciation of student life when my time came around.   I’d always had part time jobs since I was old enough to hold a sign post advertising my dad’s French markets (my first marketing role!). From selling cheese and saucisson, to working at Pizza Hut, all those early jobs taught me a lot and there’s a huge amount of value in getting some real work experience, it doesn’t need to be a structured City internship. Lesson learnt:  There are great opportunities hidden outside the mainstream if you’re willing to look and keep an open mind. University I went on to do my undergrad in Economics and Management at New College, Oxford. I’d chosen economics because I’d found it interesting at school, and enjoyed math-led subjects, and I liked the sound of the combination with management to get a more commercial lens. I’d also strongly considered engineering and before that medicine. In the end the most useful parts of my degree were the skills I learned and the people I was surrounded by, rather than the specific subject matter. I will happily admit that I don’t use any of the ‘Marketing’ module in my work at Coppett Hill! However, the ability to ingest large amounts of information quickly, take a structured approach to problem solving, use data to answer questions and present and debate complex topics, have all come in incredibly useful. Lesson learnt:  ‘Soft’ or general skills such as learning agility, problem solving, relationship building, are often more important than hard subject specific skills (which can be more easily taught) early in your career. One of the most useful skills I learnt was the ability to take on and assimilate large quantities of information quickly, which is invaluable when starting any new job. In the summer of my first year, I focussed on more travelling and making money. Peers who wanted to go into banking were already applying for internships and work experience as that track started early. In all honesty, I didn’t know what I wanted to do and wanted to keep the options open so when I heard about consulting in my second year it sounded like a good choice. A second piece of luck! A friend in the year above had just gotten a job offer at BCG so she told me about the firm and I thought it sounded great. I’d also heard of Accenture through another friend. They happened to both have late application deadlines, so I applied for both of those internships and nothing else. I wouldn’t recommend this approach! But I also want to normalise that not everyone has a full picture of the career landscape early on. Career websites can be full of jargon and hard to translate into reality, try to talk to people about their actual experience of work to build up a picture of what appeals to you and what doesn’t. This might include students in different years, recent grads at firms you’re interested in and employees at recruitment fairs. Posts like ‘ Day in the Life of an Associate ’ by Jack, one of Coppett Hill’s associates, are also valuable for getting an idea of what the job looks like day to day. Lesson learnt:  Make the most of your ‘network’, this might just mean learning and expanding your horizons, not necessarily directly looking for jobs. As the ‘ power of weak ties ’ suggests, throughout my career a huge number of opportunities came through direct and indirect connections. Post University I really enjoyed my 8-week summer internship at BCG and so of course I accepted the job offer and was lucky not to be dealing with job applications in my final year. I worked with two fantastic Project Leaders in the Healthcare practice during my internship, who went on to be important mentors to me during my time at BCG. A big part of what drew me to BCG was the focus on development, backed up with a real culture of mentorship and training. As we build Coppett Hill this approach is really core to our culture, and I would advise anyone when job hunting to really think about who  you’ll be working with as well as what you’ll be doing. Some practical examples of the ways mentors helped me in my time at BCG: Helping me find my own style of presenting and building relationships that worked with my personality, rather than trying to force fit into a predominantly masculine culture Advocated for me taking a 9 month secondment at TimeInc despite there being a freeze on secondments due to consulting capacity constraints Lesson learnt:  Invest in building relationships and make the most of support that others can offer. It’s not just mentors either, many of the group of 12 interns from that summer are also still close friends of mine and now hold very interesting roles around the world. I didn’t originally plan to stay in consulting long term, but I wanted to stay long enough to do a secondment, which felt like a ‘free’ opportunity to try out another job. I worked for 9 months at the media company TimeInc, getting the chance to actually execute things on the ground. Whilst at BCG I also took chances to get involved in as much non-project work as I could, such as recruitment and event organisation. One of the appeals of consulting was the variety of the work and for me that was as much about different types of role as well as seeing different industries and teams. The consulting model meant I had the chance to work with a lot of different senior leaders and peers and learn from their different styles. Once again, the power of network has been invaluable and as well as gaining some friends for life, many of my former colleagues have also gone on to be clients, both in my independent work and at Coppett Hill! I decided to leave consulting as I felt like I wanted to have more direct impact rather than being just in an advisory role. Aren’t I back in consulting now you ask? Yes, and only because Coppett Hill’s model is very different than typical strategy consulting, working closely with teams on the ground and much more focussed on impact rather than producing long slide decks. Lesson learnt:  Seize opportunities to build out your experience – not for the sake of your CV, but to do things that interest you and learn about what you enjoy. I’m going to skim over the more recent parts of my career for the purpose of this post. I left BCG after 5 years to work at mid-market private equity firm Livingbridge. I heard of Livingbridge through a friend that worked there, and the role appealed because of the chance to work with smaller and fast-growing businesses where I felt I could have more impact due their size and dynamism. Working in the Value Creation team as well as taking Board seats also gave me the chance to work with businesses more holistically and over a longer time horizon versus project work. I talk more about what the work of ‘Value Creation’ actually involves in a previous post . At the start of 2020 I left London, and Livingbridge, to move to British Columbia, Canada. This was multi-faceted, but a big reason was the pull of the mountains and the desire to try a slower and more nature-based life. I didn’t have a long-term plan for work when I moved, which as you might guess was a little uncomfortable for someone with my background! I thought I would freelance for 6 months or so and then find a job locally. As we know, the Covid pandemic put a spanner in even the best laid plans so it gave me space to experiment and test a few things. I co-founded a social enterprise offering virtual private concerts with professional musicians via Zoom. This was a fantastic opportunity and steep learning curve, having to do the on the ground execution of things like creating marketing emails, running Facebook ads and managing customer issues. My partner and I ran that pro-bono and I was also working remotely as an independent consultant. Having a consulting background set me up well for freelance work, and again my network was hugely valuable – every single project I worked on came to me through my network.   Coppett Hill Dave and I worked together at Livingbridge and we started talking back in summer 2023 as he was thinking about scaling Coppett Hill. I was ready for a new challenge, missing working with a team and being part of something. A big part of the appeal for me was getting to build a company from the beginning, taking the best parts of the firms we’ve worked for but also being able to change the things that frustrated us. Core to this is recognising each person’s individual needs and creating a culture where ‘high potential can become high performance’. This might mean providing softer support to help someone build their confidence, creating ‘safe’ opportunities for people to test out new skills, or specific technical training and hands-on analytical experience. In reality, for most people it’s probably a mix of all! I feel very lucky to be able to do this job remotely from Canada, and part time. That’s certainly not without its challenges, but in the last few years of testing different ways of living I’ve realised how much I value nature-connection and putting time into community and that the trade-offs are worth it for me. I think it’s a testament to the Coppett Hill culture that we’re able to accommodate this. It's also thanks to building the foundations in my early career, and the trust and relationships with current colleagues, that something like this is possible.   As I’ve been interviewing potential Associate candidates, I really enjoy discussing with them what they are looking for in a role and how they are thinking about their early career. In some ways, your early jobs are very important, setting you off on your initial career path and developing key skills. On the other hand, no one can really predict more than a few years ahead and your first job may have very little to do with what you’re doing in ten years’ time. If I were to have my time again, the two key themes I would focus on would be 1) opportunity for learning and growth, and 2) people and relationships. But that’s just me, I’ll leave you to reflect on what’s most important to you and how are you bringing that into your job search.   Lesson learnt:  Keep exploring, learn what you value and what you enjoy, and don’t be afraid to go after it!

Having recently joined Coppett Hill, I’ve quickly come to appreciate how central go-to-market (GTM) strategy is to the work we do. When I first started, I had a vague understanding of how this related to customer acquisition, but the specific processes and how to evaluate their effectiveness? Not so much. This became apparent just a couple of months after starting when I was tasked with supporting a due diligence project focused on evaluating the GTM capabilities of a SaaS business. I needed a framework to better understand the factors underpinning a successful GTM strategy and the related best practices - enter the farmer analogy… I’m aware of the oversimplification here, but bear with me: think of your GTM strategy like the journey a farmer takes in bringing their harvest from the fields to the tables of hungry city-dwellers. The process begins with planting and nurturing crops, just as a company starts by developing and refining a product to meet market demands. When the harvest is ready, the farmer must transport it efficiently to the chosen marketplace, much like how a business must select the right distribution channels to reach its target customers. Once at the market, the farmer promotes the quality and value of their produce, similar to how a business uses marketing and sales strategies to create awareness and generate demand. The farmer might also negotiate prices to turn interest into sales, just as a business employs discounting and offers as one of the many strategies used to convert leads into customers. Finally, in the same way that the farmer learns from each season to improve future harvests, a company must continuously evaluate and refine its GTM strategy to enhance customer acquisition efforts. Yes, once again, we’re calling upon ChatGPT’s limitless graphic design skills. A rough analogy? Perhaps. But whether you’re a Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), or an investor evaluating a business pre-deal, this post explores how a similar framework can help you to assess the effectiveness of a GTM strategy, both in its focus and implementation. In doing so, we provide a template for identifying opportunities to build a competitive advantage in attracting, converting, and retaining customers. Assessing your GTM strategy: where to focus? At the core of any successful go-to-market strategy lies the answers to the following questions: ·         Who is your target customer? ·         What problem are you solving for them? ·         What is their typical customer journey? ·         Which channels and sales methods will best attract and serve these customers?   1.       Who is your target customer? When considering your target audience, we have found that going beyond the standard pen-portraits and creating an Ideal Client Profile  (ICP) provides a more actionable framework for identifying and sourcing your most valuable customers. A typical market segmentation analysis provides an overview of the demographic or firmographic traits of your target market, their behaviour patterns and their growth potential – generally, these segmentations should emphasize a series of ‘prospectable’ characteristics that your marketing and sales teams can target across your main channels. While this kind of market segmentation highlights the ‘availability’ of potential customer groups, an ICP goes further by considering two additional factors: their ‘likeability’ and ‘likelihood’. Likeability references the lifetime value (LTV)   of a customer segment, which is calculated as the total revenue generated by a segment over time minus the costs of acquiring and retaining those customers. As useful a tool as this is in evaluating the potential value of different segments, it provides no context on the likelihood of realising that value. To do so, you must also consider how well your offerings address the specific needs of each segment – a small SaaS business is unlikely to convert an enterprise client, no matter the product’s quality, due to factors such as limited brand presence or insufficient capacity to meet the demands of a larger client. In combination, the size, expected customer lifetime value, and propensity to convert not only enhances your understanding of your target audience, but also provides a strategic framework for identifying and prioritising the most valuable segments. Over time, this process will enable you to refine your value proposition and optimise your marketing and sales efforts.   2.       What problem are you solving for them? When considering the value you provide to potential customers, it is important to clearly define how your offerings are differentiated from your competitors’ and how you can sustainably deliver this value over time.  Doing so emphasizes an important caveat in defining your ICP – your offerings must solve specific problems for specific customers. A product or service that is sellable to ‘everyone’ is unlikely to win any customers from competitors and may also result in working with clients who are not well-suited to your business, leading to higher churn rates or engagement with less profitable segments. Recently, I switched from a gym near my home to a PureGym near our office. Although this feels like a ‘downgrade’ in some ways – particularly the lack of a towel laundry service, which means dealing with wet towels in my work bag – it resolves several issues that my old gym couldn’t: the new gym’s proximity to the office significantly reduces my commuting time; its 24/7 availability allows for greater flexibility around my work schedule; and it’s more affordable (a growing consideration given the various restaurants and pubs outside our new office that are putting a dent in my budget…). PureGym understands the value of these product features and makes them clear throughout their marketing and messaging, and their transparent pricing makes joining a hassle-free process – so long as they can maintain their equipment and effectively manage capacity, it would take a lot for me to consider switching gyms again. If you are unsure of the kinds of problems your customers face, the best thing you can do is ask! Conducting comprehensive customer research  will provide valuable insight into the timings of the sales cycle, the triggers that typically lead to purchases, and any potential risks that may lead to the loss of customers. This research can also uncover any unmet needs and opportunities for product/service improvements, facilitating improved efficiency along every stage of the customer journey. 3.        What is your typical customer journey? Consider your most recent significant purchase: how many different providers did you consider? Which search engines did you use, or perhaps something on social media caught your attention? Which review sites did you look at? Did you look for discount codes or promotions? How many different devices did you use in doing this? You may even have visited in-store to investigate further. This simple exercise highlights the growing complexity of contemporary customer journeys: linear models of buying journeys which move straightforwardly from awareness to decision and then to retention, provide little use beyond theoretical modelling. To better understand how customers discover and interact with your brand, developing an attribution model is a powerful strategy. Recently, we collaborated with a holiday letting agency to create a multi-touch attribution model that more accurately reflects the incremental value of non-branded media channels throughout their customer journey, as opposed to relying solely on first-touch and last-touch models. This approach has enabled the agency to optimise their non-brand paid search activity based on ROI, while also uncovering some of the nuances associated with their customers’ behaviour. By analysing complex customer journeys, we refined the model by adjusting the weight given to different touchpoints, considering both preceding and subsequent actions. This iterative process, validated through practical feedback from Management, helped develop an attribution model that was both sufficiently complex and easily explainable – testament to the importance of stepping into your customers’ shoes. Additionally, mystery shopping  serves as another effective method for gaining insights into customer engagement with your brand: when carried out properly, it should uncover any pain points potential customers might encounter. Combined with customer research, this approach provides a holistic view on the factors driving brand awareness, who else you’re being considered alongside, and the reasons customers might be walking away from your offering, enabling you to take effective action across the customer journey. Building on these insights, it’s important to remember that while acquiring new customers is crucial, retaining those who have already engaged with your brand is just as important.  Alongside strengthening customer loyalty and driving word-of-mouth referrals, a well-thought-out retention strategy increases the number of opportunities for upselling and cross-selling: repeat customers are more likely to explore the additional products or services that you offer, driving incremental revenue without the costs associated with acquiring new customers. This not only improves your bottom line, but also enhances key financial metrics, such as the quality of earnings, by providing a more predictable revenue stream - an attractive factor for potential investors. By acting on customer feedback, incentivising repeat purchases, and explicitly targeting cross-sell/upsell opportunities, you can better address the needs of your customers and consistently deliver value. 4.        Which channels and sales methods will best attract and serve these customers? Once you better understand how customers discover, evaluate, and engage with your brand, it’s essential to align your sales model accordingly. Are your customers proactively seeking out solutions like yours, or is it likely that they need to be made aware of the type of product or service you offer? This distinction will shape the focus of your sales strategies and the channels you use. If you find that customers are actively searching for products like yours, an inbound sales model might be most effective. This involves creating compelling content, optimising for search engines, and leveraging social media to attract and nurture leads who are already aware of their problem. The goal is to be visible at the relevant stage of their journey, providing valuable information that guides them towards choosing your product or service. In contrast, if you’re looking to expand into new verticals, such as shifting from selling to SMEs to targeting enterprise clients, an outbound focus is likely the most effective strategy for generating awareness in this new market. The longer sales cycles and involvement of multiple decision-makers make it crucial for your sales team to proactively reach out to prospects, offering a consultative approach that educates them and builds relationships through direct engagement. In our recent GTM due diligence, the SaaS business in question was looking to make a similar shift: after steady progress in acquiring customers from a select few sectors, the company sought to change the mix of its customer base by moving into new verticals. Our assessment highlighted the importance of identifying and aligning on one or more ICPS within these new verticals and embedding them throughout the customer journey to support a more deliberate, targeted outbound focus. Additionally, we identified the need for increased organic search visibility and proactive partnerships with vertical-specific specialists to broaden their routes to market and generate better qualified leads. It’s important to note that inbound and outbound strategies are not mutually exclusive. A company focused on enterprise customers could still use inbound strategies such as SEO to build brand awareness; however, understanding the types of customers you want to acquire, and their typical journeys should guide you in prioritising your sales and marketing resources – whether it’s deciding which channels to invest in or where to focus your training efforts.   Regardless of the sales strategy you choose, driving customer advocacy  should always be a central consideration when evaluating your GTM strategy. By creating positive customer experiences, offering excellent support, and actively engaging with your audience, you can turn satisfied customers into powerful brand ambassadors and leverage the trust and credibility that people place in peer-to-peer recommendations as a powerful form of organic marketing. In turn, when customer advocacy remains a key focus in your GTM strategy, it strengthens your brand’s reputation while simultaneously fostering a loyal customer base that will promote your products long after the initial sale – a powerful driver of sustained growth in competitive markets.  Evaluating Execution: Key Enablers and Metrics for Successful Implementation While the CMO or CCO may be responsible for orchestrating the GTM strategy, its successful implementation requires the involvement of the whole business. This requires aligning internal teams with the strategy’s goals, establishing robust processes, and leveraging technology to assess how effectively you are reaching your target audience. When evaluating your GTM strategy, the LTV:CPA ratio is a crucial metric for understanding the ROI of your marketing efforts and identifying which customer segments to prioritise.   1.       Aligning Teams and Setting Processes: The first step in effectively implementing a GTM strategy is defining the roles and responsibilities of all the teams involved, including marketing, sales, customer service, and product development. After which, the focus should shift to aligning the marketing and sales team, with a particular focus on how leads will be generated, nurtured, and converted. It is crucial for both teams to agree on key definitions, such as what constitutes a qualified lead, and to set target metrics that align with the overall business goals – for example, if the goal is to increase the revenue share generated by repeat purchases or renewals, this should be reflected in the sales incentives. Effective implementation extends beyond the sales and marketing teams, requiring collaboration and proper handover between all divisions involved. For instance, product improvements that meet customer needs can only be developed if there is effective communication between customer service and product development teams. To prevent breakdowns in this process, several steps should be taken to set clear procedures: Establish communication channels:  this can include regular interdepartmental meetings or the use of shared project management tools. Set handover protocols : develop and document handover protocols to ensure smooth transitions between stages of the customer journey. Implement feedback loops : these should enable the flow of data and insights across teams, supporting continuous improvement of a service that is aligned with customer needs. Monitor these processes:  set a series of key performance indicators (KPIs), such as the frequency of sales and marketing meetings and utilisation metrics of customer relationship management tools. By establishing and refining these processes, you set your team up for success in working towards common objectives, enabling them to most effectively utilise the tools at their disposal in attracting new customers. 2.       Leveraging Technology: In deploying your GTM strategy, several key technologies can help streamline processes, enhance communication, and provide valuable insights to drive decision-making. These include: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems : tools like Salesforce and HubSpot are essential for managing customer interactions, tracking sales activities, and generating insights into the sales pipeline Marketing automation tools : platforms such as Mailchimp automate repetitive marketing tasks, like email campaigns and social media postings, ensuring consistent engagement with your audience Analytics platforms : tools like Google Analytics and Tableau can be used to monitor performance metrics and provide actionable insights to optimise campaigns and strategies     3.       Tracking and Optimising Key Metrics: At the core of any successful GTM strategy lies an understanding of several critical metrics: The LTV to cost per acquisition (CPA) ratio:  this highlights the return on investment (ROI) of your marketing spend. It helps you determine whether increasing marketing spend to accelerate customer growth from a specific cohort is justified or if you should focus on optimising conversion rates and LTV. Conversion rates: these should be tracked at every stage along the sales funnel, providing insight into the percentage of prospects who take a desired action. This could highlight any potential revenue leakage  due to inefficiencies in the sales funnel (e.g., delayed follow-up, poor handover between the sales and customer success teams, or using outdated CRM systems that fail to track interactions correctly). Churn rates: when and why are customers leaving? Developing retention strategies is vital for sustained growth and maintains a pool of customers to target with cross-sell and upsell strategies. Net Promoter Score (NPS):  a measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty, gauged by the likelihood of customers to recommend your product or service to others. A higher NPS will promote organic growth through word-of-moth referrals, and better retention. To supplement these metrics, additional analyses such as attribution modelling or A/B testing of aspects of your marketing and sales activities enable an iterative approach to refining your GTM strategy. At Coppett Hill, we often help clients build robust GTM data platforms  that support this cycle of experimentation, measurement, and adjustment. By leveraging these platforms, organisations can systematically test new ideas, assess their impact, and refine their strategies in real-time – an essential component in generating actionable insights for management teams and others involved in executing the GTM strategy. Conclusion: Put simply, your go-to-market strategy encompasses everything that happens between having a product or service and having money. There is no standard playbook for what your GTM strategy should look like; however, an effective evaluation of one requires a thorough understanding of your customers, how your products are best suited to solve their problems, and how you are best positioned to engage with them. Whether it is a startup wondering how best to prioritise limited resources or an established enterprise launching new products and/or entering new verticals, maintaining these focuses will help to develop a GTM strategy that is well-defined, supported across the business, and effectively put into practice  If you’d like to talk about Go-To-Market strategy and how to optimise your efforts, please Contact Us .

In the first part  of this two-part series, I shared some of the basics of value creation in private equity from the perspective of an individual deal, explaining the basic structure of a private equity deal and the most common value levers. In this second part I want to step back and look at what value creation means from the perspective of a private equity firm and how that impacts management teams of portfolio companies. This post aims to provide you with practical insights into the inner workings of PE firms, shedding light on the different roles involved in value creation, and the common internal processes. I'll cover what goes on behind the scenes from the initial diligence stages to the ongoing management of their portfolio companies and some of the practical implications that can have for the management team.   Private equity firms are usually managing several funds at once, with different years, and perhaps different strategies, remits and investors. The aim of the private equity firm is to generate a return for investors in each fund, by using that capital to buy companies and sell them at a profit. The 10-year horizon IRR for US and Western European buyout funds has hovered around 15% over the last 10 years (Source: Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 – Fig 25). What this translates to is a target return on each portfolio company of 2-4x. Unlike venture capital where the majority of returns are driven by a few star performers, private equity relies on a more balanced portfolio of returns. However, assets do play different roles within the broader fund, which can change depending on the economic or PE firm context, in turn affecting the value creation plan and the management team executing it. For example, in the current environment with high interest rates and economic uncertainty, PE firms have been struggling to sell assets due to a mismatch in valuations between buyers (who are having to use more expensive debt and are looking to buy at lower multiples) and sellers (who are looking for higher valuations to meet their return targets). This has led to a slowdown in exit activity, with a 44% decline in buyout-backed exits  from 2022 to 2023, which has continued in 2024. All this leads private equity firms to have to rethink their fund strategy in order to return some liquidity to investors. They will be assessing which companies will reap a ‘good enough’ return if sold now, versus which are worth holding onto to reap the returns on more growth. As a management team, this might mean that the timeline to exit becomes more compressed, or extended, than you had originally planned for.     In this macro context, ‘value creation’ has become more important than ever. In a sense, value creation is the entire job of a private equity fund. However, in private equity ‘value creation’ usually refers to specific teams, roles, capabilities and processes that are focused on assisting portfolio companies during the hold period to achieve their strategic plan and to meet or exceed growth targets. This is in contrast to the ‘deal’ or ‘Investment’ team, which is responsible for sourcing, assessing and investing in companies. In most firms, the deal team also retains overall responsibility for the portfolio through to when the PE firm exits, including company board representation.   There are as many different structures for setting up value creation teams as there are PE firms. Value creation roles usually fit in to four types: In-house generalists  who provide broad support to the portfolio in achieving the value creation plan. They are often also responsible for reporting internally on performance versus plan. In-house specialists  who focus on specific areas such as operations, finance, or marketing. Operating partners who are external to the PE firm, thought might be retained by them, and work closely with the portfolio companies. They typically bring deep operational expertise and industry-specific knowledge to help drive initiatives and improvements in portfolio companies. Advisors/network  who are external experts and consultants brought in on a project basis to address particular challenges or opportunities.   What is involved in ‘Value creation’ from the private equity team’s perspective?   Whilst the detailed planning and execution of value creation levers are happening on the ground in the portfolio company. There is a lot of value creation planning going on behind the scenes within the PE firm. We thought it would be helpful to share some examples of what that can look like through the hold period, to shed some light on the investor’s context.   Pre-deal: Whilst each fund will have a house style, there are typically 2 threads that the deal team are thinking about pre deal: Due diligence – due diligence is essentially trying to validate the factors that underpin the EBITDA x multiple calculation, e.g. Financial due diligence to validate the EBITDA figure, Commercial due diligence to validate the market opportunity and competitive position which underpin the multiple Value creation planning – how will this investment make money?  Management will have presented a growth plan, but the deal team will have their own view on this and may do quite a lot of additional work on testing the assumptions, and planning for different scenarios.   The team will present the investment case to Investment Committee (typically the most senior investors in the fund) who will scrutinise and question the plan. If a company is planning for 10% organic growth, in a flat market, there needs to be strong evidence for why this is achievable! In our work at Coppett Hill, we see that value creation teams are starting to engage much earlier within the deal cycle and are often working alongside the deal team on the value creation planning.   When the market is more challenging, such as over the last 18 months, value creation plans need to be even tighter as buyers can’t rely on multiple expansion and low-cost debt packages supporting returns. As we mentioned in Part 1, investors will usually have their own plan, the ‘investment case’, that they are investing against. This is often, but not always, an adapted version of the management plan with some sensitivities, and perhaps some ‘big bets’, applied.   Implications for Management: The strength of the value creation team and what support they can provide management teams during the hold period is increasingly part of the pitch and a key differentiator. As the process progresses and a deal looks more likely, the value creation team may start to shift into gear to ‘hit the ground running’ post deal and want to align on workstreams, potential issues and priorities. It’s important for the management team to be involved in the creation of the investment case and buy in to the key assumptions, as they are the ones who will have to deliver it.   Hold period This is where the value creation work really starts on the ground. PE investors typically plan for a hold of 3-5 years, although we’ve been seeing that extending in recent years with a slow deal environment.   From the investor’s perspective during the hold period, they are looking for visibility on how execution of the value creation plan is going and how the company is performing against that plan. The reality is that the first year of an investment rarely goes quite as anyone (either management, or the investors) expected and therefore it is highly likely that the value creation plan and strategy will be updated and revised.   Setting, and updating, the 2-5 year company strategy should be the role of the Board. With the executive team preparing a plan for the Board to debate, and then being responsible for implementing it. The Board is one of the key channels through which investors have influence. The make-up of a Board can vary, but at a minimum will usually contain a non-executive Chair, the CEO, and a lead investor, and often the CFO. The lead investor (also called PE representative, or Investment Director) is the primary interface between the PE firm and the company during the hold period.   Year 1 of the hold is especially important because of the compounding effects of growth, if key projects or launches get delayed for example, it can easily set back the plan by a year or 2. Equally, it’s important for the Board to get a good understanding of the company before launching into any no-regrets decisions and the first 6 months is usually a post-deal adjustment period. Boards will usually aim to have a post-deal strategy day within the first 6 months, which should bring together the management plan and the value creation plan, once the Board members have a better understanding of the business. A really useful exercise at this strategy day can be to ‘work backwards’ from what you want to be true when it comes to the next sale process. For step-changes rather than incremental growth, there needs to be very focused use of resources on a few areas, rather than trying to spread too thin across the value chain. Investors will usually want to focus in on 1-3 priority areas, such as sales, marketing, finance, technology, or human capital.   These priority areas are often where value creation teams are brought in. They will work with management in a more practical way, outside of the Board. For example, if organic customer acquisition is a key pillar of the value creation plan, here are some ways the 4 different type of value creation roles might support: In-house generalists – share relevant examples from other portfolio companies, make introductions to peers in the portfolio who can share their experience. In-house specialists  – work closely with the marketing team, sharing best practice and advising on specific growth levers. They might support on some specific analysis or rolling out tools/programs used across the portfolio. Operating partners – the investor might bring in an ex-CMO with relevant industry experience to support the company on the ground with execution, hiring and managing the team. Often, they are brought in part-time and for a fixed time period. Advisors/network  – the investor may recommend a specialist consultancy that they have worked with before on similar challenges. For example, at Coppett Hill we might be brought in to help better understand marketing economics, working closely with the marketing team and building data and insight infrastructure that the company then owns.   Investment Committee continues to play a key role, with the PE representatives on the Board typically going back to IC every 6 months to report on performance vs plan (which may or may not be visible to the Management team). If numbers are off target, IC will want to understand why and to feel assured there’s a plan to remedy it. The IC has visibility across the whole fund so they can provide a useful perspective on market and industry dynamics, and also share lessons from previous investments. Implications for Management: You will likely be asked for much more granular reporting – the PE representative is ‘on the hook’ for performance against the value creation plan, but they’re not in the business and close to the detail. The individuals also tend to be quantitative by nature (ex-accountants, bankers, consultants) and want the comfort of understanding the numbers. Investment committee reporting and discussions may drive requests for information or changes in priorities. Your PE representative is likely having to write an update paper every 6 months which they need data for, and they may get questions or feedback from the IC which they need to answer and will often play into Board discussions and strategy. Fund dynamics – the IC is responsible for managing the performance of the overall fund and best serving the PE firm’s investors (Limited Partners). This may impact things like exit strategy and may not always be aligned with what the Investment Director wants. For example, the Investment Director will typically want to hold out for an extra half turn on returns for that company, whereas the PE firm’s interests overall may be better served by generating cash now to keep LPs happy. Heavy focus on a few key areas. Your investor might get very into-the-details on the few priority areas (which may feel frustrating at times), whilst giving management a much longer rope and much less oversight in other areas and just monitoring top level KPIs.   Exit When it comes to exit, it’s not just about what value has been generated over this hold, but the exit process is another sale process and therefore a view on value creation for the next stage is needed. Good investors will be thinking about this from the start, such as ‘preparing the Investment Memorandum’ for exit at the very first strategy day. An exit process can take a year or more, and the lead investor should play a really valuable role in providing an ‘investors’ perspective’ on the exit story and what the next investor will be putting in their value creation plan.   As my colleague Harry von Behr has recently set out , from a value creation perspective the key things at exit are: Reliable and granular management information that can evidence the key points in the IM, e.g. ‘Sticky customers’ being backed up with strong data on customer retention over the last 5 years Evidence that the value creation plan drove success during the hold period (i.e. linking specific initiatives to growth) – investors want to know that growth was strategic and replicable, and not just down to luck of the market A clear plan for future value creation, mainly through accelerating revenue or improving profitability, not reliant on assumed multiple expansion Evidence that the company can achieve this next value creation plan, ideally with some green shoots / tests of key parts of the plan e.g. if a big part of the plan is International expansion, having done a small MVP launch in that market, or having beachhead customers there pulling you over Implications for Management: In the run up to exit, there will be a lot of focus on data and evidence and preparing detailed performance information for the data room. There will be a lot of focus on consistent performance and hitting targets, especially EBITDA, in the run up to an exit, as this underpins the valuation. Historically ‘valuation EBITDA’ could include adjustments and exceptions such as one-off projects and costs, meaning that these might sometimes be preferred over ongoing expenses, even when the latter is cheaper in cash terms. However, in the current market buyers are less willing to accept adjustments and the investor is likely to be very focussed on achieving the EBITDA that underpins their returns target. ‘Look forward’ earnings can be used to underpin higher valuations if you have proof points about the impact of an initiative that is already being rolled out, resulting in a push to get proof points ahead of an exit.   Hopefully the above sheds some light on the context behind certain Board dynamics, requests from your PE representative, or changes in priorities. One of the things that differentiates us at Coppett Hill is that we have worked in private equity value creation and investment roles, as operators and as consultants, meaning we can help to translate between these worlds. We work across the whole value creation cycle, from pre-deal DD through to supporting execution of the value creation plan and preparing for exit. If you’d like to talk about value creation planning and which levers we can help with, please Contact Us .

We’ve explained the concept of value creation  previously, but in this post we’ll focus specifically at the other end of the private equity cycle. A successful exit is what every private equity investor and management team is looking to achieve, but it requires significant preparation well in advance of the actual sale. In our experience, Marketing & Sales leaders have a critical role to play in supporting an exit.  Getting your house in order   Preparing for a successful exit begins at the start of the investment journey, as has been covered previously . There is never a bad time to ensure your house is in order, but Marketing & Sales leaders should begin to focus on what’s required for exit 12-18 months out from a potential transaction. This will include both hygiene factors, such as reporting, as well as the proof points that support the investment case to be presented to prospective buyers. As a private equity investor I used to work with called it - the ‘ sausage and the sizzle’     The hygiene factors ( the sausage ) form the basis of what future investors will use to value the business on exit. From a Go-To-Market perspective, this could include:  Weekly/monthly KPI reports and with associated commentary  Strategy documents outlining the Ideal Client Profile (ICP) , target markets, channel and partnership strategies, etc.  Process documentation covering company approaches to Sales and Marketing  Think about these from an investors’ perspective – what would they want to see to build confidence that the business will continue to grow profitably? For a B2B business  this might be your pipeline value over time, lead conversion rate, and individual salesperson metrics. For a B2C business this may be your  LTV:CAC ratio . While score keeping is important, try to make these forward looking where possible, tying them to actions and initiatives. Work closely with your Finance team to ensure weekly/monthly reports tie back to management accounts and Board packs - this will save you potential headaches further down the line during the due diligence process.  It’s also important to mitigate any major risks that may go to value. This could include ensuring material customer and/or supplier contracts are renewed, giving prospective buyers comfort that there will be no impact to the underlying business.  Lastly, identify any gaps in capabilities, systems or processes that may be highlighted as part of the due diligence process, and create a plan to fix them. This may be through recruitment into the team, or investment in a new marketing automation platform. In an ideal world this will be fixed by the time a sales process kicks into gear, but just having a plan is a step in the right direction and will help answer challenging questions later – the primary purpose here is to present a picture of understanding, control and predictability of your Go-To-Market efforts.    Enterprise Value in the context of private equity is typically a function of EBITDA and multiple . We’ve covered how to grow EBITDA through Go-To-Market improvements in many of our previous posts, but multiple expansion can more challenging, as this reflects the perceived quality of the business and the opportunities for growth.   An upside story ( the sizzle ) will help you maximise value on exit through multiple expansion. Every business typically has a portfolio of products/services/customers at different stages of the BCG matrix . The challenge for a successful exit is realising value for the ‘Question Marks’. Sales & Marketing leaders play an important role in this, building proof points of the green shoots that are growing in these Question Mark areas, before they become ‘Stars’ and then ‘Cash Cows’. Examples of this might be website user growth in a recently launched geography, and how that compares to the historical growth in more mature geos. Or from a B2B perspective this may be the increase in the pipeline volume and value for a recently launched product or service, and how that compares to more mature offerings.  Being able to add quantitative evidence to the potential value that these upside initiatives may generate, will go some way to these being included as part of the valuation.  The private equity exit process   By the time the sales process kicks off and sell-side advisors are selected, your house should be in order, with plenty of evidence of green shoots. Focus will now turn to preparing the sales materials – another area that Sales & Marketing leaders can play a crucial role.  In the first instance, a Teaser  will be created – typically a combined effort between the management team, current investors (if applicable), and the corporate finance advisors. This is a short document (2-3 pages) designed to highlight the most attractive aspects of the company. This tends to be light on financial information but includes data points that will help to entice prospective buyers. Sales & Marketing leaders can contribute to this in several ways:  Creating an overview of the market and competitive context – showing the growth of the market and the business’s highly defensible position  Highlighting key customers success stories – showing the business’s ability to win and retain valuable customers  Providing KPIs/metrics that highlight the quality of the business - examples include user growth rates, customer acquisition, LTV/CAC, revenue retention, etc.   Once the Teaser has been shared with a longlist of prospective buyers, a shortlist will be selected based on level of interest, who will be given access to the Information Memorandum  (‘IM’). The IM is a longer form version of the Teaser and will include more extensive financial and trading information. This is where details of the Sales & Marketing strategy, KPIs and greenshoots can be presented to paint the business in the best light.  Alongside the IM, the advisors will work with Management to build a Financial Model ,  Vendor Due Diligence (VDD)   reports and a  Virtual Data Room  (VDR):  The financial model typically consists of a forecast P&L, cashflow statement and balance sheet, that will be used by prospective buyers to value the business. Sales & Marketing leaders will need to provide KPI forecasts into this, as they will form a key part of the revenue growth assumptions  The VDD reports are provided by separate advisors to give an independent view on the historical trading and achievability of the business plan  The VDR is where key documents are shared with prospective buyers. The KPI reports, strategy, and process documents previously compiled can be shared here, to answer buyers’ questions about the overall Sales & Marketing strategy and performance  As well as the review of the IM, Financial Model, VDD reports, and VDR, Management Presentations  will often be held. This gives buyers an opportunity to meet Management teams and ask questions face-to-face. These will sometimes include just the most senior executives, or other times the wider senior team. The presentation itself is often a shortened version of the IM, but any soundbites that Sales & Marketing leaders can add around recent successes or progress against key initiatives will help to add flavour to the investment highlights.  Prospective buyers will look to carry out Due Diligence  (DD) on the business, to validate the information received as part of the IM, Financial Model, VDD reports and Management Presentations. DD typically covers a range of aspects, including Financial, Commercial, Legal, Technology and Tax issues. Sales & Marketing leaders can play an important role as part of the Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) workstream by providing evidence that supports the business’s growth plans in the context of the market, competition, existing customer base and growth strategy.  We are also seeing an increasing trend of more thoughtful investors carrying out Go-To-Market DD – where they are looking to identify the potential for value creation through improving GTM strategy and operations.  The buyer will use all this information to inform their valuation and negotiation strategy, while the seller will be looking to have as many interested parties participating in order to maximise competitive tension and drive a higher multiple & better terms.  Trading momentum – keep going!   It may feel like there is a lot to process and documentation as part of an exit - that’s because there is! The most important thing, however, is that trading momentum is continued. This will ensure you create competitive tension among prospective buyers (which is important for healthy valuations) and avoid any negative surprises during or after the sale process.  In summary, there are plenty of ways that Sales & Marketing leaders can play a key role before and during a business exit. Just make sure you have the sausage and the sizzle.  If you’d like to discuss how you can better prepare for an exit through value creation planning and due diligence, please Contact Us .