Deal Champion – The DC is the person in the company that has developed the strategy or insight that makes a worthwhile case for buying your company.  They are swimming upstream – this person is banging their head against the bricks of risk adverse company denizens.  These denizens are people inside the company that are too afraid of losing their jobs than take any risk associated with the purchase of another company let alone yours.  Alas the Deal Champion stands tall, proud, and fights the good fight.  Typically these people carry titles like Director of Corporate Development, Director of Corporate Strategy, etc.

As the seller you have to understand who the Deal Champion is and bid for their attention – first you must sell them on your company and then you can help them sell the buyer on your company.  The higher up the food chain the Deal Champion the easier it will be to get a deal done.  The following are my top four things to try to understand about your deal champion:

1. What is driving the Deal Champion to be involved? Are they in charge of strategy and is your company a key component of that strategy? (Let’s hope so!) Are they looking at five different deals and even if they want to work on yours are they being pulled to concentrate on another opportunity?
2. What is the biggest thing driving the deal – new market, deeper penetration, skills not available inside the company – why are they interested?
3. Who are they – what is their background – you should find out everything you can about the person.  Google them take them to dinner and spend the whole time talking to them about them.
4. Is the Deal Champion directly incentivized to do transactions? As crazy as this seems aggressive growth companies sometimes place a revenue target on the corporate strategy group to acquire. (Home Depot for example during the 2002 – 2004 timeframe had a revenue target for acquisitions in the billions. If the VP of Corp Dev did not acquire the revenue he would not get paid or worse get the axe. – If you are fortunate enough to find a company like this it is like Ed McMann rolling up in a van outside your door.)

If you can decipher the above it should give you a leg up on preparing for the sale.  Remember find the Deal Champion and take care of them.  Treat them like royalty and get them whatever they need.  Help them sell your company inside theirs and reap the rewards of a great transaction.