Technical Training Institute

The product we sell, your company, is high value with a complex sales cycle involving multiple decision-makers, gatekeepers, advisers, and influencers. When selling a company, professional sales expertise is a must. Sequoia M&A specialists are seasoned sales professionals with proven track records in strategic deal making.

1. Active Marketing
We actively market the value drivers of your company through a competitive sales process. Passive marketing yields sub-prime results. Mid-market businesses do not sell themselves. We have no interest in engagements where we cannot add value to the transaction. We embrace the challenge of proactively creating a unique, global market of buyers for your company that place a premium on its value.

2. Attention to Detail
What matters is closing. Closing demands attention to 100% of the details. Packaging your business, defining a market, qualifying buyers, anticipating problems, negotiating the best terms, defending value, managing deal momentum, mitigating emotion, and sweating the details. These are some of the skills we use to find the best buyer and guide the transaction across the finish line — to close the sale of your company.

3. Buyer Competition

Whenever you create competition for something you possess, the possession increases in value. Creating a market to foster buyer competition is the most effective way to maximize your company’s value and discover the most capable buyers in terms of:

• Valuation. In the presence of competing parties, buyers are motivated to raise their valuation to the highest end of their range for reasons that are as unique as their company strategies.
• Momentum. Nothing motivates buyers to keep the transaction on pace than the knowledge of competing parties.
• Terms. Cash at closing, vendor financing, capital structure, target working capital, transition support, exit timing, etc., are all influenced by competition more than anything.
• Cultural Fit. The presence of multiple competing buyers facilitates the seller’s ability to evaluate and select the buyer with the ideal cultural fit to succeed in the future.
• Equity Participation. Certain buyers would prefer that ownership rolls over and retains a minority equity interest in the company post-sale or that key management be afforded the opportunity to participate along side the purchaser. A well managed competitive process leads to the optimal determination of equity rollover and participation terms.

4. Preserving Confidentiality

Guarding the confidentiality of the sale process from suppliers, competitors, employees, and others is essential to preserving value. Yet, there is an apparent incongruity between the wide exposure of your company to a global market of strategic and private equity buyers and the absolute need to protect the confidentiality of it being for sale. Confidentiality is second nature to Sequoia’s professionals — it’s in our DNA. We understand it’s the lifeblood of sustaining a successful transaction. We know what information to disclose, when to disclose it, and to whom to disclose it, in order to preserve the confidentiality of the sale of your company. Furthermore, we coach our clients on responding to inquisitive parties, either internal or external, should our clients be unexpectedly confronted about a possible sale of the company.

With a sole focus and a long history of success in sell-side M&A, there are a number of benefits to working with Sequoia.

1. Return on Investment
We have sold our clients’ companies for significantly higher than expected and are happy to provide client references to substantiate this statement. We are committed to getting you the most possible for your company, while securing the best terms.

2. Experienced Specialists
Would you rather have your surgery done by the promising young intern or the specialist doctor that has been practicing for many years and dealt with multiple unforeseen complications that can arise in the operating room? Would you rather fly to Singapore on a flight commanded by the recent flight academy graduate or the veteran pilot that has 10,000 hours of flight time and hundreds of legs in varying conditions of weather and mechanical related uncertainty. How about selling your company? For more than fifteen years straight, Sequoia has flawlessly executed the same process year-after-year — the sale of privately-held companies like yours. Fifteen years of encountering the unexpected. Fifteen years of honing best practices. Fifteen years of success. Experience is knowing and doing. That’s why.

3. Success
Since our inception in 2007, we have achieved an unwavering degree of success for our clients. We have repeatedly proven that the consistent rigour of our process leads to successful outcomes.

4. Choice

Our sales process creates an effective auction that has resulted in 3 to 8 bona fide letters of intent to purchase our client’s companies. That not only increases valuation, but affords choice of who our client sell to and the terms upon which they want to sell. A good cultural fit is important because when you sell your company you have a vested interest in its continued growth and success, since you may want to retain a minority equity interest in the company, you may hold a vendor note, or perhaps you’ll be landlord to the new owner of your former company. Not to mention that you’d rather sell to a responsible steward of your company’s employees, its brand, and your legacy.

5. Skin in the Game

Sequoia’s business model is built to get the best deal for your company (price, terms, and fit) in the shortest time frame. If we can’t add value to the sale of your company, we won’t take the engagement. We represent select opportunities we are confident we can close, which is when we earn our keep. Since our fee structure is contingent upon the sale of the company, your fee risk is minimized until the sale completes – that aligns our objectives with yours.

6. Creativity

Are we process oriented? Absolutely. Are we technology driven? Very much so. Cookie cutter? Definitely not. Selling a company is a process that requires tons of creativity because companies are like living organisms — they are constantly changing in response to stimuli in their environment. To paraphrase Terry O’Reilly, large groups are okay if you’re Amish and you’re building a barn. Creativity, on the other hand, is a problem solving pursuit for a small team of smart people. Creativity should never be clouded by the politics of large companies or smothered by corporate agendas. Big groups are excellent at implementing a creative idea. They’re just not good at coming up with them. As G.K. Chesterton once said, “I searched the parks in all your cities, and found no statues of committees.”

7. Independent

Like you, we’re entrepreneurs and continue to make our own way, as we have for all of our careers. But it’s more than just being a self-directed businessperson. In our business, being independent means being free of any and all conflicts of interest. As an independent firm that is exclusively dedicated to selling your company, our sole duty is to promote and protect your interests, free from any conflicts that might arise if we were part of an accounting firm, bank, or financial institution.

8. Focus

Above all else, selling and negotiating are collaborative efforts in problem solving. One of the things that differentiates Sequoia is that we approach our craft as professional salespeople and negotiators. The task at hand is to sell a product called your company. While we are proficient in accounting, corporate finance, and business law, we assume you would no more hire your accountant, banker, or lawyer to sell your company than to sell your company’s products or services. Successful M&A professionals do not take an us-versus-them approach when selling a company. Our employers own the companies we sell. Our customers buy them. Satisfying the needs of each maximizes value for both. While our fiduciary duty is to you, we strive for two stellar references at the closing of each transaction.

9. Peace of Mind

In short, this means we’re licensed to sell companies. Sequoia Mergers & Acquisitions holds valid Brokerage and Managing Brokers licenses under the applicable Acts in the jurisdictions we operate. and as such we: (i) Maintain Errors and Omissions Insurance; (ii) Uphold our Fiduciary duty along with our ethical, common law, and statutory duties; (iii) Are bound to the duty of perpetual confidentiality; and (iv) Maintain government audited Trust Accounts.

Global Target Market

For each client engagement, Sequoia creates a unique global market of buyers specific to the company we are selling. Identifying the maximum number of qualified buyers is key. The most probable buyer does not fall into a single category or profile. Who is most likely to benefit from the characteristics of your company? Is the principal value in your customer base, your people, or your geographical coverage? Mapping these benefits to prospective buyers will result in buyers that are not necessarily competitors. Opportunistic buyers may be better suited than those with an acquisition on their agenda. Lateral thinking at this stage pays great dividends.

Sequoia targets three different buyer categories for each marketing campaign we execute:

1. Strategic Buyers
Strategic buyers are companies that would gain a synergistic benefit from the acquisition of your company. Sequoia undertakes exhaustive market research to identify allied industry sectors whose member companies would benefit from a combination with your company. We mine numerous leading industry databases and internet sources for companies in those sectors. Sequoia’s worldwide reach stems in part from our continual investment in best-in-class market intelligence technology one might find in use at multinational investment banks and corporate finance groups. These industry specific tools enable us to determine the fit of potential strategic buyers as well as identify each strategic buyer’s acquisition history, transaction multiples paid for past acquisitions, and details on the company decision makers. The result of this research is a global market of strategic buyers to which we market your company. Sequoia’s engagements have produced unique target strategic buyer lists ranging from 100 to 500 companies. The list of strategic buyers created for the sale of your company is provided to you for review and approval before we launch our direct marketing campaign to the company CEOs, Corporate Development VPs, and other executives within each strategic buyer company.

2. Private Equity Groups
Private equity firms are professional investors that acquire companies using funds provided by institutions and other pools of money seeking a return from the investment in diverse business interests. Private equity firms broadly classify their investments as either “platforms” (typically companies with more than $5 million in EBITDA) or “add-ons” (typically companies with less than $5 million in EBITDA). Your company may have many attributes that are highly sought after by the private equity sector. Sequoia has direct access to approximately 2,400 private equity firms that are appropriate for mid-market transactions. We have successfully sold companies to private equity in past engagements and will directly target them in our marketing campaign for your company.

3. Sequoia’s Professional Network
Sequoia invests significant time and energy cultivating its network of professionals related to the “liquidity event”. We have connections with approximately 3,000 individuals locally and worldwide that are either mergers and acquisitions professionals in the field of investment banking, business succession, and tax planning, or are part of a community of business advisors adjacent to liquidity events such as corporate accountants, fractional CFOs, transaction lawyers, commercial bankers, and wealth managers. Whereas our Professional Network members are not the buyers per se, marketing to them results in direct connections to qualified buyers for businesses we have successfully sold in past engagements.

Sequoia will conduct guided interviews with you to understand strategies, policies, and procedures of the company, including competition, marketing, sales, distribution, customers, territories, administration, manufacturing, engineering, customer service, human resources, financial matters, information technology and security, process control, intellectual property, and the like. The pool of information gathered enables us to prepare two essential sales documents before taking the company to market — the Anonymous Business Profile and Confidential Information Memorandum.

1. Anonymous Business Profile (ABP)
The ABP or “teaser” is a one-page data sheet used in the early stages of buyer contact. It highlights the fundamentals of your company and sells the benefits of your company’s unique characteristics to buyers without identifying your company name, location, or other company characteristics that you deem confidential.

2. Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM)
The CIM is a comprehensive book that conveys an individual expression of the unique characteristics of your company. It is provided only to parties that have been qualified, signed a nondisclosure agreement (NDA), and have been approved by you prior to being sent. The focus is the benefit of your company to prospective buyers. The goal is to engage the buyer in discussions about your company in the context of combined resources (merged operations, new capital investment, etc.) with the buyer. Whereas it discloses financial information of your company, it is not exhaustive. Details are deferred until due diligence, after a commitment has been made by the buyer to acquire your company. The contents of a typical CIM include:

Company Overview

• Company History and Timeline
• Ownership Structure
• Business Lines and Sources of Revenue
• Facilities
• Company Strengths and Weaknesses
• Market Opportunities and Threats

Financial Analysis

• Summary of Company Financials
• Income Analysis
• Normalized EBITDA
• Balance Sheet History
• Working Capital Analysis
• Capital Expenditure Analysis
• Marketing and Sales Analysis
• Target Market Analysis
• Geographic Market Analysis
• Sales and Promotion
• Pricing Strategy
• Competition

Human Resources Overview

• Organization Structure
• Summary of HR Status
• Key Employee Review
• Status of Existing Contracts
• Management Transition

Comprehensive Email Campaign

Initial contact with prospective buyers starts with a series of comprehensive email campaigns. Sequoia invests continuously in highly customized campaign management technology to initiate, monitor, and control the distribution of the Anonymous Business Profile to the target market. The campaign management technology uses the most up-to-date methods for negotiating corporate firewalls, spam filters, and other email suppression techniques to ensure maximum penetration of the target audience while complying with anti-spam legislation. For each deployment, our campaign management system delivers real time notification of metrics on emails opened, links clicked, emails bounced, blocked, and unsubscribed.

The initial campaign generates a large number of parties that have further interest in the opportunity. After a review of the Anonymous Business Profile, buyers with a bona fide interest sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) protecting the confidentiality of all subsequent communications and information transfer. All prospective buyers are qualified to determine their motivation, fit, and expected valuation range to consummate the purchase of your company prior to any detailed information being shared.

Target Market Penetration

We actively monitor the progress of the initial and all subsequent email campaigns. Within the strategic buyer segment, we strive for 100% contact with the CEOs, Corporate Development VPs, and other executives within each strategic buyer company. For each company that did not respond to the initial email campaign, we initiate direct contact by telephone with supplemental email campaigns. Armed with background knowledge about the company and its executives obtained from our market intelligence technology, we determine the buyer’s level of interest to acquire your company and focus on the benefits that could be derived in combination with the target strategic or private equity buyer.

Buyer Engagement and Selection

Subject to your approval, qualified buyers under NDA are provided the Confidential Information Memorandum. Following further discovery and qualification, each buyer is introduced to you in a controlled set of conference calls, meetings, and management site visits. It is during this stage that we assert a compelling commercial thesis to each buyer that emphasizes the added value represented by your company within the framework of their operation or ownership. Likewise, we provide guidance of the range of expected commercial terms for a successful transaction.

Sequoia’s sales process causes an effective auction that has resulted in 3 to 8 bona fide letters of intent to purchase our client’s companies. That not only increases valuation, but affords choice of who our client sell to and the terms upon which they want to sell. That is important because when you sell your company, you have a vested interest in its continued growth and success since you may retain a minority equity interest in the company, hold a vendor note, or perhaps be landlord to the new owner of your former company. Not to mention that you want to sell to the party that is both a growth partner for your company’s management team and is a responsible steward of your company’s culture, its brand, and its legacy.

After you have chosen the preferred buyer, the next step is to negotiate a Letter of Intent (LOI).