Go-To-Market Exit Preparation
Why Go-To-Market Exit Preparation?
A successful private equity exit is about more than solid financial performance. Buyers want proof that the business is ready for scalable, capital-efficient growth. That means digging deep into the commercial engine – how well the company finds, wins, retains and grows customers. In preparing for a successful exit, pressure-testing every aspect of your go-to-market (GTM) model can be the difference between a good result, and a great one.
At Coppett Hill, our GTM experience has become the basis of go-to-market due diligence (DD) work we have undertaken with our clients in recent years. This same approach applies to exit preparation, where creating a clear narrative for growth, preparing robust marketing, sales and customer datasets, highlighting immediate opportunities for GTM improvements, and ensuring management can stand up to the level of questioning they will receive during a sale process, are the key areas of focus.
What's included in GTM Exit Preparation?
There are 4 key pillars to our exit preparation work that we typically deploy: strategic choices; operational execution; data/systems; and organisational capabilities/structure.
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Strategic choices answers questions on how well the business is set up to capture addressable opportunities, from a product, channel, and pricing perspective. How effective has a business been at identifying, targeting and reaching its ICPs (ideal customer profiles) with its proposition? How well does a business understand its unit economics, and are these used to inform marketing decisions?
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Operational execution reviews and assesses the overall effectiveness of a business’ GTM activity. How good is the business at finding prospects and filling the funnel? At progressing and converting leads? At retaining, upselling, and cross-selling to customers? Is the organisation set up to do this in a repeatable and scalable way? Are budgets deployed in the best way to drive efficient growth?
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Data and systems covers how well the business is enabling and tracking its GTM activity. What marketing and CRM tools are in place, and how effectively are they used? What visibility does the business have of its sales and marketing performance?
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Organisational capabilities and structure reviews the sales and marketing organisation, its leadership, the effectiveness of key teams & third parties, and the appropriateness of internal targets and incentives in driving performance.
Our Exit Preparation work includes a number of outputs to support the business in maximising value:
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Analysis of internal marketing and sales operational data;
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A review of enablers against our best practice benchmarks;
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A set of actionable GTM value creation opportunities to either be addressed prior to a sale process, or to be presented as upside during a sales process;
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An assessment of the achievability of the revenue growth plan;
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Preparation of marketing, sales and customer datasets to be used during the sale process;
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Coaching management teams on how they present the GTM opportunity during presentations and interactions.
Example questions answered by GTM Exit Preparation
Comparisons to Vendor Assistance and other forms of exit preparation
Seasoned corporate finance practitioners and private equity professionals have been using advisors to provide Vendor Assistance support in sales processes for many years. Vendor Assistance is designed to create efficiency, preparing structured financial information to assist buyers in a fair and transparent deal process. The focus of Vendor Assistance is on supporting the seller in making diligence as smooth as possible by preparing and organising the data room, helping management with buyer Q&A, and building light ‘fact-based’ reports, with limited conclusions. On the other hand, Vendor Due Diligence is a formal independent report prepared by the sellers’ advisors covering financial (Financial Due Diligence – FDD), commercial (Commercial Due Diligence – CDD), tax (Tax Due Diligence – TDD) or legal (Legal Due Diligence – LDD) matters.
GTM Exit Preparation focuses on the go-to-market engine of the business, it covers all aspects of Vendor Assistance and more – preparation of a robust marketing, sales and customer dataset for buyers, recommendations for GTM improvements pre-deal and opportunities post-deal for buyers, assessment of the business plan to validate financial model inputs, and coaching of management to maximise the value on exit.
Key takeaways from GTM Exit Preparation
GTM exit preparation has proven valuable to investors because it enables sellers to maximise value on exit, and ensure the business is positioned for growth post-investment. At Coppett Hill, our team is a combination of ex-investors, value creation professionals, and operators within private equity-backed management teams – our Exit Preparation offering has been built with all three viewpoints in mind.
Exit Preparation today represents a small but growing part of the diligence service market: Coppett Hill is one of the first consultancies to offer it as a defined service to investor clients, with a focus on go-to-market.
Given the broader PE context, and GTM Exit Preparation’s points of difference and identifiable value to investors and Management teams, we expect it to grow significantly over the next few years.
If you would like to learn more about our work we are doing with investor-backed and founder-owned businesses, please get in touch.
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