Why Business Advisors need Ninja-like Properties

Working as an advisor in the deal business requires a lot of savvy. As an advisor, your close rate is your credibility currency. Ensuring a very high closing percentage requires special talents – the talents of a deal closing ninja. While many advisors can close some of their deals, deal closing ninjas close most of their deals. Given the pain involved of deal dying, it pays for all deal advisors to understand ninja-like properties and incorporate them into their process. Deal closing success is highly correlated to the quality level of an advisor. Good advisors tend to have a very high hit rate as they know what a deal has to possess in order to be closable.

Advisors are the managers of the deal, ensuring the right groups are involved and the deal is advancing. They introduce the parties, control the process and are exert influence on the decision making. The role is multifaceted and requires highly experienced, highly perceptive and discriminating business people. Through their transactional experience over many years, good advisors can see around corners, intuit the intentions of the parties and defuse issues before they become problems.

How to become a Deal Closing Ninja

Advisors do many mission critical things to ensure closing. Strong advisors know their clients well, and can help them process things at a deep level. They drive the process and create a trustful environment for all participants involved be it the lender, the company and the owner. Many deals would not close were it not for this expertise. All advisors want to think they are a ninja and can close 100% of their deals. The reality is that there are only a few ninjas out there who consistently close a high percentage of their deals. How do they do it? Here are the Attract Capital 4 steps to become a deal closing ninja.

Listen more – Great advisors are not the best sales people. They are the best listeners and can understand thinks quickly. The best advisors have sharpened powers of understanding that allow them to pick up on both what’s said but as importantly what’s not said. This enables them to see around corners and to navigate obstacles.
Gain trust – Great advisors have the ability to gain trust from people quickly. They come across as reliable and honourable. They exhibit character and personality traits that people buy into naturally. When others trust you, they buy into your suggestions and you have the power to lead them.
Practice deal discernment – Not all deals are created equal and careful selection is required on the front end. The better the deal, the much more likely the closing. Through fine tuning your deal screening and standardising your process, you can greatly increase your deal discernment powers.
Develop a process – Good advisors believe it is their own special talents that matter. Ninja advisors know it is a combination of their special talents and proven process that gets the great close rate.

In the acquisition financing arena, capital availability is destiny as companies require reliable access to capital to grow over the long term. Unforeseen capital needs usually arise when acquirers least expect it. This can cause some concern for the acquisition financing provider, especially when covenants tighten up and that working capital availability is utilized faster than expected.

Mezzanine debt borrowing is usually a straightforward activity that many companies use for funding of transitional growth. Mezzanine debt lenders are highly transparent about their due diligence approach and their post-closing loan management making it easy for companies to engage with.

Elections have consequences and positive ones at that for the acquisition financing middle market. While much media attention is paid to the direction of the yield curve and the Fed’s likely rate cuts, scant attention is paid to the more important drivers of the acquisition financing market – business psychology and regulatory climate.