How to Actually Get Your Deals Across the Finish Line

DealQuest Community, I'm excited to bring you one of our classic solocast episodes from the early days of the podcast. When we started this journey about five years ago, we had maybe 60 to 80 listeners per episode. Now we have almost a hundred times that. But so many of you joined us more recently and may not have heard some of these foundational episodes packed with timeless advice.

This particular solocast is part of our series on finding deals and developing the mindset of a deal maker. Today I want to focus on something that trips up even experienced business owners and executives: actually getting deals closed. And when I say closed, I mean more than the mechanical legal steps. I'm talking about the ability to move a deal from initial negotiations through the letter of intent, through due diligence, and all the way to a successful closing.

THE BIGGEST MISTAKE DEAL MAKERS MAKE

Let me start by talking about how you don't close deals well. One of the first mistakes I see people make is that they mentally get to the point where the deal is already closed in their mind, even before it actually closes.

Why does this hurt? Because if you think the deal is done the moment you sign the LOI, you're not going to focus on the things you need to do to make sure it actually gets closed. You might not ensure your due diligence is clean. You might not keep your eye on the pace. You might not keep all the professionals accountable, provide information on time, or review agreements with your attorneys.

The worst version of this? When you start spending the money in your mind. I've talked about this on previous episodes because it is the biggest mistake you can make. Either you'll get the deal closed but it turns out to be a bad deal because the other side sees you really want it done no matter what and they renegotiate terms. Or you don't get the deal done at all because you've lost focus, lost pace, and lost the hunger to make it happen.

THE DEAL IS NOT CLOSED UNTIL IT IS CLOSED

Take that attitude. Stay focused on it. Work with your team to make sure you're putting your best foot forward, responding to information requests, keeping your due diligence clean, and remaining available to talk through the inevitable issues that come up in deals. That focus and availability is what helps get deals to the finish line.

PREPARATION UPFRONT IS YOUR SECRET WEAPON

One of the best ways to make sure deals get closed is actually to do a lot of preparation up front. I've talked on prior episodes about this concept of pre-due diligence, and we help clients with this regularly.

If you're selling your company, we know what kind of due diligence a buyer is going to want. If somebody is making an investment into your company, we know what an angel investor or a VC firm will want to examine. We want to make sure you're prepared, fully prepared, and looking great upfront. A lot of deals fall apart in the due diligence phase because people haven't done this preparation work. You're never going to get to the close if surprises derail the process.

This principle connects to what I explored with Jodi Hume on her episode about exit planning. She emphasizes that founders often don't do the internal work to get absolute clarity on what's important to them. That lack of clarity becomes dangerous when unexpected issues arise during due diligence.

KNOW YOUR TRUE BOTTOM LINE

This is a fundamental negotiating principle that I talk about in my Authentic Negotiating book. The framework is clarity, detachment, and equilibrium. You need to get total clarity on exactly what's acceptable and what's not acceptable to you.

Here's why that prep upfront helps deals close: if things shift, if the economy changes, if due diligence shows issues, or if there are things that weren't anticipated like a key employee leaving or losing a client, these events could adversely affect the deal. If you don't know your true bottom line, if you're not clear on your objectives and what will make a deal go or not go, it becomes easy for these disruptions to derail everything and prevent you from ever reaching closing.

The biggest contributor to successful deal closings is preparation and clarity upfront.

WATCH YOUR EGO AND YOUR ATTACHMENT

As you get further along in a deal, watch out for your ego and watch out for your attachment on both sides. If the other side brings up issues close to closing that could affect the deal, you want to be in a very clear place to analyze whether those things will work for you.

Don't get triggered because they're trying to renegotiate. Now, one thing you should consider is whether their behavior reveals something about their character. Can you trust them? This matters especially if they're going to be ongoing partners in a joint venture, strategic alliance, or true merger where you're staying on.

But sometimes people just get tired or frustrated. Their ego kicks up. They become judgmental. They're attached to the deal looking a certain way, and when it starts to look different, they blow the deal late in the process. Not because it's a bad deal or because it doesn't align with their objectives, but because they get triggered.

Keep your emotions out of it. Trust your gut, but recognize when you're being triggered. If you're emotional, upset, or insulted, don't let that blow a deal that could otherwise be very good or lucrative for you.

MAKE SURE YOUR STAKEHOLDERS ARE ALIGNED

You really want to make sure that anybody relevant on your team and on the other side's team is aligned. I've seen deals fail to close because the main principals think they have alignment, but then they go out to key employees, minority owners, or investors and discover the buy-in they expected isn't there.

There's always a balance in the decision of when you let other people in your organization know about the deal. Especially if you're selling your company, you have to weigh confidentiality against the risk of being seen as "in play" in the marketplace or having employees get spooked. But if you bring key folks in too late and they don't align, it could affect your ability to close at the last minute.

I discussed similar dynamics with Pete Mohr regarding family businesses and succession planning. When key relationships and stakeholder alignment aren't addressed early, they become deal killers late in the process.

MAINTAIN DEAL MOMENTUM

Work well with your team and professionals to keep the pace of the deal going. Deals can die because people lose interest or the momentum simply dies down. Don't let that happen.

Jonathan Gardner and I explored related territory in our conversation about cross-cultural deals, where maintaining momentum requires understanding different expectations about timing and process. The principle applies universally: keep the deal moving forward.

KEEPING YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME

There are probably a hundred other things we could discuss about getting deals closed, but in this quick overview, I want to leave you with these core principles: Keep your emotions in check. Keep your eye on the ball. Make strategic decisions about when to bring in key stakeholders and personnel. Make sure they're aligned. Trust your gut, but don't let triggering emotions adversely affect the outcome. Work with your team and professionals to maintain deal pace so you don't lose opportunities because momentum dies down.

Tune in to this full episode to hear more about the practical strategies that keep deals on track from LOI through closing. If you want to dive deeper into the internal clarity work that makes deals succeed, check out my conversations with Jodi Hume on exit planning and Pete Mohr on business transitions. Both episodes explore the preparation and mindset that separates deals that close from deals that fall apart.

Listen to the full episode of DealQuest Podcast on How to Close Deals: [Available on all major podcast platforms]

FOR MORE ON COREY KUPFER https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreykupfer/ https://www.coreykupfer.com/

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator, and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author, and professional speaker. He is deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

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