Cien.ai Growth Essentials Series:  The First 100 Days Can Make or Break a PE Deal

By Joanna Ridgway, SVP Global Sales, Cien.ai

What Happens After A PE Deal is Closed?

The leadership team at Cien.ai have been buyers, sellers, or sponsors of hundreds of M&A deals. So we know the drill and what can go wrong. The first 100 days post close is often a time of renewed energy. For the buyer it is exciting to have new products and team members, and for the seller it is opportune to be part of something with greater reach. The honeymoon can end quickly. While the Due Diligence process is intended to uncover any issues with the target company, additional surprises often arise. Here is how you anticipate and address sales synergy topics.

What are the Critical Post-Close GTM Questions for a PE Portco?

Often, middle-market companies are plagued with messy data, making it challenging to identify opportunities to drive value. That said, the first 100 days is the time to determine the following:

If the deal is an Add-on, Bolt-on, and Tuck-in acquisition, the combined prospect and customer lists need to be deduped and standardized. You also have differences in sales culture and GTM motions. E.g., is the new deal a blue ocean strategy (applying better distribution to an untapped market), or is it more of an ACV growth play (selling 2-3 additional products to existing customers)? It’s hard to determine until you truly understand past success in penetrating customers with additional products and the propensity of new clients to buy. Partners should  focus on determining the fit and potential of the combined SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market).  Also, how do the Sales Reps compare? What’s the ratio between hunters and farmers in the new company? Is it ideal? Could account managers handle more sales for some accounts, freeing up the account executives to go after new clients? How do we avoid rapid churn from new pricing or the perception of a lower level of service (e.g., if the support team is relocated overseas)?  Lastly, how is the top of the funnel supposed to work after the deal? Are there brand benefits that can attract new clients? Do the old offers (e.g., free trials) still make sense?  Sales and Market alignment are contingent on measuring the true value of leads and the effectiveness of lead follow-up by Sales. Clearly pertinent and critical questions to address.

What Does Success Look Like?

Well, for companies we support, the answer is easy: A clear view of the sales motion is only possible with a standardized data set. Standardizing and improving data is daunting. However, using the latest AI technology, any B2B business with at least one year of CRM (i.e. HubSpot, Dynamics, Salesforce) data and at least 15 sales rep can benefit from leading data analytics platforms like Cien.ai.  After 100 days we have helped our partners develop the following items using our product GTM Suite:

·       CRM data has been cleaned and standardized.

·       GTM friction points have been identified and an action plan to address them has been put in place.

·       A new combined GTM plan has been formulated that takes into account overlap and cross-selling.

·       Teams and leadership have been evaluated for strengths and weaknesses.

·       A new team structure and hiring plan that acknowledges the new strategy has been developed.

“Cien.ai has allowed us to build a playbook and data repository for all our B2B companies. Consequently, we quickly identify and fix problems for new PortCos.”
PE operating partner for a $15B AUM firm

About the Cien.ai Growth Essentials Series

This article is part of our Growth Essentials Series, inspired by our work with B2B business leaders, growth consultants, and PE operatinvg partners. These articles focus on the non-technical aspects of improving GTM performance. If you want to dig in on the technical details of how to measure the concepts we use here, please refer to our “Practical RevOps Analytics Series”.