Old Friend surfaced again. For those who have not tracked my travelogue of Old Friend, here is the background. Old Friend is a gent I know from probably ten years ago that contacted me upon noticing my blog and indicated he was going to try profitable companies rather than turnarounds. Armed with some investment dollars he went out a couple of months ago to find a profitable deal in the small market. I have kept an ongoing dialogue with him, answering questions, and making suggestions. Now he didn’t have much success at first and, expecting immediate results, he appeared a tad frustrated. Happily, he just reported some rather quick success in finding and negotiating a deal he likes even though the EBITDA is well under $1.0 Million. However, this wasn’t my only lesson in patience.
More amusing was his anecdotes of getting shoved around by brokers along the way. Now, as I said to him, this is part of the territory. But nobody can prepare you for rude brokers. The more brokers you deal with the more rude brokers you will find. I suppose this could be said about anybody not just brokers but us business buyers need brokers so we cannot afford to be rude. Simple as that. So here is a paraphrasing of some remarks from his latest encounter[and my translations] so you can see why you have to be so patient with brokers as well as everyone else.
… we only work with wealthy people who pay us to search… [not you]
… we have hundreds of people just like you who want a deal… [so get lost]
… most of them are bottom feeders… [just like you]
… we have done hundreds of deals and been around 50 years… [so I’m better than you]
… And your website is junk too… [if I didn’t insult you before I just did now]
… Good luck with your search… [get lost and don’t come back]
Can you imagine getting all this in the same email? No matter how qualified you may be some folks out there just do not need you and you can take a hike. Now I will say that this broker (I don’t even know the name) probably deals with higher end deals (over $1mm in EBITDA) so he may think he can push people around. So keep in mind that the bigger the deal the bigger the jerks are that represent it. But don’t ever let that stop you from moving forward.
