The top buyers in the nation have enlisted Alaris to identify partners that resonate with their distinct culture, value proposition, and financial framework.
Are you tired of taking calls one at a time with buyers whom you have no idea if they would be a fit for you?
Are you frustrated you don't know how the process works? Are you uncertain about deal structure and how valuations work? Are you concerned about what will happen to your team and clients?
We understand.
Estimated Duration: 1.5 Months
Alaris will educate you on the broad M&A landscape while using the Lens application to answer essential questions about your primary motivations, economic needs, business operations, autonomy profile, and much more, you will conduct 3-4 live sessions with Alaris team members to ensure we capture what you and your team are seeking in your ideal outcome.
Estimated Duration: 2 Weeks
Alaris will work with you to take the data gathered in the ideal outcome phase and focus our energy on your financials to format them in M&A ingestible fashion. We will provide our assessment of your firm's valuation and market attractiveness.
Estimated Duration: 2-3 Weeks
After roughly 2 months of diligent effort, we'll delve into potential buyers. The Lens application showcases your top ten matches and their fit scores in six key areas. Together, we'll dissect these matches, considering valuation and cultural compatibility. Based on our guidance and your insights, we'll refine this list. The phase culminates with Alaris introducing you to your top 3-5 buyers in a formal meeting, with our team present for all introductions. We will request an indication of interest (an offer) from all cultural matches prior to moving forward.
Estimated Duration: 1 Month
After curating the buyers primarily by culture, yet guided by their offer, we enter the "dating phase". Alaris will prepare you for what to expect, how to ask hard questions with grace, and counsel on what is normal in terms of buyer response. Alaris arranges meetings for you to engage with the buyer's senior personnel, usually including the CIO, CMO, CFO, head of planning, and 2-3 partners from firms that have previously transacted with the buyer. The aim is to determine if the buyer truly aligns culturally with you and your team.
Estimated Duration: 45- Days
After a home office visit (with Alaris present) and signing a non-binding letter of intent, this phase, led by the buyer but with Alaris participating, navigates:
-Due Diligence
-Legal Documentation
-Transition Prep
With Alaris by your side, this intricate stage ends with both parties signing the binding documents.
Estimated Duration: 60-90 Days
Now that we are "signed", the client transition begins. Whether a negative or positive consent process, you will largely be working with your new partner's transitions team during this phase of the journey. Alaris is there to assist in anyway possible, however you're likely going to be head down and busy with the transition. It will be over soon, we promise!
Estimated Duration: 0 Days
Congratulations, you are now on the team. We appreciate the hard work you and your team have invested into the journey. Go get em!
As of March 2024, Alaris has been engaged by approximately 67 industry leading buyers. We typically welcome 2-4 new buyers each month onto the roster. We believe the buyers in our network account for more than 80% of the country's annual transaction volume. In essence, when you partner with Alaris, you're essentially reaching the entire buyer community in a single interaction.
In fact, that's a common sentiment. Many firms that engage with our process are still determining if the timing is right for them. We recognize that you might be open to exploration but might not be prepared to finalize a transaction. That's perfectly fine. We believe that by navigating the initial stages of our process, you'll gain significant insights and value. So, when the moment is right, we're confident you'll reach out to us.
Our approach starts with possessing the most comprehensive dataset on buyers within the country. Every buyer undergoes a meticulous 30-50 hour onboarding process, where we delve deep into essential details about their business, acquisition model, and culture. This extensive data is integrated into the Lens application. So, when you navigate Lens and set your preferences and priorities, our algorithm swiftly evaluates your compatibility with the buyer profiles. That's where the technical precision comes into play. However, at Alaris, we recognize that pure algorithms can't fully encompass the human nuances in a deal. That's why our seasoned M&A experts collaborate closely with you, leveraging insights from ~ 100 successful deals, to ensure the match is perfect.
The duration largely hinges on your availability and how organized your data is. On average, the entire process spans 5-8 months from our initial conversation to the day you integrate with your new partner's team. If time is pressing, we can expedite the process. Conversely, it might extend if we deviate from the planned cadence.
Primarily it's how we think about managing the matchmaking process. Our deal advocacy model prioritizes the cultural fit in screening buyers. Most sell side advisors merely run a financial auction wherein buyers are screened purely based on their economic offer to you. Clearly the valuation and terms are a significant priority, however, eliminating buyers on math alone, ahead of culture is a bad idea. We think the only firms who should participate in the competitive bid process are those who are cultural fits. Would you really sell to a higher bidder that was a disaster for your team and clients? Of course not. The reason we can do this is because we have invested the time to learn the buyer models. No one else in the industry has done this. Each buyer on our roster committed to spending the time to educate us on every aspect of the firm, values, economic offer, and advisor value proposition. Armed with this knowledge, we are excellent matchmakers.
