To successfully complete ownership transactions, you’ll need an experienced M&A deal team with a wide spectrum of skills and a stellar work ethic.
Your M&A deal team’s expertise will significantly affect the preparation, execution, and success of every transaction—which is why you need to put together a group of expert individuals who are knowledgeable in their individual domains and can easily collaborate to get the job done (which is made that much easier with the right M&A software).
In this guide, you’ll learn what an M&A deal team is, why having a great deal team is important for accelerating deal flow, and how to build an M&A deal team supported by key roles.
You’ll also discover how investment banking is using M&A pipeline management tools to help deal team members drive deals, enable teamwork, and make the most of their relationships by helping them find, manage, and close more deals.
What is an M&A deal team?
An M&A deal team is made up of a wide range of professionals across various steps of the deal process to help execute and close a transaction. Deal teams need to get all individual players (on the buy-side and the acquirer side) doing their part to make the deal successful, which differs from dealmaking in the private equity and venture capital spaces.
The acquisitions process requires contributors to have access to a large network that includes a wide range of professionals they’ve developed relationships with over the course of their careers. The deal team’s ability to work together and communicate effectively can directly influence the outcome of a transaction, whether positively or negatively, and having access to more people improves the likelihood of success.
The responsibilities of deal team members include tasks like:
- Synthesizing external and internal research to formulate long-term business strategy and secure the best purchase price
- Building networks to stay on top of emerging trends and categories of strategic interest to the investment bank
- Sourcing M&A deals and looking for investment opportunities
- Determining the goals and objectives of each transaction
- Planning and implementing the transaction process
- Partnering with other team members and leaders of the executive team to evaluate, organize, and execute investments and acquisitions for maximum return on investment
- Spotting and alleviating potential problems during due diligence and beyond
- Building solid relationships with a wide variety of sell-side founders and entrepreneurial teams
- Tracking investment and acquisition performance (financial and strategic) to evaluate success
Why is having an M&A deal team important?
Investment banks employ groups of specialists and advisors for ownership transition transactions. Finding a deal team that has broad transaction experience completing similar deals is critical for the successful execution of new deals.
Investment banks and business owners must form and maintain good relationships with all professionals on the team, so they can trust each other and establish mutual respect.
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The next step is to clearly define and communicate the roles and responsibilities of each individual on the team to ensure all parts of the transaction are covered and the deal is completed smoothly. Teams need to ensure that each member knows who the team leader is—that person will coordinate the entire M&A process and manage the use of resources on a particular deal.
If all factors are properly addressed, and your M&A deal team is operating at a high level, the result is usually a smooth, successful transaction.
Key members of your M&A deal team
Because mergers and acquisitions are so important to investment bankers, having a highly competent and focused team of experts on your M&A team is critical. Your team members must be capable of adapting quickly as new information becomes available during the due diligence process while executing a merger or acquisition that fits with the investment bank’s core values.
The key architects in a successful deal team include experts like:
Accountant
The accountant’s role is to provide tax and accounting advice, particularly during the transaction planning stage. During a merger or acquisition, the quality of a private company’s financial information can significantly affect the deal outcome.
Your deal team should include experts who have accounting proficiency, so you can audit or inspect the target company’s financial statement. Accountants may also provide other forms of special analysis that can move the deal forward.
Additionally, good tax planning can positively influence M&A transactions and maximize profits.
M&A advisor
Mergers and acquisitions advisors vary widely in their expertise—from business brokers to investment advisors. Typically, the M&A advisor manages the dealmaking process and acts as a trusted advisor to the CFO and other C-Suite executives.
Their core role is to execute the buying and selling strategy of the business. This may include ensuring that the business is prepared to execute due diligence, getting the business owner ready to welcome a potential change in management, or making sure key customers and stakeholders are on board for the deal.
Investment banker
Sometimes, an investment banker occupies the role of M&A advisor, seeking out buyers and sellers by using their unique market expertise. An investment banker establishes what a company is worth, how valuation might evolve in the future, and what special variables might arise during an M&A.
Investment bankers in targeted markets often have a holistic view than other members of management teams, making them valuable assets during the acquisition process.
Attorney or legal counsel
On an M&A deal team, an attorney ensures that the legal records of the company are in perfect order so the transaction can proceed smoothly. They play a prominent role in the due diligence process, when it is time to collate and evaluate financial statements and other information.
Attorneys use their experience with securities law, the Internal Revenue Code, and transaction structuring to spot deal-killing issues before mergers and acquisitions get underway. Attorneys also offer legal and tax advice during the course of the transaction, as well as help to draw up the letter of intent (LOI) during the M&A process.
Typically, investment banks employ lawyers who have substantial experience with financial and M&A transactions, as well as tax attorneys who can highlight any tax complications that can arise during the structuring and sale of a business.
In cases where an existing attorney lacks applicable experience, you can outsource work to supplementary legal professionals.
Wealth manager or advisor
A wealth advisor provides the business owner with investment advice. This includes determining how much of a profit the owner will need in order to sustain their desired lifestyle after the transition.
M&A tech provider
Technology solutions like virtual data rooms (VDRs) now play a crucial role in streamlining the M&A process for dealmakers while ensuring the security of sensitive company data like earnings and finances. Often, M&A tech advisors play a critical role on deal teams by helping them set up, manage, and secure VDRs.
A new generation of intelligent CRM platforms are also now table stakes for leading investment banking teams. These platforms have adopted only those features that IBs need: they’re easy-to-use, and most users are already familiar with their functionality, and these “relationship intelligence platforms” go beyond the limitations of existing deal and data management software.
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Other M&A deal team members
Depending on the M&A deal, your team might include other members or advisors. You may bring in consultants to provide advice on specific things like real estate matters, environmental considerations, and financial issues.
You may need to search beyond your current advisory circle to find the professionals you need when you’re building an M&A deal team.
Support your deal team with modern M&A pipeline management software
Your M&A deal team can track the details of all their deals with pipeline management software that includes project management, task management, outreach, due diligence, and marketing capabilities.
When you outsource your data management work to intelligent pipeline management technology, your deal team will never have to worry about valuable deal data getting lost in scattered spreadsheets during the M&A process.
The M&A deal team can access contact information, engagement activity, notes, reminders, and important dates directly from a single source of truth.
Best of all, with pipeline management software purpose-built for M&A teams, your dealmakers can have complete confidence in your data accuracy, so work is always complimentary and efficient.
Using relationship intelligence to support your M&A deal team
Affinity’s Relationship Intelligence CRM is built for M&A teams and enables your team to leverage their personal networks to find, manage, and close deals faster—all with software that every member of the team will find intuitive and easy to use.
Every deal team needs pipeline management software that supports the complex, non-linear lifecycle of M&A financial transactions—and Affinity can support the unique needs of this business while streamlining the process and helping your M&A deal team close more deals.
Affinity can extract historical data from your existing CRM systems, so you can be up and running quickly—often in just a few days. Once you’re on board with Affinity, the platform automatically captures all the details of your email communication and meetings, as well as contact information for every relationship in your deal pipelines.
Your M&A deal team will be able to streamline the mergers and acquisitions process by having contact information such as names, roles, industry, and source of introduction right at their fingertips, alongside all the active deal pipelines.
When your M&A team is supported by Affinity, they can move faster, save time, and get in-depth insights into every opportunity—so you can find, manage, and close the most important deals.
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