The Wrong Message at the Worst Time

Ever hear of not-so-uncommon scenario where a married couple approaches a milestone anniversary and one spouse surprises the other with a celebratory exotic vacation, only to have the other serve them with divorce papers?

A case of bad timing probably doesn’t get much worse than that. In the history of understatements that’s what I would consider two fairly divergent views on the health of a relationship. Fortunately, on my recent 25^th wedding anniversary there was no process server banging on my door.

In our line of work, it would be an incredible oversimplification to state the importance of everyone being on the same page. Meetings between buyers and sellers should generally end with similar feelings from both parties – that of whether to proceed full steam ahead or simply wish each other luck going forward.

Conversely, it’s also incredibly easy to unknowingly send the wrong message at the worst time – even if things appear rosy between firms in negotiations.

Case in point: Following a recent meeting between two East Coast firms, both felt that the talks had the potential to lead to something more permanent.

But then the specter of tax season reared its ugly head.

The seller wanted to arrange an informal second meeting, perhaps in a restaurant, a get together that would lasted an hour at most.

Incredibly, the potential successor firm RSVP’d “no” – the reason being that with tax season encroaching the partners could not spare an hour.

And yes, you read that right. Sixty minutes was an impossible slot to carve out.

I told the managing partner of the potential successor practice that the rejection sent two messages to the seller firm and neither of them was good.

First, it indicated that his firm was so busy it would give the seller firm reason to pause and wonder if they had to capacity to efficiently absorb him. Second, declining the sit down inferred that the seller firm was not a priority.

So I asked the principal point blank, which message did he want me to relay to the seller?

He admitted that he understood my point, but remained steadfast in sticking to his tax-season schedule and to put an exclamation point on this episode, he even requested that the seller not even CALL him from February to the end of April.

Now, having covered the profession for a dozen years, I know busy season can drain a firm and its staff like no other time of the year. But it can also mean lost opportunities for firms so regimented in their ways.

Because no matter how well a first date goes, seldom will anyone wait three to four months for a second.