Successful Acquisitions

ESTABLISHING PROSPECT CRITERIA

How do you initiate your Prospect Funnel? There are no surprises here: The first step is to establish your prospect criteria. As with market criteria, your prospect criteria need to be rooted in your one reason for acquisition, which in turn is based on your larger business strategy.

I recommend that when you sit down with your A-Team to assemble your search criteria, you begin by defining an “ideal prospect.” If you could have your wish fulfilled for a dream prospect, what would that company look like? Figure 6-2, the Prospect Criteria Matrix, lists some common parameters to help you fill out the profile. Notice that for each criterion, there is space for you to indicate the metrics that would give objectivity ...