The Hidden Valuation Killer Lurking in Your Portfolio Company’s Sales Process
Deal diligence often exposes the question sponsors least want to answer: is this growth repeatable, or founder-driven?
It’s the question that shaves points off your multiple. And it’s the most overlooked go-to-market mistake I see in private equity exits.
The Founder-Led Sales Problem
Here’s the pattern: You acquire a company with solid revenue. The founder is gifted at landing deals. The pipeline stays full. Everyone’s happy. But underneath that success, there’s no actual sales process — just relationships, instincts, and personal touch.
Then you’re 12 months from exit, and buyers start digging. How much of this revenue disappears when the founder transitions out? Can anyone else close deals? What happens to these customer relationships post-close?
These aren’t theoretical concerns. Buyers have watched revenue evaporate post-acquisition because it was never systematized. When they sense that risk, they price it into the deal.
Quality Revenue vs. Revenue
There’s revenue, and then there’s quality revenue. Revenue shows up in your financials. Quality revenue is what buyers pay premiums for — predictable, repeatable, and completely independent of any single person’s network.
When growth is founder-dependent, you’re signaling execution risk. Buyers wonder what else hasn’t been professionalized. They dig deeper into your CAC, churn rates, and pipeline quality. Every red flag gives them negotiating leverage.
The Exit-Readiness Gap
Most sponsors know this, but GTM issues get pushed aside until it’s almost too late. You’re focused on EBITDA, operational efficiencies, maybe a tuck-in. Sales hits their numbers, so there’s no crisis demanding attention.
Then you’re 12 months out, scrambling to document what should have been systemized earlier. You’re trying to prove repeatability with limited data, hoping buyers won’t notice the gaps in your conversion funnel or that win rates vary wildly depending on who’s running the deal.
Once a company enters diligence, the opportunity to correct these issues has largely passed. What remains is explanation and defense, which is rarely a position of strength.
The Same Analysis Buyers Use, On Your Timeline
This is why Craig Group built our GTM Exit-Readiness Assessment. Instead of hoping buyers will take your word about your sales process, you walk in with proof.
We conduct the same forensic analysis a sophisticated buyer would do — except 12 to 18 months early, when you still have time to fix what we find. We audit pipeline health, win rates, retention metrics, pricing strategy. We validate whether customers actually experience the value you claim. We stress-test whether your GTM motion scales without the founder.
Then we give you a roadmap to address the gaps before buyers see them.
The process takes 6 to 8 weeks. We look at your GTM processes, team capability, tech stack scalability. We do voice-of-customer validation. We analyze your conversion funnel. You get a board-ready summary with clear red, yellow, and green flags, plus a prioritized remediation plan.
Turning GTM Into a Valuation Asset
After completing the assessment and implementing recommendations, you’re not hoping buyers will believe your growth story — you’re demonstrating it. You show them validated customer feedback. You walk them through a documented sales process with proven conversion rates. You prove multiple people can close deals, not just the founder. You demonstrate your customer acquisition strategy is based on data, not gut feel.
That credibility translates directly into valuation. Buyers pay premiums for de-risked assets. A proven, scalable GTM strategy is one of the most powerful ways to de-risk a transaction.
Why Holding Periods Make This More Relevant Than Ever
The ideal window is 12 to 18 months before exit. That gives you runway to address findings without rushing. But even if you’ve held the company longer than planned, there’s still time. I’ve seen sponsors add meaningful value in the final 12 months by getting their GTM house in order.
The median holding period is now over three and a half years, with more than 30% of exits happening after five years. If that’s you, you’re not alone — and you can still strengthen your exit story.
Let’s De-Risk Your GTM Before Buyers Arrive
The biggest risk isn’t that your GTM isn’t perfect. It’s that you don’t know where the gaps are until a buyer finds them. Every surprise in due diligence is a negotiating point for the other side. Every unvalidated assumption is a potential value leak.
The assessment gives you the chance to find and fix those issues on your timeline, not the buyer’s. You control the narrative instead of defending it. When you’re sitting across from potential acquirers, your go-to-market strategy becomes a selling point, not a liability.
Because maximizing exit value isn’t just about growing revenue — it’s about proving the revenue you’ve grown is the kind buyers will pay a premium for.
If you’re gearing up for an exit and want to make sure your GTM strategy strengthens your valuation instead of weakening it, let’s talk. Connect with me to schedule your GTM Exit-Readiness Assessment and get ahead of what buyers will scrutinize.
Summer Craig is a LMM growth expert with a background leading change management and GTM strategies for both Fortune 500 and PE-backed high-growth companies. Her resume includes guiding paid media strategy following global M&As as well as steering strategic growth at HomeAway.com (later VRBO) during the completion of a successful IPO, gaining experience at two major agency holding companies (Omnicom and Publicis), and overseeing marketing and operations at one of the largest privately held distributorships under the Toyota brand. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
