Deal Momentum
The forward tempo of a transaction: every deal has a pace, and losing it lets buyer enthusiasm and leverage drain away.
What Deal Momentum Is
Every transaction has a tempo. Warrillow frames deal momentum as the speed at which a sale moves from first conversation to close, and he treats that speed as a thing the seller can protect or squander. Each information request the buyer makes is a checkpoint: answer it quickly and cleanly and the deal keeps moving; fumble it, delay it, or produce sloppy numbers and the buyer's excitement cools. McDannell names the same force more bluntly with a broker's maxim:
"Time kills all deals."
McDannell, Get Acquired, ch. 6
The longer a deal sits open, the more chances there are for financing to fall through, for a competing priority to distract the buyer, or for the seller to lose the leverage they started with.
Why Momentum Decays
Momentum decays mainly through friction in due diligence. When a seller is disorganized, every request becomes a scramble, and each scramble signals risk to the buyer. Warrillow ties slow disclosure directly to lost enthusiasm: the energy that drove an early offer does not last forever, and a buyer who waits weeks for basic financials starts to wonder what else is missing. For McDannell, that decay is where many deals quietly die, because the diligence grind also breeds deal fatigue and makes a worn-down seller cave on price.
Momentum also depends on the company's own trajectory. McDannell is emphatic that a seller should keep running hard right up to close:
"Keep growing and 'sprinting' the business right up to close."
McDannell, Get Acquired, ch. 7
A dip in performance mid-deal spooks the buyer and hands them a reason to renegotiate, so operational momentum and deal momentum reinforce each other.
Protecting Momentum
The main defense both authors prescribe is preparation done before going to market. Warrillow's pre-diligence package, assembling the records a buyer will need in advance, exists precisely to keep the tempo high once a buyer is engaged:
"You have to do your acquirer's due diligence for them."
Warrillow, The Art of Selling Your Business, ch. 3
Doing that work up front does more than save time. Warrillow argues it actively shapes the buyer's read of the deal:
"A professionally prepared pre-diligence package is a subtle but powerful way to create competitive tension for your business—even if none exists."
Warrillow, The Art of Selling Your Business, ch. 3
McDannell reaches the same conclusion from the operator's side: have financials, tax returns, bank statements, SOPs, and IP organized before diligence begins so the buyer's checklist is answered fast. Clean, reconciling books matter most, since deals most often collapse when financials do not tie out.
Momentum and Leverage
Speed protects the seller's bargaining position. A drawn-out process gives the buyer room to retrade, lowering price or hardening terms as the seller tires. McDannell counters this by declaring at LOI signing that retrading will not be tolerated, and by keeping the listing alive to backup buyers so competitive pressure survives. Momentum is therefore not just administrative tidiness: it is the seller's defense against deal fatigue and the re-trade, and it is built before the first buyer ever calls.
Further Reading
Sources: Warrillow, The Art of Selling Your Business ch.3; McDannell, Get Acquired ch.6-7