BEFORE YOU SELL, DISCUSS PERSONNEL
Before You Sell, Discuss Personnel
A perspective for firm owners thinking about succession, merger, or sale.
When accounting firm owners think about selling, the conversation naturally moves toward valuation, deal structure, client transition, earn-outs, and what the owner wants the next chapter to look like.
There is another conversation that deserves to happen just as early: personnel.
Your people are not simply part of the transaction. They are the people who will live with it after the documents are signed.
Before you sell, ask what the combination will mean for them. What happens to roles? Titles? Compensation? Benefits? Flexibility? Career paths? Leadership opportunities? Office expectations? Culture?
Ask how the acquiring firm develops people. Ask how it handles performance. Ask what happens when someone does not fit the new structure. Ask which leaders your people will report to and what those leaders believe about work.
And then talk to your people early enough that the conversation can still matter.
Owners understandably worry that discussing a possible transaction too soon will create anxiety or turnover. But waiting until every decision has been made creates a different kind of risk. People may feel like something happened to them rather than with them.
If you spent years telling your team they are the firm’s most important asset, the sale is a moment to prove it.
Before you sell, discuss personnel.
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