Advisors gave a number of reasons that deals failed to close. Overall, 23% of advisors cited ‘unrealistic seller value expectation’ as the top reason deals fall apart. Economic uncertainty and poor financials were other leading factors.
Notably, while ‘unrealistic seller expectations’ was the leading issue overall, it wasn’t always the leading reason by deal size. For the smallest Main Street businesses, for example, ‘poor financials’ was the number one reason advisors gave for deal failure. Likewise, deal financing (the ability to find a lender to support the deal) was also a key problem for Main Street deals.