Access Group: Building Trust

What are the key points of advice from you, for young M&A directors or anyone negotiating a deal?

Establish rapport and be honest. You have to be honest. I will often say to the target, look, we’re sending an NDA, for you to disclose information to us. This is not a one-way process. You should ask me anything you like and I will do my very best to give you an answer. If I can’t give you that answer, I’ll go away and find that answer for you, because you only get to sell the business once. Make sure you are selling it to the people you think you are selling it to. Establish rapport, be honest and be open and you will find that people will be very honest and open with you.

How do you drive that trust? Clearly, you can give them access to your own business, you can an NDA, but how do you build rapport and trust with them?

By revealing information, which is clearly true, which helps them. Telling them things you have done and backing that up with reality, like talking to other businesses we have acquired, showing them other businesses we have acquired and how they have grown. Talking about the growth of people in your own business. For example, I was able to say to people, look the guy who is the sales director of Access, of the whole Access Group, responsible for £50 million worth of sales, started on the phones, in our office, doing cold calls. That’s our sales director. The CEO of Access, used to work for me, as a software developer in another business, straight out of university. He is now the CEO of, at that time, a £50 million business.

We can demonstrate, as a business, that we can grow people and that they stay and prosper. We are responsible for a lot of mortgages and we understand that. People are relying on us, to pay their mortgage every month, so we don’t take risks. You can’t beat that kind of open, honest conversation. You meet somebody in the pub and you get on with them, you get on with them. If you don’t, you don’t. It is absolutely fundamental, being able to be open and honest and establish rapport.