A pattern that keeps coming up lately: many deals where the price is close — but they still don’t close.
This used to be rare. Now it happens regularly.
The issue isn’t price. It’s risk allocation.
Sellers look at the past: how the business has performed, what the profits have been, whether the customers are stable. Buyers look at the future: whether costs will keep rising, whether rates will go higher, whether the margins will hold. When one side is pricing history and the other is pricing uncertainty, a number alone can’t bridge that gap.
The Market Hasn’t Changed — Our Exposure to Deal Complexity Has
Something has shifted over the past few months — not the market itself, but the range of transactions we’re seeing. More deals, more buyer types, more approaches being tried.
What used to look like price negotiations are now revealing themselves as something else entirely: different tiers of buyers, operating with different mindsets and methods.
The segmentation is clear. Some buyers only negotiate price. Others start discussing payment terms. A smaller group redesigns the entire deal from scratch. The tier reveals itself immediately.
Deals Stall Not Because of Price Gaps, But Because There’s No Structure
The reality is: buyers don’t want to absorb all the future risk, and sellers don’t want to be valued at the most conservative number. If the conversation stays on price alone, there’s no solution.
The deals that are actually moving share a common thread: they turn a price question into a multi-part conversation.
For example: part paid now, part deferred, and the uncertain portion tied to future performance. Put simply: what can’t be resolved today gets moved to the future.
A Small Case That Illustrates the Point
That shutter and blinds business again — around $200K. At this size, most people’s instinct is binary: either it’s a quick deal at a set price, or it gets passed on.
But one buyer did something different. He put forward a complete package: the price was right, but not fully upfront, and the payment terms and conditions were all laid out clearly at once. The result: the seller found it hard to say no.
Not because the offer was exceptional — but because it was a workable starting point. Many deals don’t die on price. They die on the absence of structure.
The Logic of the Market Has Shifted
Before: whoever offered the highest price had the best chance of closing. Now: whoever can design the deal better has the best chance of closing.
Once structure is introduced, certain risks can be deferred, certain uncertainties can be observed over time, and neither side has to make an all-or-nothing call today. Deals that seemed stuck start to have room to breathe.
Many people are still using the old approach: wait until everything is clear, find the perfect price before moving. The reality is that deals today are rarely made from a position of full clarity. They’re made progressively.
Price solves today. Structure solves tomorrow. Markets don’t wait for certainty. Deals only wait for someone to act.
