Achieving an optimized deal requires an explicit understanding and management of the key factors that help shape M&A negotiations. There are six key factors that shape the overall deal and will be critical to negotiations and structuring of the LOI and final agreement.

1. Roles: Explicit definition of the people involved and their desired roles, expected contributions, involvement in negotiation and approval process, and their point of contact with their company.
2. Timing: How to best use time, pace, and frequency to your advantage in striking both before and after the start of negotiations.
3. Documents: Controlling the master documents allows you flexibility and insight so that nuances of the deal process are being dictated by you and your advisors.
4. Vision: Ensuring that you have a clear vision as to how the post-deal operations of the combined companies will place you in the driver’s seat with regards to creating assumptions for modeling and negotiating purposes.
5. Financial Models: Typically, the company that has made a greater investment in the preparation and development clear and verifiable financial models will be able to assume a more authoritative position on pricing, market value, growth, and assumed synergies of costs in the deal.
6. Process & Outputs: Demonstrating a clear process that has defined timelines allows you to control the pace and sequence of steps in getting to a finalized deal.