In a recent Capitaliz webinar, the comprehensive power of the Capitaliz Business Insights Report (BIR) was highlighted as a cornerstone tool for advisors working with business owners. The Business Insights Report has been deployed over 1,000 times, proving to be an essential diagnostic resource in strategic advisory engagements. Whether it’s rekindling a strained client relationship or providing a reality check on business offers, this tool delivers deep insights, elevating the conversation around business value and strategy.
Shared in further detail in the presentation, this article summarizes the nine diverse use cases that illustrate the versatility of the Business Insights Report in various business scenarios.
These examples shed light on how advisors can leverage the report to offer meaningful guidance that not only uncovers hidden value in a business but also strengthens client relationships and drives strategic outcomes.
A Diagnostic Tool and Triggering Event
At its core, the Capitaliz Business Insights Report acts as a comprehensive “reverse due diligence” tool, offering business owners a unique perspective through the eyes of potential buyers.
The tool’s diagnostic nature dives deep into the company’s operations, highlighting both strengths and weaknesses. From these insights, advisors can deliver findings, provide a baseline view of business, and give actionable recommendations that address growth opportunities, operational gaps, long-term planning strategies and more.
- An Overall Insight Score: This score gives an immediate snapshot of the business’s health, ranging from operations to financials.
- A Strategic Scorecard: This offers a detailed view of how the business is positioned in terms of growth potential and market competitiveness.
- SWOT Analysis: This traditional yet critical tool highlights the business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, ensuring owners know where to focus their efforts.
By presenting these findings, the BIR serves as an effective “triggering event, initiating in-depth conversations between advisors and business owners, laying the foundation for long-term strategic engagements.
9 Real-Life Use Cases of the Capitaliz Business Insights Report
The webinar showcased nine client fact patterns that highlight how the Capitaliz Business Insights Report can be applied in various contexts. Each case illustrates how this tool uncovers new opportunities and provides clarity in critical decision-making scenarios.
1. Rescuing a Client Relationship
In one case, a Capitaliz advisor was facing a strained relationship with a client. The owner client was beginning to get more disgruntled through the engagement, questioning the need for the consulting and exit planning services altogether.
The BIR was used in this case to identify gaps and inefficiencies in the client’s business that had gone unnoticed, creating a platform for rebuilding trust. By addressing the root causes of the client’s dissatisfaction, the advisor was able to restore the relationship and continue offering strategic advice.
2. Reality Check: Evaluating Two Offers
Oftentimes when business owners receive multiple, competing offers for their company, they need a clear, objective way to evaluate them.
The BIR provides a sanity check, giving the owner a look at the perspective of potential buyers and the true baseline value of their business. This approach can help the owner to make an informed decision backed by solid data, ensuring a confident choice between offers.
3. Capacity Alleviation
Like challenges faced by many of their business owner clients, advisors in this space frequently face capacity issues, especially if their core service isn’t exit planning.
This challenge of offering services outside the realm of an advisor’s expertise – such as a CPA needing to gather valuation data to drive a discussion – is another way the BIR can be a valuable tool. The diagnostic and comprehensive nature of the report takes out much of the tedium for advisors to gather and analyze this data manually.
Capitaliz users have reported that implementing the use of the BIR in early-stage exit planning has eliminated or delayed the need to hire staff, outsource, or expand the advisor team until a more suitable time.
4. Re-Orienting Owners Desperate to Sell
When owners are desperate to sell, it is often due to burnout or external pressures.
Capitaliz Advisors have used the BIR was to re-orient owners by showing them the true value and potential of their businesses, encouraging them to take a step back and consider a more strategic approach.
In many cases, this leads to a change in mindset, with owners deciding to invest more in their business rather than hastily exiting.
5. Standardizing an Offer
Advisors can also use the BIR to standardize an offer when presenting business valuations and proposals to owners. By aligning data with strategic insights, advisors can present a consistent and fact-driven offer, increasing the chances of a favorable negotiation and sale outcome.
The report helped serve as a convenient mechanism for advisors who wanted to establish a standard process in reviewing offers as well as both streamlining and making projections during the sale process.
6. Re-Kindling Old Client Relationships
Past clients who have become dormant can be re-engaged in planning work through the BIR. By positioning the BIR as a re-engagement tool, advisors can present new insights and strategies based on updated business data to rekindle the relationship and show the client fresh opportunities for growth and value enhancement, leading to new engagements and projects.
7. Going Up the Value Chain
In some cases, advisors want to move up the value chain, expanding their services and entering new markets. The BIR has been instrumental in the past across the varied business landscape to outline the necessary steps to increase the business’s value and help owners see where they could improve operations or offerings to achieve their long-term goals. The Capitaliz team has seen the report used in a variety of business sizes, revenues, and industries.
In the example shared in the webinar, the Capitaliz user was able to share a BIR with their referral network, ultimately getting in front of some lower-to-middle market prospects, helping to broaden their audience to provide services to that new client segment.
8. Acquisition Mandate: ESOP
For advisors who have business owners considering employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), the BIR can be used to assess acquisition potential and readiness.
One instance of this was reported successful by a Capitaliz user in that report provided a clear picture of the business’s current value and operational strengths, giving the advisor the ability and farmwork to guide the owner through the complexities of implementing an ESOP.
9. Internal Transfer for a Small Project
Lastly, the BIR was applied in an internal transfer strategy for a small project where an owner was passing the business down to children. Since the advisor predicted the engagement to be shorter due to the transactional circumstances of the client’s needs, the tool helped to give an objective view of business value without the intention to carry out all the recommendations at that time.
The advisor was able to use the report to evaluate the business’s capacity to handle the transfer, ensuring that the transition was seamless, and that the business had the necessary resources and processes in place ahead of the internal transfer.
The Road Ahead
The Capitaliz Business Insights Report is not just a diagnostic tool; it is a catalyst for deeper strategic engagements. Whether it’s rescuing client relationships, facilitating acquisitions, or standardizing offers, the BIR has become an indispensable asset in the toolkit of exit planning advisors.
“I can’t imagine not having Capitaliz as a tool to use with our value enhancement clients. The platform has streamlined our whole process and helped to keep us organized and on track – the Business Insights Report itself typically being the only sales tool we need. Once the client sees the report that shares both current and potential value, they almost always decide to move forward with us to implement the 21-Step process. It contains a lot of valuable information from the client, and you can see lightbulbs going off for them as you’re walking through the report, which has been beneficial for our team to see.” – Macy Siefert, Business Solutions Associate at Buckingham Strategic Wealth
As demonstrated in the webinar, its versatility and effectiveness in driving meaningful conversations with business owners make it a cornerstone of advisory services that aim to enhance long-term business value.
For advisors looking to unlock more strategic opportunities, incorporating the BIR into their client offerings is a must. Book some time with us to learn more.
