GRAPH Papers® Commercial Diligence Best Practices

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Purchasing Decisions

Whether you’re looking into a target company’s relative channel advantage, evaluating buyer power, or examining a target company’s breadth vs. depth of service offering, customer purchasing decisions come into play in nearly every CDD mandate. Here, we’ve grouped selected GRAPH Papers® discussing a variety of topics related to purchasing decisions.

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Topic: Purchasing Decisions
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058

The Next Step Beyond NPS (Net Promoter Score)

By Eoghan Bees

A common metric leveraged in commercial diligence – NPS (Net Promoter Score) – is based on a single and simple question presented to users of a good or service: “On a score of 0 to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend [XYZ] to a friend or colleague?” The metric and the question are designed to measure current satisfaction, and the design logic of the question (and the associated…
053

Jack of All Trades, Master of None: The SaaS Breadth vs. Depth Diligence Dilemma

By Hailey Messenger

What do you want to be when you grow up? This classic question isn’t often examined when it comes to tech (and SaaS) companies seeking growth equity capital.
048

By Nature, it’s the Channel (and a Leading Value Gen Lever)

By Mark Stein

The Target Co. is playing in a great space (e.g., strong tailwinds, right segment(s), etc.), has product(s) that attract valuable customers, the diligence indicates that the product line is differentiated, and the management team is presenting a very good, if not great, growth case. Unit economics are strong, and the IC can reasonably conclude that this might be a great opportunity. A nice find…
033

CDD Plan of Attack: Risk of Overstatement of Digital Disruption Signals (and Opportunity)

By Ania Camilla Dulnik

The risk of ‘digital disruption’ is pertinent to almost every industry today. Naturally, acquirers look for signals that a target company will be able to brace the oncoming winds of change and enhance its products and services to meet the demands of an increasingly connected and digital world.
023

Commercial Due Diligence Tips When Forecasting Technology Adoption

By James Tetherton

Many recent PE deals have targeted businesses that apply technology to help customers streamline processes which have previously been manual and “paper-based.”
014

A Commercial Due Diligence Perspective on Buyer Power

By James Tetherton

Everyone will be familiar with the concept of “Buyer Power” as described in Michael Porter’s famous framework. Indeed, almost all commercial due diligence exercises include some examination of TargetCo’s customers’ purchasing power – more specifically, the customers’ ability to apply pressure to lower prices or drive improvements in product (and service) quality, features and…
009

Strength of Demand vs. Strength of Brand

By Mark Stein

What is more important when looking at a deal: the strength of demand drivers, or the strength of the target company's brand equity? With rare exception, Demand – not Choice (brand equity among suppliers) – is more fundamental to a successful acquisition outcome.
007

When Things Aren’t Quite What They Seem - Distressing Commercial Due Diligence Close-Calls

By Mark Stein

Often, we encounter situations in Commercial Due Diligence that may be surprising to our clients, some may even seem negative. With a thoughtful approach, the information can contribute to the Value Gen plan. Here we share a few scenarios we've encoutered.
004

Assessing the Threat of Low Cost Imports

By Mark Stein

Anyone who has worked deals in the industrial engineered products and components markets in the last decade likely encountered a common diligence issue…

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