M&A deal origination means two different things depending on which side of the table you are on, and the adviser's version gets less attention. A fund originates by finding companies. An adviser originates by winning the engagement to sell one, which is a competitive process of its own with its own sources and its own conversion. This page is about the adviser's version and the record that makes it compound.
Most mandates come from three sources
Professional intermediaries who have seen the firm work (lawyers, accountants, wealth advisers), previous clients and the people around them, and bankers on the other side of past deals. Cold approaches to owners produce mandates too, at a much lower rate and a much higher cost in partner time.
The pitch is a competitive process and is rarely tracked as one
Owners meet several advisers before appointing one. Firms track the mandates they win in detail and the pitches they lose not at all, which discards the more informative half: the reason for losing is the asset, and fee too high and wrong sector are completely different signals.
The record is what makes a network an asset
Who introduced what, when, and what happened. Held in the record it is a firm asset that survives a partner leaving; held in a partner's memory it leaves with them, which is the single largest avoidable loss in a small advisory firm.
Originating is slower than it looks and pays for longer
An intermediary relationship built over three years produces mandates for a decade. That lag is why origination loses budget arguments against anything with a quarterly return, and it is why the firms that are good at it are the ones that kept doing it through a slow year.
Questions people ask about m&a deal origination
Where do advisory mandates come from?
Professional intermediaries, previous clients, and bankers from past deals. Cold approaches work at a much lower rate and a higher cost.
Should we track pitches we lost?
Yes, with the reason. Fee too high and wrong sector are completely different signals about the same relationship.
Why record introductions?
A network in the record is a firm asset. A network in a partner's memory leaves when they do.