Sell side advisory services are bought on relationship and specified almost never, which is unusual for something that costs $712,500 on the transaction this site uses throughout. Five deliverables. Writing them into the engagement letter makes the comparison between firms concrete and removes most of the arguments that arrive later, because those arguments are almost always about something nobody wrote down.
A buyer list wider than the client would have built
Financial buyers, adjacent strategics and overseas acquirers, tiered and agreed with the client. A list containing only names the owner could have written down has added nothing, and it is the most common quiet failure because nobody checks it against the counterfactual.
Materials that survive a sceptical read
The teaser, the CIM and the model. The CIM alone is 121.2 hours and $11,514 on this site's arithmetic, and cutting it short is a false economy repaid in weeks of question-and-answer with every buyer separately.
A process on one clock
Deadlines that are held, because competitive tension exists only while buyers believe others are moving at the same pace. The first deadline quietly extended for one party is where that belief starts to go, and it does not come back.
Negotiation and then diligence management
Getting several parties to indicate, ranking them on more than price, taking one into exclusivity on protective terms, then managing a request list the seller has to answer while running a business. On the worked example that chase is 164.16 hours on the adviser's side alone.
Questions people ask about sell side advisory services
What should a sell side engagement letter list?
The five deliverables: the buyer list, the materials, the process on one clock, the negotiation, and diligence management to close.
What does it cost?
On the worked example, $112,500 of retainers plus $600,000 at close, or $487,500 at close if retainers are credited.
What is the most common quiet failure?
A buyer list containing only names the owner could have written down. Nobody checks it against the counterfactual.