And then, you know, I've always had felt like in the, you know, if the business made a successful transition from agent to dealer, that there would be a lot of financing opportunities as well to be able to come up, become a complete one-stop shop for people's document management needs.
Acquiring Minds
Buying and Building a Xerox Dealer to $30m
Excerpts · 274 segments · ~1:20:39 long
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Go to pioneercapitaladvisory.com or click the link in the notes. And did you have that whole vision before you even got into the business? Or was this a vision that started to emerge after you were already owner and you really got a lay of the land?
I think early on, I just knew that Benchmark was a company that was really well ran. and that it had a lot of potential to keep going and moving forward. No, the vision was painted over a period of time after doing a lot of due diligence, a lot of talks with the owner, you know, and creating that vision together, quite honestly, that the company would go over or through over the next couple of…
you know, CEO and owner to the next and being me. And so, you know, that was built over about a six to 12 month period. But we're really proud of the fact that, you know, he and I developed all of that together.
And it was important to do that together because it kept him having a vested interest in moving forward in the success of Benchmark. And we're still friends today. Matter of fact, I'm having, I'm going to see him later today and have lunch. So we're excited about that.
But wait, sorry, did you say that all of that working with him to develop the strategic direction was pre-close or post-close?
Well, it was a little of both. I mean, I certainly had a vision to enhance or speed up the transformation between being an agent to a dealer. you know, creating a captive finance company, but, but he's really the one that had all the relationships with the adjacent companies and adjacent territories and stuff like that.
And so we worked together really to come up with that strategy. Uh, and we, you know, after we closed on our transaction, uh, then we really started working on a process for how benchmark could do other acquisitions over the coming years. And, uh, and building those relationships with the other owners of the other businesses.
Well, the reason I ask, Jeff, is because one of the features of our world is the trust that you have in the seller or lack of trust in some cases. And if you don't know the seller, of course, getting to the point where you're comfortable that they're telling you the truth is a key part of the negotiation and deal journey. It sounds like you just that that wasn't really an issue.
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