The residential trades changed fastest. A typical buyer for an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business used to be a regional competitor who knew the market and the owner. Now it is frequently a platform that has already rolled up a dozen of those competitors and is running a playbook, not a handshake.
Buyer type is not a detail. It sets the valuation. The same business can be worth very different numbers to a strategic acquirer, a private equity firm, and a family office. The customer concentration a strategic buyer will pay a premium for is the exact thing a PE buyer discounts. The owner who does not know which buyer is reading the business is negotiating blind.
The gap shows up after the letter of intent. Using GF Data's first-half 2025 figures, the analysis found that in roughly three-quarters of sub-$50 million deals, post-LOI adjustments cut more than 15% off the price. The exact figure moves by industry, but the direction does not.
The article names the cost directly as a misalignment tax. In its example, a founder working from a $29.5 million letter of intent takes home $18 million if prepared for the standard playbook, and $27 million if prepared for the specific buyer's priorities. Same business, same headline number, a nine-million-dollar swing measured in the owner's own account.
The advice is blunt and early. Identify your most likely buyers before the process starts, because preparation choices are hard to reverse once the machine is running.