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Delayed and ineffective commercial integration can turn a good deal into a loser, because sales growth ultimately determines whether a merger achieves its value-creation goals. To create value, mergers need top-line gains: More sales to more customers, expansion into new territories or market adjacencies, new products and services to sell to existing customers. But compared to other areas of post-merger activity, the commercial engine starts late, operates uncertainly, and often runs out of gas before reaching its goals. With M&A activity picking up and high interest rates making delay costlier, it’s more important than ever that private equity and corporate acquirers leave the deal table with underwriteable, ready-to-go plans to make deals pay off through growth — and carry those plans out quickly.
Time and again, mergers fail to achieve their potential because management moved too slowly to realize the deal’s top-line growth potential. Acquirers are often slow — shockingly slow — to integrate their sales, marketing, customer experience, and other commercial functions.
