Founded in 2011, Marigold Resources is an Iowa-based M&A firm that provides business owners strategies for a successful exit. As the co-founder and managing partner, Chris Bernard leads business development and referral partner relations. Managing partner and co-founder Todd McGreevy is in charge of deal flow, including handling offers, due diligence, and closing requirements. Together, their collective experience in sales, marketing, motivational speaking, software startups, and urban planning make them the perfect duo to guide owners through the difficult road of value building and selling their business.
Business Challenges
Prior to implementing The Value Builder System™, Bernard and McGreevy found themselves ill-equipped to tackle many potential customers looking to sell their business. In addressing this frustration, Bernard said, “Pre The Value Builder System ™, we were sending away 100% of prospects because we didn’t have tools that identified their specific weakness with data.” Bernard and McGreevy knew that they lacked the mechanism needed to show business owners their current value and their potential value if certain areas were improved.
When it came to assessing prospects, Bernard and McGreevy uncovered an inefficiency in their onboarding process. Extracting data through long interviews took multiple meetings lasting weeks, with the firm providing hours of free advice.
In order to turn away fewer leads and provide a more powerful service to business owners looking to sell, Bernard and McGreevy needed an all-encompassing value building platform. This tool needed to show owners how to effectively increase the value of their business. Furthermore, Marigold Resources needed to establish a more efficient onboarding process for clients. With the right platform, Bernard and McGreevy knew that they could increase advisory fees, take on more clients, and grow Marigold Resources.
Why The Value Builder System™?
With The Value Builder System™ now integrated into their practice, Marigold Resources have been able to address their concerns and benefited in various ways. To start, Bernard and McGreevy designed a one-day workshop called ‘A Day in Davenport’ that is specifically designed around The Value Builder System™. By diving into the 13-minute Value Builder Questionnaire and its subsequent modules, Marigold Resources have found a way to help business owners fully immerse themselves into the value building mindset, in a short amount of time. The ‘A Day in Davenport’ initiative has shrunk their previous onboarding process of six meetings into a concise, one-day program that extracts more valuable information and has become a new billable service.
When describing the effectiveness of this initial meeting, McGreevy said, “We use The Value Builder System™ to get business owners the current value of their business, the estimate or future value if certain things are fixed, and a roadmap for success.” To do this, McGreevy utilizes the Scenario Planning Tool to help owners envision how much more value – sometimes millions of dollars more – they can get back if certain issues are resolved within their business.
When assessing the value of this workshop, Marigold Resources was able to generate an additional $25,000 in advisory fees. Furthermore, Bernard and McGreevy have closed 5 million dollars in a single quarter, all of which began with an ‘A Day in Davenport’ session.
Furthermore, The Value Builder System™ has helped extend relationships with clients by 6-12 months which increased recurring revenue through a monthly fee. The combination of the ‘A Day in Davenport’ workshops and the introduction of recurring revenue proves that The Value Builder System™ can have an extremely high ROI when used effectively.
McGreevy recalled an example of how The Value Builder System™ had a tremendous impact on one client. Two years prior to using The Value Builder System™, this business was listed on the market, received many offers, but none of them reached the owner’s goal. Fast forward two years and a new strategy in place, McGreevy said, “with The Value Builder System™, they now had a quantifiable path, three specific items to fix, and were able to get it done. When selling, they received a 5x multiple on $1 Million EBITDA. It was a superb example of how The Value Builder System™ can help.”
Results
In a 30 month period, Marigold Resources has helped 22 business owners celebrate a successful exit with The Value Builder System™. Bernard and McGreevy have also found a way to retain customers for up to a year longer and collect additional fees as they work alongside them through The Value Builder System™.
Marigold Resources have also taken advantage of the Nurture Cycle to continue engaging with clients and prospects. With Nurture Cycle, Bernard and McGreevy can send videos, webinars, articles, and whitepapers among other marketing assets – all of which are expertly created by The Value Builder System™. These emails keep Marigold Resources top of mind and have resulted in recurring and net-new business. When describing their increasing pipeline of customers, Bernard said, “The Nurture Cycle stimulates new customers, as well as conversations with influencers, CPA and financial advisors.”
By incorporating The Value Builder System™ into their practice Bernard and McGreevy are continuing to reap its benefits. Marigold Resources have found new revenue streams with the ‘‘A Day in Davenport” workshop, as well as monthly advisory fees. Having achieved a more efficient operation, a repeatable methodology, and a steady pipeline of customers, Bernard and McGreevy look to continue using The Value Builder System™ to further expand their practice.