IBBA Insights Fall 2026

A Q u a r t e r l y D i g i t a l P u b l i c a t i o n o f t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l B u s i n e s s B r o k e r s A s s o c i a t i o n

T H E B E S T I N S I G H T S O N B U Y I N G A N D S E L L I N G S M A L L B U S I N E S S E S

The insights and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent professional counsel nor an endorsement by the IBBA.

Building on Our Success:

The Next Chapter of IBBA

By James Parker,

2026 IBBA Chair

Fall 2026

Plus Insights on:

+ Letter From the Chair

+ The Integrated Deal Platform

+ The Listing That Should Never

Have Been Listed

+ Putting AI to Work in Your

Brokerage

+ The Marvelous Market Approach

+ Why Seller Preparation Matters

FALL 2026

The best insights

on buying and selling

small businesses

LETTER FROM THE CHAIR

THE INTEGRATED DEAL PLATFORM

THE LISTING THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN LISTED

PUTTING AI TO WORK IN YOUR BROKERAGE

THE MARVELOUS MARKET APPROACH

WHY SELLER PREPARATION MATTERS

In this Issue

FALL 2026

Dear IBBA Members,

There is a lot to be proud of at IBBA right now.

Membership is at an all-time high. We have

a record number of Certified Business

Intermediaries. Member satisfaction and

engagement are at historic levels. Conference

attendance over the past several years has been

incredibly strong, and financially, IBBA is in the

best position in its history.

None of that happened overnight. It is the result

of years of work by our members, past Boards and

Chairs, committees, instructors, volunteers, and our

management team that supports IBBA every day.

We have built something special.

And when an organization is doing this well, it is

the perfect time to look ahead and ask how we can

build on that success and become even stronger.

That is why we launched the IBBA Next Chapter

Initiative.

WHY NOW?

Our profession is changing, and it is changing quickly.

Artificial intelligence and technology are advancing

at an incredible pace. Private equity continues to

move downstream. New buyer groups, service

providers, educational platforms, and competitors

are entering our space. Buyers and sellers have

access to more information than ever before, and

their expectations continue to evolve.

We cannot know exactly what business brokerage

will look like five, ten, or twenty years from now. But

we can make sure IBBA is thinking about it today.

The Next Chapter Initiative is about taking a

thoughtful look at where our profession is headed,

how we may need to adapt, and what IBBA can do

to remain relevant, continue to lead our industry,

and become even stronger in the years ahead.

We are not looking to move away from what has

made IBBA successful.

We want to build on it.

JAMES PARKER

CBI, MCBI, M&AMI | 2026 IBBA Chair

Building on Our Success:

The Next Chapter of IBBA

ONE OF OUR MOST SIGNIFICANT INITIATIVES

The Next Chapter Initiative is one of the

most significant strategic endeavors IBBA has

undertaken in many years.

We have approximately 50 to 60 IBBA members

participating across several different groups,

bringing different backgrounds, levels of

experience, markets, business models, and

perspectives to the process.

We have also engaged Tecker International, a

firm that specializes in helping associations with

strategic thinking and planning, to help guide us

through this work. Their process brings together

different groups and perspectives, examines where

we are today and what is happening around us, and

ultimately helps turn those conversations into a

longer-term vision and priorities.

We are putting a tremendous amount of time and

thought into this because the opportunity deserves

it.

There is no predetermined outcome. We want

honest conversations and different opinions. We

want people challenging each other’s thinking.

We want to understand what we do exceptionally

well, where our industry is going, and where

opportunities may exist for IBBA and our members.

And hopefully, we uncover some great ideas none of

us have thought about yet.

BUILDING ON WHAT MAKES IBBA SPECIAL

As we look toward the future, I think it is equally

important to remember what got us here.

For me, one of the greatest strengths of IBBA has

always been its people and their willingness to help

one another.

We work in a competitive industry, yet IBBA

members openly share their knowledge and

experiences. I cannot tell you how many times

throughout my career I have called another member

about something happening in a deal and asked,

“Have you ever dealt with this?”

Usually somebody has.

And usually they are willing to help.

That willingness to share, teach, mentor, and help

another broker become better is a big part of what

makes IBBA special. I have personally benefited

from it throughout my career, and I know many of

you have too.

Technology will change. Buyers will change. Deal

structures will change. The way we do our jobs will

undoubtedly change.

LETTER FROM THE CHAIR

FALL 2026

But the value of having a strong professional

community around us will not.

Whatever comes from this initiative, that is

something worth protecting and continuing to

strengthen.

LOOKING AHEAD

We are still in the middle of the Next Chapter

Initiative, and there is a lot of work ahead.

I am extremely appreciative of the 50 to 60

members who have agreed to give their time,

experience, and ideas to this effort. They have

businesses to run and deals to close, yet they are

making time for this because they care about IBBA

and the future of our profession.

We will have much more to share with you as the

process continues.

For now, I simply wanted you to know what we

are working on and, more importantly, why we are

doing it.

IBBA is stronger today because a lot of people

before us cared enough to invest in its future.

Now we have that same opportunity.

My hope is that we take everything that has made

IBBA successful, protect what makes it special,

build on that foundation, and continue evolving as

our profession changes around us.

If we do this right, the real measure of success will

not be what IBBA looks like at the end of 2026. It

will be whether the work we are doing today helps

make IBBA even stronger five, ten, and twenty years

from now.

That is what the Next Chapter Initiative is all about.

I am genuinely excited to see where it takes us, and

I look forward to sharing that journey with all of

you.

With appreciation,

JAMES PARKER | CBI, MCBI, M&AMI, CM&AP

CHAIR, 2026 IBBA BOARD OF GOVERNORS

The real measure of success will not be what IBBA looks like

at the end of 2026. It will be whether the work we are doing

today helps make IBBA even stronger five, ten, and twenty

years from now.

The IBBA: Over 3,000+

Members Strong, and Climbing!

You Belong Here

JOIN THE IBBA

Next Session: September 23-25 2026

Learn How to Properly Price a Business & Close More Deals

IBBA Recasting &

Pricing Virtual Summits

FALL 2026

The Integrated

Deal Platform

PETER CONROY

CIM-PRO

Sponsored by

The business brokerage and M&A advisory

profession is going through a quiet but significant

shift in how deals are packaged, marketed

and executed. Buyers now expect a level of

presentation that a decade ago would have been

reserved for major sell-side mandates. Sellers

are more attentive to confidentiality and want

to know exactly who has seen their financial

information. Advisors, meanwhile, are under

constant pressure to manage more listings

without adding headcount.

Underneath all three pressures sits the same

underlying issue: most firms are still running

their entire transaction lifecycle, from first client

contact and CRM-driven pipeline management

through appraisals, proposals, teasers, Confidential

Information Memorandums (CIMs), buyer

engagement, due diligence and close, across a

patchwork of disconnected tools. A generic CRM

here, Word templates there, a PDF generator, an

email thread, a shared drive. Each piece works well

enough in isolation. Together, they create friction

that shows up in the two places that matter most:

how professional the deal looks to a buyer, and how

many hours it takes a broker to prepare it.

It is worth examining that shift stage by stage,

using CIM-PRO, the deal execution platform built

specifically for business brokers and M&A advisors,

to illustrate what purpose-built technology looks

like in practice.

BUILD A SMARTER PIPELINE FROM DAY ONE

Most brokerages start with a CRM built for general

sales teams, because that is what is available and

affordable. It is a reasonable starting point, but a

generic CRM was never designed around the actual

unit of work in this industry: a mandate, not a sales

opportunity. Contacts, deal stages and activities

matter, but so do appraisal history, engagement

terms, buyer NDAs and CIM access, none of which

a repurposed sales CRM tracks natively.

Purpose-built platforms close that gap by treating

the mandate, not the contact, as the core unit of

work. CIM-PRO’s CRM, for example, keeps buyers,

sellers, NDAs, CIMs, VDR access, follow-ups, tasks

and pipeline connected in a single record for

every deal, rather than scattered across a CRM, a

spreadsheet and an inbox. Its automation builder

handles the sequencing behind the scenes: when

a buyer signs an NDA, the next step in the process

triggers automatically; when a follow-up deadline

passes, a reminder goes out by email or SMS

without a broker needing to remember to set it.

Every call, email, document view, NDA signature

and note is logged against the contact record, so

any team member can open a file and instantly

understand where a relationship stands, even if the

deal changes hands between brokers.

The practical test for any firm evaluating this

kind of platform is simple: can a broker see, in one

place, exactly where every mandate sits and what

needs to happen next, without switching between

systems to piece it together? If the answer is no, the

pipeline is not actually being managed. It is being

remembered.

FALL 2026

IMPRESS BUYERS WITH MEDIA-RICH,

INTERACTIVE MATERIALS

The static PDF has been the default format for

CIMs, Opinions of Value and pitch decks for so

long that its limitations are easy to overlook. A

PDF cannot show a walkthrough video of a facility

or an interview with the seller. It cannot embed a

live map of a trade area or nearby competitors. It

cannot adjust automatically for a buyer viewing

in a different currency or language. And once it is

downloaded, the advisor loses almost all visibility

into whether it was ever opened again.

Buyers increasingly expect more, and the broader

data on interactive content backs that up.

Interactive formats generate two to three times

more engagement than static content, with dwell

time roughly 38 percent longer than equivalent

static pages (Marketing LTB, 2025). Video content

has become close to universal in professional sales

and marketing contexts, with the large majority

of marketers now treating it as a core part of how

they present information (Zelios, 2026).

Applied to a CIM, this looks like CIM-PRO’s CIM

Builder, which replaces the Word document or

static PDF with a secure, interactive web link that

opens on any device without a download. Dynamic

photo galleries, embedded video walkthroughs, live

satellite mapping and embedded website content

let a buyer explore a listing more like a product

page than a document, while built-in language and

currency converters let international buyers view

figures in their own currency without a broker

manually reformatting anything. Because the

appraisal and the CIM share the same underlying

data, every financial figure and adjusted metric

entered at valuation stage carries straight into

the CIM with one click, rather than being copied,

reformatted and rebuilt by hand.

None of this changes what a CIM needs to say. It

changes how credible it looks saying it, and how

much of it a buyer actually reads. One CIM-PRO

customer described the platform’s interactive

format as “taking half the time to prepare,” while

another said appraisal work that “used to take

hours” now produces “reliable data in minutes”

(CIM-PRO, 2026).

TAKE CONTROL WITH SECURITY,

ANALYTICS AND BUYER MATCHING

Confidentiality has always been central to this

business, and it becomes harder to manage as more

of the process moves online. Tiered access controls

address this directly: a prospect might see a blind

Most firms are still running their entire transaction

lifecycle... across a patchwork of disconnected tools.

profile and teaser before signing an NDA, gain

access to the full CIM once qualified, and only reach

the data room after an accepted offer. In CIM-PRO,

that access can be granted, adjusted or revoked for

an individual buyer in a single click, rather than

tracked in a spreadsheet of who has signed what.

Once access is granted, engagement analytics turn

a document into a source of intelligence. Every CIM

view, VDR interaction and document open feeds

directly into the buyer’s CRM record in real time,

so a broker can see at a glance which buyers are

genuinely engaged, which are stalling, and which

have not opened the material at all, well before a

single follow-up call is made. That is the difference

between chasing every lead with equal effort and

knowing which three buyers are actually serious.

The same underlying data can also power buyer

matching. Rather than a broker manually recalling

which buyers in the database might suit a new

listing, CIM-PRO’s AI-powered matching scans both

the firm’s internal database and external buyer

sources, then ranks candidates by deal criteria,

acquisition history and prior engagement, surfacing

who to call first and why. Combined with SOC 2

Type II compliance and bank-grade encryption

on the underlying data, the result is a firm’s

accumulated buyer relationships behaving like a

genuine, searchable asset, rather than institutional

memory that leaves when a broker does.

CLOSING THOUGHT

None of this replaces the advisor. Every one

of these tools is only as good as the judgment,

relationships and negotiation applied on top of

it. But the firms adapting fastest are treating

technology as a genuine input to deal quality, not

just administrative convenience: an interactive CIM

that holds a buyer’s attention for minutes instead

of seconds, an automated follow-up sequence that

keeps a mandate from going quiet, an analytics

dashboard that tells a broker exactly which buyer

to call first.

This is the shift explored in more depth in IBBA’s

recent webinar, The Integrated Deal Platform:

A New Standard for Business Brokers and M&A

Advisors, drawing on CIM-PRO, the deal execution

platform Morgan Business Sales originally built to

run its own brokerage before bringing it to other

firms. Whatever platform a firm ultimately chooses,

the standard buyers and sellers now expect has

moved. The question worth asking is whether your

current tools have moved with it.

PETER CONROY | CIM-PRO

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterwconroy/

REFERENCES

CIM-PRO. (2026). All-in-one CRM and deal execution platform

https://cim-pro.co/

Marketing LTB. (2025, November 11). Interactive content statistics 2025:

95+ stats & insights. https://marketingltb.com/blog/statistics/

interactive-content-statistics/

Zelios. (2026, July 8). 20 video content ROI statistics: The data behind

why video works. https://zelios.agency/video-roi-stats/

FALL 2026

The Listing That Should

Never Have Been Listed

A pre-engagement framework for knowing when to

walk away, before you invest 60 hours in a deal that

was never going to close.

I once spent six months working a listing that

checked every box on paper. Profitable service

business, clean books, motivated seller, reasonable

asking price. We went to market, fielded fourteen

NDAs, and ran three buyers through serious

conversations. None of them closed. Not because the

price was wrong. Not because the business wasn’t

real. Because the seller wasn’t ready, and I missed it.

He didn’t know he wasn’t ready either. He thought

he wanted to sell. But every time a deal got real,

something came up. A concern about the transition.

A question about the buyer’s qualifications. A

number he suddenly decided wasn’t quite right. By

month five, I realized I wasn’t managing a sale. I was

managing someone’s anxiety about change.

That deal cost me more than time. It cost me

BRAD COFFMAN

CBI

opportunity: the listings I didn’t take because I was

already stretched, the buyers I let go cold, the six

months I didn’t get back.

I don’t take that listing today.

MOST BROKERS TRACK THEIR CLOSINGS.

FEW TRACK THEIR DISASTERS.

The brokerage business rewards closings.

Commission gets paid, you move on to the next deal,

and the failed listings fade into the background.

What doesn’t get discussed as often is the cost of

the listings that die, not at closing, but quietly, over

months, after you’ve already invested the hours.

Every dead listing is an audit. Why didn’t it close?

Price? Buyer pool? Business quality? Those are real

reasons. But a significant number of dead listings

trace back to a simpler problem: the seller was never

truly ready to sell. And that is something a broker

can identify, if they know what to look for before the

engagement agreement is signed.

MOTIVATED IS NOT THE SAME AS READY

There’s a difference between a seller who wants

to sell and a seller who is ready to sell. It took me a

while to learn that distinction, and it cost me several

dead listings before the pattern became obvious.

The seller who wants to sell has thought about what

they’d get for the business. They’ve done some rough

math. They’re curious, maybe a little burned out, and

the idea of an exit sounds appealing. That’s real, but

it isn’t enough.

The seller who is ready to sell has worked through

what comes next. They understand the business isn’t

worth what they wish it were worth. Their finances

don’t require the business to stay open. They’ve

accepted that the process is disruptive and will take

longer than they expect. They’ve told at least one

person in their life, a spouse, an attorney, a trusted

advisor, and they’re not operating in complete

secrecy.

The gap between those two sellers determines

whether your listing closes or dies. In my experience,

three types of sellers consistently lead to dead

listings:

1. The “testing the water” seller. Someone

exploring the idea of selling without any real

urgency or timeline. They’re genuinely curious,

not ready to commit, and will often tell you

they’re “not in a rush.” No urgency means no

momentum, and deals without momentum

don’t close.

2. The financially dependent seller. On the

surface, they’re motivated. But their retirement

is funded entirely by business distributions,

and they haven’t built assets outside the

business. When the math of a sale gets real, a

lump sum minus taxes and professional fees,

they realize the number doesn’t support the life

they want. These deals collapse at LOI or due

diligence, after you’ve done the hard work.

FALL 2026

3. The emotionally unprepared seller. This is

the most common. They’ve run this business

for fifteen years and it’s their identity. They

say they want out, but they’ve never actually

imagined their life without it. The first serious

buyer conversation shakes them, and they start

finding reasons to slow down, renegotiate, or

walk away.

FIVE QUESTIONS I ASK BEFORE

I SIGN ANYTHING

My pre-engagement conversation is not a sales call.

It’s a diagnostic. I’m trying to understand whether

this person is actually ready to move through a sale

process, not just whether I want to take the listing.

1. What are you going to do the day after

closing? A ready seller has an answer:

retirement, a new venture, travel, time with

family. If they hesitate, stare at the ceiling,

and give you a vague non-answer, they haven’t

worked through what life looks like on the

other side. That unresolved question will

resurface at the worst possible moment in your

deal.

2. What does your financial picture look like

without this business? I’m not asking for a

balance sheet. I’m asking whether they have

assets, savings, or retirement income that

isn’t dependent on the business continuing to

generate cash. A seller who needs full asking

price at full multiples because their retirement

depends on every dollar is a much harder deal to

close than one who has flexibility.

3. Have you told anyone you’re thinking about

selling? Total secrecy is a red flag, not a sign of

discretion. A seller who hasn’t told their spouse,

their accountant, or their attorney hasn’t fully

committed to the idea. Deals require a support

network, and sellers who operate in complete

isolation tend to panic when the process gets real.

4. What’s your number, and what’s it based on?

I want to know their expectation before I show

them a valuation. If they’re anchored to a figure

that came from a cousin’s guess, a conversation

with another broker years ago, or what a

competitor sold for under completely different

circumstances, that needs to be addressed

before we go further, not after I’ve spent weeks

building out a CIM.

5. What happens if this process takes 12 to 18

months? Because it might. Main Street deals

don’t always close in 90 days. If a seller can’t

emotionally or financially survive a longer

process, knowing that upfront changes how you

approach the engagement, or whether you take

it at all.

The ones who aren’t ready and

don’t know it become your

most expensive listings.

WHEN THE ANSWERS ARE WRONG

Not every seller who gives you the wrong answers

is disqualified. Some just aren’t there yet. That’s a

different conversation, and in my experience, one

worth having.

I’ve told sellers directly: “I can help you prepare to

sell, but I don’t think you’re ready today. Here’s what I

think needs to change.” Some of them come back six

months later, ready to go. A few have become some

of my best closings, because the groundwork was

already laid.

The ones who aren’t ready and don’t know it become

your most expensive listings.

Some of the top brokers in this industry have two

things in common: short lists of active listings and

high closing rates. That’s not a coincidence. It’s the

result of being selective at the front end, qualifying

the seller before taking the engagement, not after.

Saying no to the wrong listing is a skill. It takes

discipline and some comfort with walking away

from potential commission. But it’s what separates a

practice that grows from one that just stays busy.

BRAD COFFMAN | CBI

Brad@Valorembrokers.com

October 22, 2026 | 1:00 - 5:00pm ET

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FALL 2026

Putting AI to Work

in Your Brokerage

JESS PISCHEL

A Practical Guide for Business Brokers

Most brokers I talk to are not short on deals.

They are short on hours. The listing copy, the

buyer follow-ups, the research before a pitch,

the notes after every call. That work has to get

done, and it eats the time you would rather

spend in front of a client.

That is the real case for AI in a brokerage. Not

the hype. It takes the mundane tasks off your

plate and frees up time and energy for the work

that actually closes deals, which is still you, in

the room, reading the person across the table.

This is not a someday idea. Deloitte’s 2025 study

of dealmaking organizations found most have

already put generative AI into their workflows,