Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly advanced in recent years, and its probably already part of your everyday life. From notetaking in virtual meetings to navigating tedious traffic jams, AI can be a real game-changer.

But what’s AI got to do with selling, or buying, a financial planning business?

Quite a bit, and we’re only expecting it to increase.

So, if you’re thinking about selling your financial planning business, here are the four ways AI could impact your deal.

1. Create a standout Information Memorandum to attract buyers

The Information Memorandum (IM) is one of the most important documents in a business sale.

This is you, the seller, pitching your business in quite a bit of detail to potential buyers – in a PDF.

These things have historically taken a long time to put together. What’s more, make a bad impression and it becomes a lot harder to get buyers to the table.

How AI can help

• Aid in pulling out the key selling points of your business V’s the competition.
• Set a consistent tone and style throughout the document.
• Give you a structure to work with and organise information into the right areas.
• Produce automated summaries of complex financials.
• Identify missing information, inconsistencies, and potential risks.
• Create an initial draft of each section, based on company data and industry benchmarks.

“Et voila”, you now have a compelling, investor-grade IM, completed in half the time it would have taken you alone.

WARNING: AI makes mistakes so double-check anything factual. However, checking AI’s homework is still a whole lot faster than doing the whole thing yourself.

GDPR: Also ensure that you are making sure the software you are using protects the data you input. Otherwise, it will be used to educate the large language model.

2. Craft a killer value statement that resonates

You’ve built this business from the ground up. It’s your life’s work and you know it inside out. How do you articulate that into a succinct, compelling pitch to buyers?

As well as a lot of “erms” and “ahs”, we’ve heard a lot of waffle which detracts from the key messages and selling points.

How AI can help

• Coaching: Use AI-powered coaching tools to rehearse your pitches and gain personalised feedback on everything from your tone and pacing to content and word choice.
• Research: AI can also research market and buyer intelligence, helping you to back your statement up with data-driven insights.
• Delivery: Once you’ve honed your presentation to perfection, you’ll be ready to deliver a persuasive and fluent pitch with confidence – helping you to attract buyers and close a successful deal.

3. Save time and give insights into meetings

When you’re making notes, you’re not listening. The “old-school” way of dealing with this was to have a PA in the room making notes. However, even they don’t capture everything.

Top Tip: In his book “Never Split the Difference”, Chris Voss reveals that FBI hostage negotiators have up to five people listening to calls, so they can take it all in.

You don’t need five hostage negotiators, but you can get some superhuman assistance from AI to ensure you capture all the important stuff.

How AI can help

• Capture every detail, exactly as it happened – No more relying on scribbled notes and trying to remember who said what.
• Listen fully – When you’re writing notes you’re not listening. Forget taking notes and really listen fully for the motivation behind what’s being said.
• Track actions and follow-ups – Most calls have follow-up actions. AI tools will flag and assign to ensure nothing gets missed.
• Better quality, faster internal handovers – No need to have a meeting with your team to bring them up to speed. Send them the summary and a link to the recording.
• Get an after-action report – Think the meeting went well? AI will tell you who talked more, the split of negative and positive language, and attached sentiment from the tone of voice.

Think of it as having an incredibly accurate touch typist in the meeting, with a degree in psychology who creates awesome summaries and will keep the team in the loop. What’s not to like?

4. Spot gaps & highlight issues in due diligence

Analysing messy, disjointed data sets? Missing documents, or missing information in documents? This will normally take your team weeks. AI can do it in minutes.

AI doesn’t just move faster than your team, it’s better at spotting patterns and issues that humans might miss. It’s like having a forensic analyst, data scientist and paralegal all in one – less the day rate.

FTAdviser recently reported, buyers using AI in the M&A due diligence process will become more widespread. It’s equally as useful for sellers.

How AI can help

• Review thousands of documents in minutes – Tell it what to look for and you’ll know almost instantly what’s there and what isn’t.
• Spot inconsistencies and data gaps early – Better that you find and correct them, than the buyer finding them.
• Reduce human error – No more rekeying or copy and paste which can equal fewer errors.
• Shorten timelines & manage workload – Get help with the heavy lifting so you and your team can focus on running the business.

WARNING: Choose your AI tool carefully for this. CoPilot is great in this area as it uses your data in your own “sandbox” so won’t re-use it anywhere else. ChatGPT, on the other hand, will absorb your data, and some of it could resurface as an answer to someone else’s question.

Of course, AI can’t replace the walking, talking talent on your team. Using the data synthesis capabilities of AI to streamline due diligence means your team can focus on preparing the required data and fixing errors rather than basic data handling.

You still need the right deal team (sell-side broker, solicitor, accountant, etc.) on your side. Remember, AI can’t replace humans. It just makes their lives easier.

Ready to go?

The firms getting the best exits right now? They’re the ones who started early, used smart tools, and didn’t try to do it alone.

Want us on your deal team? Let’s talk – hello@melo.co.uk / 0113 4656 111.

Meet the Author

Ben Wright