Are you buying or investing?
Find out what their clients really think, before you sign. Independent client insight for strategic acquirers, so you know what you're really buying, a level of due diligence most acquirers rarely see.
You're considering acquiring an agency. The financials look right, the team have been through a few of your meetings, the strategic fit makes sense on paper.
For acquirers and investors alike, the biggest risks to future value often sit inside client relationships. The clients, and what they actually think about the business you're about to buy, are the part that's hardest to see.
You can find out now, while there's still time to act on it, or six months after the deal closes, when the cost of fixing it is significantly higher. This is a depth of due diligence most acquirers never reach, giving you real assurance where a data room and management interviews alone can't.
Across every conversation, I look at three signals; relationship, revenue, and risk to give you evidence in place of assumption.
Relationship
Understand how clients experience the agency, not just how the founder describes them, and where relationships may be weaker than they first appear.
Revenue
Assess how secure and scalable the revenue really is, and how much of it is repeatable, growing, and likely to transfer after the deal.
Risk
Identify retention, dependency and concentration risks that sit outside what financial and operational due diligence can show you.
Evidence
Independent client conversations give you validated evidence, not seller narrative, replacing assumption with proof before you commit to a price.
Where agency acquisitions can lose value
Many acquisitions of agencies in the £1 to 10m range run into challenges within the first 12 to 18 months. Often it comes down to three things: founder relationships that don't transfer to the new ownership, clients who quietly disengage from the new arrangement, and a way of working that isn't embedded beyond a few key people.
All three are visible in the client base before you sign, if you ask them.
Numbers tell you how the business has performed, clients help you understand how secure that performance really is. Without that perspective, you're investing on incomplete information, and the impact usually surfaces months later, when it's much harder to fix.
Independent client insight gives you validated evidence, not seller narrative.
"Remeny helped us go beyond the usual M&A process by facilitating direct conversations with the selling agency's clients. They gave us genuine insight into the strength of relationships, future opportunities, and the reality behind the revenue."
Becky Simms, Founder & CEO, Reflect Digital, acquiring agency
I typically get involved when:
There are open questions around client retention, concentration, or founder dependency. You want commercial insight that goes beyond what financial and operational diligence can deliver, the kind of deep due diligence that helps confirm you're making the right investment, at the right price. Post-deal, you want to protect key relationships and stabilise integration.
If you'd like to talk through how this could support a deal you're working on, please get in touch.