Anyone have experience beating out a better (higher) offer?

It's all about deal making. Too many people get caught up in some arbitrary "value" or the dreaded "over-paying" fear. One thing you have to remember is valuation is subjective. Plus, we are dealing with cashflow producing assets. It's not like a car/house. Acquisitions should be yielding large ROI's especially compared to other investments. For me, one of the biggest factors in the process of making a deal is the amount of capital invested. If you are using other people's money, you have greater leeway. A lot of people employing themselves as "searchers" and following the "book" as opposed to actually being "Entrepreneurs". I call it Owner through Acquisition instead of Entrepreneur through Acquisition.

My experience: getting involved with the business. Understanding (because of experience in the industry) a business model is weighing heavy on the seller's risk evaluation. A PE fund, which has no experienced operators in the industry in question, is a higher risk for the seller to see anything of a negotiated earn-out or roll-over equity.