Key commercial questions

One thing I keep coming back to in SMB deals: once you begin validating the numbers, buyers still need to address whether the revenue can hold up after the seller steps back. A few commercial questions I’d want to answer before closing: • Who really owns the customer relationships? • Are prices and terms written down, or mostly informal? • Which customers are most at risk during a transition? • Is growth repeatable, or seller-led? • Are there market, competitor, or AI-related changes that could weaken the business? My take is that this matters most in founder-led or relationship-led businesses, where transferability can matter more than historical revenue. Curious how others think about this. What commercial questions have you found most useful before closing?