What I Do Before Every Broker Call

Jennifer Knighton said something on my last post that stuck with me: The answer to staying in the conversation while the numbers move is to know your numbers before the call starts. She is right. I started doing this consistently about 8 months ago, and it has changed every broker conversation I have had since. Instead of scrambling on defense while staring at a static PDF, I am leading the structure. Here is the exact###-###-#### pre-call routine I run on every deal now. 1. Three EBITDA Scenarios, Not One I model a straight three-year average, a weighted average leaning recent, and trailing twelve months (TTM) before I get on the call. The three numbers are almost always different, and the broker is going to argue for whichever one makes their asking price look best. I want all three in front of me so when they pivot to TTM because "Q1 was strong," I can say: "Trailing twelve months gives you X, straight average gives you Y. That is a $120,000 difference in base EBITDA." I say it without doing math in my head. If the gap between the three is bigger than 15%, the conversation is no longer about the EBITDA number. It is about which methodology is defensible to a lender. That is a completely different and much more productive call. 2. Two Capital Stacks, Not One I model two setups on standby, both at the asking price: - The Standard: 10% Buyer Equity / 90% SBA Loan. - The Standby: 5% Buyer Equity / 5% Seller Note (on full standby) / 90% SBA Loan. The reason: the broker is going to ask what structure I am proposing. If I only have one stack in mind, the answer feels rigid. With two ready, I can pivot based on what the seller cares about. If they want more cash at close, the standard structure wins. If they care about the headline price, the standby note version gives them a number they can tell their friends about, while I keep my actual cash exposure lower. 3. One Walk-Away DSCR Threshold Before every call, I write down the lowest DSCR I will accept at the asking price. Usually, this is 1.30x on Year 3 (when P&I fully kicks in) on conservative CFADS. If the conversation drives the structure below that number, I know to stop negotiating and start repricing. Without that walk-away threshold written down before the call, it is too easy to talk yourself into a fragile 1.22x deal just because the seller seems flexible and the broker is warming up to you. What This Actually Changes This pre-call routine takes about 30 minutes per deal now. It used to take three hours because I was opening a bloated 12-tab Excel model for every CIM, scrubbing bad add-backs, and trying to fix circular references just to answer basic questions live on the phone. The hard part was never the math. The hard part was spreadsheet fatigue, trying to build a structure that let me run all three EBITDA numbers and both capital stacks consistently across every deal in my pipeline without burning out. When you do this enough times and systemize the prep, the call stops being a math problem. It becomes a structuring conversation. That is a much better place to negotiate from. Curious how others maintain deal prep discipline without burning out. Do you spin up a fresh spreadsheet for every intro call, or have you found a way to systemize your pre-work?