For Advisors
When Your Client Starts Talking About Selling
CPAs, attorneys, and wealth managers are the first call a founder makes — often years before any banker. When that conversation starts, your client needs sell-side execution that protects them, and you need a partner who strengthens your relationship instead of competing with it.
How We Work With Advisors
- Your relationship stays yours. We handle one thing: sell-side M&A execution. Tax strategy, legal counsel, and wealth planning remain with you — and a well-run process makes your role more valuable, not less, because a sale is where your client needs all of you at once.
- Sell-side only, so no divided loyalties. Our advisory engagements represent sellers exclusively. We never sit on the buyer's side of your client's transaction — which means the advice you're vouching for is never conflicted.
- Senior-led, start to finish. The founder of this firm — a veteran who built, sold, and integrated his own company — leads every engagement personally. When you refer a client, you know exactly who will be across the table from them.
- You stay informed. With your client's direction, we coordinate with their full advisory team through every phase — because diligence, structure, and closing run through your work as much as ours.
- Straight answers protect your credibility. If a client isn't ready to sell, we say so and lay out what readiness looks like. A referral to us never results in your client being talked into a premature process.
When to Bring Us In
The best referrals happen early. If a client mentions any of these, it's worth a conversation — even years before a sale:
- Thinking about selling or transitioning in the next one to three years
- Received an unsolicited offer or a buyer's letter of intent
- Approaching retirement with no succession plan inside the business
- Partner or family disagreements about the company's future
- Burnout, health events, or a simple readiness to be done
Sale value is largely set in the years before a process begins. A client who calls us three years out consistently exits better than one who calls three months out — and the advisor who made that introduction gets the credit.
Advisor Questions
Does East Water Street replace my role in the transaction?
No — the opposite. A sale process increases the demand for tax planning, legal work, and wealth management. We quarterback the M&A process and coordinate with you; your client's trust in you is the reason the process works.
What if my client isn't ready to sell?
Readiness conversations are some of the most valuable referrals we receive. We give the client a candid assessment of where they stand, what a buyer would pay today, and what would move that number — with no pressure toward a process they aren't ready for.
What happens when I make an introduction?
A confidential conversation between us and your client — no fee, no commitment, and nothing shared with anyone without their direction. You choose your level of involvement from there; many advisors join the first call.
Want something to share with a client or partner? Contact us for our one-page firm overview — or send them the Exit Azimuth™, our ten-question readiness assessment.
Take a Bearing
Start With a Confidential Conversation
An introduction costs your client nothing — and it's the moment they'll remember you were ahead of.
No fee, no commitment, no pressure — and complete confidentiality from the first word.
Schedule a Confidential Conversation