The first 90 days after you buy an agency

Most agency acquisitions don't fail at the closing table. They fail in the three months after it, and they usually fail quietly. The wire clears, everyone shakes hands, and the buyer gets to work "fixing" things. New software shows up. Email addresses change. A form letter goes out to every client. By month three, the best service person has taken another job, and clients call to ask who they're doing business with now.

You never bought the policies. You bought the trust between clients and the people who serve them, and on day one that trust still belongs to someone else. Your job for the next 90 days is to transfer that trust without breaking it.

Where buyers lose clients and staff

Most of the damage traces back to a handful of mistakes, and they tend to arrive together. It starts with changing too much too fast. Every change in the first month is one more thing your staff must explain to clients. Stack up enough of these changes and both groups decide the agency they knew is gone. Meanwhile, the team hears nothing from you, and the people who hear nothing assume the worst. The employees with the most options leave first, and they are usually the ones you can least afford to lose.

The seller is the next piece. Clients are loyal to a person before they are loyal to an agency, so when a seller walks out on closing day, a lot of that loyalty walks out with them. Then comes the mass letter announcing new ownership, which tells every client exactly one thing: They are now a line item. That is an invitation to shop around. Finally, the back office catches people off guard. Appointments, commission transfers, servicing records and phone numbers all must move, and when clients or staff discover those changes instead of hearing about them first, small problems turn into reasons to leave.

This is why when I acquire, I try to make it a win-win for both parties. Most of my acquisitions we've structured a way for the owners to have upside post-acquisition to mitigate losing the clients when the seller retires day one.

A simple sequence that keeps both

Think of the 90 days as three stretches, each with one job.

In the first 30 days, stabilize and listen. Sit down one-on-one with every employee during the first week and tell them plainly what is not changing: their pay, their role, their schedule and the phone number clients call. Then ask what frustrates them and what clients complain about, and write down what you hear. You will use it. Keep the seller visible during this stretch too, by having them personally introduce you to the team and to the agency's most important clients. My goal is to keep the seller engaged as long as possible. Every deal is different because every seller is different.

Days 31 to 60 are about clients. Start with the relationships that matter most and make outreach personal: a call or a joint meeting with the seller and the new owner, instead of a mass mailing. The message is simple: same people, same service, more support behind them. This is also the time to fix the small irritations your staff described in month one. Those quick wins prove you were listening, and they buy you patience for the bigger changes ahead.

Days 61 to 90 are for integration, done on purpose. Move systems over one at a time, with your staff's input on timing. Explain each change before it happens and train before you switch. Then watch retention and service levels every week, and slow down if either one starts to slip.

Partnership, not transaction

Buyers spend months on due diligence and minutes on the integration plan. Flip that ratio. Before you close, write down who will talk to each employee, who will call each key client and what will not change in the first 60 days.

The deal is a transaction. What comes after is a partnership with the seller, the staff and clients who never asked to be sold.

Treat it like one, and you keep the business you paid for.

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Mike Mathweg is CEO of We Know Medicare, a partner at Gyde and chairman of Relentless Group. Contact him at mike.mathweg@innfeedback.com.