Not long ago I wrote about what happens when your customer gets bought, which is something I have a lot of experience dealing with over the years. Acquisitions and buyouts happen, and I’ve done this long enough that I have a sense for when they’re imminent.

There have been quite a few recently in my world. More than an average year, in fact. Without going into all the reasons why, since that’s not the point of this column, there’s a lot of consolidation going on in the dealer channel in my sector, and it’s going to continue for a while.

In the wake of a recent acquisition one of the senior managers reached out and asked for a quick call. What he wanted to know was “So what can you tell me about this company we just bought?”

On the surface of it, that sounds like a strange question. What can I tell you? Aren’t you supposed to do your due diligence before signing the contract?

It’s actually not that odd, and it’s not the first time I’ve been asked that. There’s a lot of work that goes into acquisitions, whether deciding to do it, or deciding not to do it. Without going on at length there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and boxes that need to be checked. Asking me what I think comes later on, if at all.

And why would anyone care what I think? Let’s turn this situation around, and look at it from the point of view of you, the readers. Many of you are business owners or general managers. Imagine that you’re interested in buying one of your competitors. You need to know what their finances look like, their assets and liabilities, and to get a sense of what acquiring them adds to your business.

The more you know, the better. And it makes sense to ask outside parties who have a close relationship with your acquisition, like suppliers, to weigh in with what they think.

In this case my client who’s doing the acquiring wanted to know my insights since I’ve worked with the acquired company a long time. Ideally, my perspectives will affirm what they’re hearing from the acquired company’s management. Or, even better, I can give them an additional perspective that fills in more of the blanks.

What it essentially boiled down to was to give my analysis of the acquiree’s operations and processes, how they differ from the acquirer, as well as how they resemble each other.

It’s also another way for the acquirer to get insight into the new team members coming on board as a result of the acquisition. I was happy to take the time to pump the tires of the managers I work with, playing up their strengths and abilities to their new boss. This could be a positive in the future for me too, after all!