Nobody in your company was ever trained to do this. That includes you. Buying a business is a skill with its own deal flow, advisors, and playbooks. Integrating one is a different skill, and it lands on people whose real job is running the daily work. They learn it on your acquisition, with your customers watching, and the tuition is paid in lost people and lost margin.
The program is called After the Close: Integrating a Small or Midsize Business, and it exists to close that gap before it costs you the deal. It is built for lower-middle-market and buy-and-build acquirers, with a center of gravity in multi-location field service, installation, and distribution companies.
Status: in development. There are no dates, no price, and no cohort to sign up for yet. Join the list and you will hear first.
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One email when the program opens, and occasional Building Results notes on integration until then. No dates or price are set, so there is nothing to commit to.
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Who this is for
The buyer is the obvious student. The less obvious students matter more, because they carry the integration after the buyer's attention moves to the next deal.
- Presidents and PE-backed operators who own the integration thesis and make the operating-model call.
- General managers who inherit an acquired location and have to hold it steady while the rules change around it.
- Finance leaders who own the opening baseline, the cash, and the synergy ledger.
- Sales leaders who own account continuity, compensation, and the cross-sell timing.
- Operations leaders who own delivery: dispatch, installs, inventory, and service levels.
- HR and people leaders who own retention, org design, and the communications cascade.
Why it is built for the whole team
An integration is never one function's problem. One issue is never just one issue. A pricing change looks like a finance decision until a branch manager quits over it and the customers they served follow them out. A systems cutover looks like an IT project until the invoices stop going out.
So the program is designed to be taken by the people who will actually work the integration together, with each module assigning real owners across finance, sales, operations, and HR. A single leader who returns from a course with a binder changes very little. A team that leaves with the same tools, the same language, and a named owner on every line changes the outcome.
The curriculum: 14 modules, 14 tools
Every module is built to produce something your team keeps and uses on its own acquisition. If a module cannot leave you with a working tool, it does not belong in the program.
| Module | What you learn | The tool you leave with |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Why buying and integrating need different skills. Why strong deal teams still stumble afterward, and what changes once the wire clears. | A readiness assessment for your team |
| 2 | Choose the integration approach. Preserve and strengthen, selectively integrate, or substantially consolidate. How to decide on purpose, and how to defend it. | An operating-model decision sheet |
| 3 | Establish the starting point. Freeze the opening picture of people, customers, profits, and cash before anything moves. | An opening baseline |
| 4 | Stabilize, day 1 to 30. Payroll, access, authority, and the first communications. | A day 1 to 30 stabilization plan |
| 5 | Keep the people. Who you cannot afford to lose, why they would leave, and what actually keeps them. | A retention map for critical people |
| 6 | Keep the customers. Account ownership, the habits that made customers loyal, and early signs of churn. | An account continuity plan and churn watchlist |
| 7 | Keep the profits and the cash. Where acquisitions quietly leak value: margin, labor productivity, collections, vendor terms. | A monthly profit and cash scorecard against the baseline |
| 8 | Make decisions and lead the change. Decision rights, escalation, and the governance rhythm that keeps small problems small. | A map of decision rights and a meeting cadence |
| 9 | Integrate operations without breaking delivery. Sequencing changes to dispatch, scheduling, purchasing, and service so the customer never feels the seams. | An operations change sequence with owners |
| 10 | Integrate systems, data, and controls. What to connect, what to leave alone for now, and which controls must be live before anything else. | A systems and controls cutover plan |
| 11 | Deliver the promised value. Separate bankable synergies from aspirational ones, and put a name beside each. | A synergy ledger |
| 12 | Move from integration to normal operations. How to declare the work done, and hand it back to the line managers. | Integration exit criteria and a handoff plan |
| Plus | Lead the change with ADKAR. Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement, and how to get through the valley of despair when performance dips before it climbs. | An ADKAR change plan by group |
| Plus | Synergies and driving growth. Cost versus revenue synergies, cross-sell, and footprint expansion. A growth number without an owner is a wish. | A growth plan with owners and checkpoints |
What the program teaches, in plain terms
Decide the approach before you touch anything
Most integration damage comes from a buyer who assumed that making the business they bought look like their own is the same as making it better. Sometimes the company you bought does something better than you do. The second module forces the choice into the open: preserve and strengthen, selectively integrate, or substantially consolidate. Everything after it depends on that call.
Protect first, then improve, then grow
The order matters. In the first weeks you protect the people, the customers, and the cash. After that you improve. Only then do you push growth. Teams that reverse the order usually get a brief cost saving and a lasting revenue problem.
Make every number belong to someone
The tools are plain on purpose: a baseline, a scorecard, a ledger, a map. Each has an owner column. If nobody owns the line, nobody does the work, and the integration turns into a meeting about status.
Lead the people through the dip
Performance and morale usually fall before they rise. If you expect it, you can plan for it and hold your nerve. If you do not, you will read a normal dip as proof the deal was a mistake and start changing things that were working.
What you can use today
The program is not out yet, but the problem is already on your desk. These pages are available now and use the same framework the program teaches.
- The post-merger integration checklist lists the tasks from pre-close through day 100.
- The post-merger integration playbook explains how to make and defend the hard decisions.
- The change management guide covers how to lead people through the change.
- The post-merger integration tools page shows which templates you can download now and which are still coming.
- If you are in the middle of a deal and need a person rather than a course, see post-merger integration consulting.
Hear first when it opens
Add your email and you will be the first to hear when After the Close is ready.
Questions
Is the post-merger integration training available now?
No. The program is in development. There are no dates and no price yet. Join the list and you will hear first when it opens.
Who should take post-merger integration training?
The buyer, and just as important, the general managers and the finance, sales, operations, and HR leaders who carry the integration after closing. The program is designed for a team working on one acquisition, not for a single person working alone.
Do I need to have closed a deal to benefit?
No. Integration starts before the close, in what you promise the seller and what you learn in diligence. Several modules are most useful before signing, including choosing the approach and setting the starting point.
How is the training different from consulting?
Consulting is a person working alongside you on a live deal. The training is for your own team to learn the method and leave with tools it can run without outside help. Some buyers will want one, some the other, and some both.