See What the Business Really Depends On Before You Close
People, Process & Systems for Buyers
Buy With Confidence. Or Walk Away Smarter.
Mayfield’s People, Process & Systems review is delivered through our Business Dependency & Post-Close Risk Screen. This is a focused operational due diligence assessment that helps buyers identify risks that could affect customer retention, transition planning, and first 100-day priorities.
The seller completes the assessment, Mayfield reviews the results, and the buyer receives a concise Post-Close Risk Snapshot highlighting the areas that may need attention before or after closing.
Are you an owner or operator looking to strengthen an existing business? Explore our Operations & Execution Solutions.
The Questions That Matter Before Close
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How Dependent Is the Business on the Owner?
Customer relationships, pricing decisions, escalations, and critical business knowledge may depend heavily on the owner or a few key employees, creating transition risk after closing.
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Does the Business Have the Team Needed to Continue Operating?
Buyers need to understand whether the business has clear roles, sufficient leadership depth, backup coverage, and the right people to support continuity after closing.
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Could Vendors or Outside Partners Create Risk?
Critical vendors, suppliers, subcontractors, distributors, service providers, or technology partners may create customer, margin, or continuity risk if the business depends too heavily on them.
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Can the Buyer See How the Business Actually Runs?
Informal processes, spreadsheets, limited reporting, and unclear responsibilities can make it difficult for a buyer to understand performance or manage the business after closing.
Designed to Support Customer Due Diligence
Customer Due Diligence asks whether customers are likely to stay. The Business Dependency & Post-Close Risk Screen asks whether the company can continue to operate effectively after the seller steps away.
How We Help You Find the Answers
This is not full operational diligence. It is a focused screen designed to flag potential internal dependencies that may affect transition risk, customer retention, and first 100-day planning.
The assessment is designed to be simple, structured, and fast. The seller answers a standard set of questions about how the business operates today. Mayfield reviews the scored results and turns them into a concise buyer-facing summary.
1
Owner / Key-Person Dependency
We look at whether customer relationships, pricing decisions, escalations, critical business knowledge, and transition planning depend too heavily on the owner or a few key people.
2
Talent & Team Stability
We assess if the business has the people, role clarity, leadership depth, backup coverage, and onboarding structure needed to support continuity after close.
3
Vendor / Partner Dependency
We evaluate if vendors, suppliers, subcontractors, service providers, distributors, or technology partners could create customer, margin, or continuity risk.
4
Process & Management Visibility
We look at whether the business can consistently sell, deliver, follow up, resolve issues, and track performance without relying on memory, heroics, or spreadsheets.
The seller-facing assessment is designed to be completed quickly and should generally take about 20–30 minutes. Timing for Mayfield’s review and report inclusion depends on the broader Customer Due Diligence timeline.
What Buyers Receive
Every screen produces a practical Post-Close Risk Snapshot that can be included with the Customer Due Diligence report. It includes:
Overall red/yellow/green rating
Section ratings for each risk area
Highest-risk responses flagged for review
Open-ended seller responses grouped by section
Initial interpretation of what the results may mean
First 100-Day Watch-Outs based on the highest-risk areas
Copy-ready summary language for the diligence report
Note: This screen is designed to flag potential areas of transition risk. It does not replace legal, financial, tax, technology, HR, insurance, environmental, or full operational diligence.
First 100-Day Watch-Outs
Know What to Watch After Close.
When a section is rated yellow or red, Mayfield identifies practical watchouts the buyer may want to prioritize after closing. Examples include:
Plan a structured transition for key customer relationships.
Identify decisions still controlled by the owner or a few key people.
Review retention risk and backup coverage for important roles.
Confirm critical vendor relationships, renewal timing, and backup options.
Document key workflows and customer handoffs.
Improve tracking of customer issues, delivery status, and follow-up.
Review spreadsheet reliance and reporting gaps that could limit post-close visibility.
This helps buyers move from general concern to specific post-close priorities.
When Should a Buyer Consider Deeper Operational Diligence?
A focused screen may identify concerns that deserve additional review, including heavy owner dependency, weak backup coverage, critical vendor concentration, inconsistent processes, limited reporting, or significant spreadsheet reliance. In those situations, the findings can help the buyer determine where deeper operational, HR, technology, legal, or financial diligence may be appropriate.
Ready to Understand What Could Affect the Business After Close?
What Makes Mayfield Consulting Different?
We understand the connection between customer risk and operating reality.
The value of this screen is not just the score. It is how the results are interpreted in the context of the acquisition, customer diligence findings, seller transition, and first 100-day priorities.
Mayfield helps buyers look beyond individual answers and understand what the patterns may mean.
We help buyers separate manageable transition issues from risks that may affect customer retention, continuity, and future performance.
We’ve led businesses. Now we help buyers understand what may affect performance after close.
What Happens Next…
Simple 3-step process:
Let’s Talk - Tell us about the deal, timing, and what you are trying to understand.
Add the Screen to Customer Due Diligence - We generate the seller assessment link, collect the responses, review the scored output, and identify the highest-risk areas.
Receive a Post-Close Risk Snapshot - You receive a concise summary of the results, including section ratings, flagged responses, initial interpretation, and first 100-day watchouts.
Ready to Identify Post-Close Risk Before It Becomes a Surprise?
Need a Broader View of Customer Risk, Competitive Position, and Transition Readiness?
Customer Due Diligence helps you understand whether customers will stay after the acquisition. Our Buyer Due Diligence Package goes further by evaluating the other factors that can influence long-term success after closing.
FAQs
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It is a lightweight seller-completed assessment that helps identify internal dependencies that may affect customer retention, transition planning, and first 100-day priorities after close.
The seller answers a structured set of questions, the tool scores the responses, and Mayfield reviews the output to create a concise Post-Close Risk Snapshot for the buyer.
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No. This is not full operational diligence. It is a focused screen designed to flag potential transition risks in four areas: owner/key-person dependency, talent and team stability, vendor/partner dependency, and process and management visibility.
If the screen identifies larger concerns, the buyer may choose to conduct additional diligence or address those areas in the transition plan.
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The seller completes the assessment based on how the business operates today.
Mayfield provides the assessment link, reviews the scored output, flags higher-risk responses, and summarizes the results for the buyer.
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The seller-facing assessment is designed to be completed quickly and should generally take about 20–30 minutes.
Timing for Mayfield’s review and report inclusion depends on the broader Customer Due Diligence timeline.
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The screen reviews four areas:
Owner / Key-Person Dependency
Talent & Team Stability
Vendor / Partner Dependency
Process & Management Visibility
Each area includes scored questions and open-ended responses.
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No. The seller only sees the answer choices.
The scoring, red/yellow/green ratings, flagged responses, and summary interpretation are used by Mayfield to support the buyer’s diligence work.
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The buyer receives a concise Post-Close Risk Snapshot that includes:
overall rating
section ratings
flagged responses
open-ended seller responses
initial interpretation
first 100-day watch-outs
This can be included as part of the Customer Due Diligence report.
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Not necessarily.
A yellow or red score means the buyer should pay closer attention to that area. Some issues may be manageable with the right transition plan. Others may require additional diligence, negotiation, or post-close action.
The purpose is to help the buyer understand where risk may exist, not to make the decision automatically.
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It is designed as an add-on to Customer Due Diligence, because customer risk and internal dependency risk often connect.
That said, we can discuss whether it makes sense as a focused standalone screen depending on the deal, timing, and buyer priorities.
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No. This screen is not a replacement for legal, financial, tax, HR, technology, insurance, environmental, or full operational diligence. It is designed to flag practical transition risks and help buyers know what to pay attention to before and after close.
Ready to Understand What Could Affect the Business After Close?
The Business Dependency & Post-Close Risk Screen helps buyers identify internal dependencies, transition risks, and first 100-day watch-outs before small issues become post-close surprises.
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