KBS research strategy: The perfect mix

Our proprietary software and a dedicated, eager-to-learn group of analysts work in harmony to seek the optimum acquirer for each opportunity…

Technology plays a huge part in our quest to find the ideal buyer for every company we are instructed to sell.

But while we are proud to have developed our own bespoke, proprietary software in the Buyer Matching Engine, which streamlines the research process effectively, we never lose sight of an even more important aspect – our people.

We don’t just want team members utilising our state-of-the-art facility which uses ‘big data’ and algorithms to identify the most appropriate and motivated buyers.

Instead, we want team members who are best-in-class, widely knowledgeable, fully trained and inspired to produce an optimal range of potential acquirers for each opportunity presented.

And this approach is certainly generating the desired results.

“In financial year 23-24, the research department increased our number of completed deals by 15%,” said Julie Greenfield, KBS Corporate’s Head of Research.

“We had a record year in that respect and a significant increase in all our other KPIs. It means we’ve been able to have a strong increase from a resource perspective – we keep performing better, so we’ve more headroom to keep building on those results.

“We have 18 full-time researchers in the department now and our focus for the next year is to build on those successes by focusing on our people from a development perspective.”

The foundation for what is being accomplished is a genuine collective effort. Using a football analogy, goals are coming from every part of the team.

“The way the Research department judges how effectively we are performing is based on the number of NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) we are bringing in, but also on the number of deals that happen where a researcher received the NDA or reached out to the buyer,” explained Julie.

“For me, the biggest success we’ve had as a department is the spread of deals across our researchers, 18 of whom had deals complete last year – an increase of five from the previous year.

“And we are seeing them get deals over the line significantly quicker. All the improvements we’ve made over the last two years in our research strategy process mean we’ve had researchers who have been with the business for less than nine months and have already had two or three deals complete.”

Although our cutting-edge technology enables the Research Analysts to accurately search and filter a variety of buyer criteria, vital skills are needed to interpret the data and refine the information to ensure company owners receive the highest possible standard of service.

“The human element of having a pair of eyes on everything we do is crucial to making sure our clients get everything they need from us, and to increase the chance of putting the opportunities in front of the people our clients would want us to,” said Julie.

“We have a strong focus on quality control and implementing even better procedures, increasing the time and energy being put into coaching, feedback and development and working with the researchers to find out their individual goals so we can support them in reaching them.

“We want our Research Analysts to work with the most experienced people and to keep consistently improving their skillsets.”

The structure of the department has been strengthened with the arrival of Dan Greenfield, joining Josh Byrne in key Research Strategy roles supporting Julie to maximise the team’s performance.

“Josh, our Research Strategy Manager, joined the company in 2019 and has been the spearhead in building and driving our research strategy process,” said Julie. “He and Dan bring over 20 years of experience between them to the team, focusing on all areas of M&A research.

“What we are aiming for with the introduction of Dan is to streamline our entire department at a strategic level, enhance our quality control processes and give our researchers more dedicated one-on-one time to discuss and review their work, coach them in specific areas and look at the potential for specialisms, focusing on building relationships with buyers in key sectors where we are seeing increasing activity.

“We are in discussions about building new tools to help us have centralised databases from a research perspective so we can build on our success for the next client. We’ve also not exhausted the possibilities in AI yet and exploring it more is the plan for the year ahead.

“All of that can only be a positive in terms of results for FY25.”

And yet, while the science and technology at our disposal offers fantastic functionality, always at the front and centre of the Research team’s achievements is its people.

“In addition to all the optimisation we are doing from a research perspective, we are also focusing on the wellbeing side of our team members,” added Julie. “To get the most from them in terms of efficiencies, we make sure we give back to them by way of flexibility and hybrid working.

“A really big focus for me from a people management perspective is that the more we help them, the more we get from them in the work they are doing and the deals that are being completed – and we have absolutely proven that over the last year.”