Selling a Customer Relationship Management Business

CRM and RevOps businesses usually price off two things: how repeatable the revenue is and how dependent delivery is on specific people. A product-heavy shop with durable subscriptions often values differently than a services-heavy HubSpot or Salesforce partner, even at the same top-line revenue. For a quick baseline, use Rejigg’s free valuation calculator, then sanity-check it against your retainer mix, vendor pass-through costs like messaging or enrichment, and how founder-led renewals really are.

No. Brokers often charge 5–10% of the sale price for packaging, buyer outreach, and process management that you can run yourself with the right tools. Rejigg gives you access to pre-vetted buyers, digital NDAs, a secure data room, and offer tracking in one place, and it’s free for sellers. Start with the prepare-to-sell guide to get your financials, contracts, and diligence materials in order.

Sometimes. SBA lenders can be cautious with CRM services because revenue often depends on people and relationships, and many contracts are short or easy to cancel. Buyers and lenders typically want to see stable retainers, low customer concentration, and clean financials that show true owner earnings. You can model payments with Rejigg’s SBA loan calculator to see whether a financed buyer can afford the deal at your price.

Most CRM agency sales take a few months from going live to close, assuming your diligence materials are ready. Timelines slip when buyers find access tied to personal emails, deliverability issues that are hard to explain, or retainer scope that is fuzzy across clients. A simple way to speed things up is to build your diligence checklist into a data room before you market the business. Rejigg’s due diligence and closing guide shows what buyers usually request.

Most buyers ask for profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and a clear split of revenue between retainers and one-time projects. In CRM, they also dig into vendor costs because messaging fees, enrichment, connectors, and automation tools can swing margins. If your books live in QuickBooks, Rejigg’s QuickBooks integration can pull reports into your data room so you share consistent numbers instead of rebuilding custom spreadsheets for each buyer.

Add-backs are expenses you ran through the business that a buyer probably will not keep paying after the sale, so they get added back to show true owner earnings. In CRM agencies, common ones include above-market owner salary, one-time legal or recruiting fees, personal travel, and software used for side projects. Buyers still expect proof and a simple explanation. Keep a clean list with receipts and store it with your financials in a secure data room.

Contractors are not automatically a problem. Buyers focus on whether quality is consistent, who owns client relationships day to day, and what happens if a key contractor leaves. Expect questions about documentation, review and QA, and who communicates changes inside the client’s CRM. If contractors have client system access, buyers will also want to see a tight permissions and offboarding process. Rejigg’s data room makes it easy to share role responsibilities and offboarding checklists under NDA.

Buyers usually focus on three areas: termination terms, change-of-control language, and how client-granted system access is handled. They also read scope language closely because vague scope often turns into margin leakage after close. If your contracts vary a lot by client, that is common in CRM services, but it can slow diligence. Put your MSAs, SOWs, and templates into a controlled data room so buyers can review without forwarding PDFs around.

A working capital adjustment is a closing true-up that makes sure the buyer receives the business with a normal level of day-to-day cash flow items like receivables, payables, and prepaids. In CRM agencies, discussions often revolve around unbilled work, retainers paid upfront, and vendor bills for tools used on client work. It’s worth modeling early so you are not negotiating it at the finish line. Rejigg’s negotiation guide explains it in plain English.

An earnout means part of the price gets paid later if the business hits specific targets. In CRM and lifecycle marketing deals, earnouts often tie to revenue retention, renewals, or gross margin because those show whether delivery and relationships transferred cleanly. Earnouts can be fine when the metric is easy to measure and both sides agree on reporting. They get messy when the buyer can change outcomes by cutting team capacity or redefining scope. Rejigg’s offer comparison dashboard helps you compare earnout terms side-by-side.

Non-competes are meant to prevent you from immediately rebuilding the same shop and pulling clients or staff back. In CRM services, buyers usually want protection around your client base, partner relationships, and key employees. Terms work best when they are specific about what services are restricted, what market counts, and how long the restriction lasts. Overly broad language often slows deals down. Have a deal attorney review it, and keep signed documents organized for diligence.

Most CRM agency deals keep client notifications late because confidentiality matters, and clients can get jumpy. Buyers still need comfort that relationships will transfer, so they usually start with anonymized account summaries, then ask for reference calls with a few key clients close to signing. Rejigg helps by requiring buyer vetting and digital NDAs, so you control who learns sensitive information and when, without emailing files back and forth.

Transition length depends on how much strategy, renewals, and escalation currently run through the founder. Many CRM transitions are less about a fixed number of weeks and more about specific handoffs, like key accounts, the operating cadence for QBRs, and who owns change requests. Buyers also want to know who handles deliverability incidents and automation failures. Rejigg’s transitioning guide helps you outline a plan buyers can underwrite.

Buyers still look at what percent of revenue comes from your top customers, but CRM has an extra wrinkle. One leadership change at a venture-backed client can cut budget quickly. Expect questions about who the champion is, who signs, and how embedded you are across teams so the relationship is not single-threaded. Concentration is not always a deal-killer, but it often changes price or deal structure. Keep clean account notes so you can answer with facts.

They can be, but buyers will test how durable the channel really is. Strong sellers can show 12 months of partner-introduced leads, win rates, and why the relationship stays stable, like certifications and multiple partner-manager contacts. If portal access, directory listings, or key partner communication runs through the founder’s email, fix that before you go to market. Rejigg makes it easy to share partner data and supporting documents under NDA.

Use staged diligence. Start with anonymized account and performance summaries, then share client-level details only after the buyer is vetted and has signed an NDA. This matters in CRM because screenshots, exports, and tool access can expose sensitive prospect and customer data. Rejigg includes buyer vetting, digital NDAs, and a built-in data room so you control who sees what and when. Use the due diligence and closing guide to plan the release steps.

Taxes depend on the deal structure, like whether you sell equity or assets, how much is paid at close versus later, and whether any payments are treated as compensation for your transition work. CRM agencies also sometimes have big prepaids or deferred revenue that can affect timing. Model a few scenarios early with a CPA who has deal experience so you do not get surprised after signing. Keep tax returns and supporting schedules ready in your data room.

Buyers usually expect financial statements, tax returns, client contracts, contractor agreements, and a clean revenue split by retainer type and project work. For CRM services, also include a tool access map, key vendor contracts with renewal dates, and a few proof points with your definitions so results are interpretable. Rejigg provides a built-in secure data room so you can share documents in phases and control access by buyer, without emailing attachments around.