The first meeting with a business owner sets the entire engagement. Owners arrive guarded, unsure whether you are there to sell them something or to help them think. A structured agenda tells them you run a real process, and it keeps you from spending 60 minutes on valuation curiosity while ignoring the owner’s readiness, family situation, and timeline.

This article gives you a copyable, timed initial consultation agenda template built for exit planning advisors. You get section-by-section timing, what to cover in each block, and sample questions you can ask verbatim. It also flags where advertising and solicitation rules apply so your intake stays clean. By Christoph Olivier.

What the initial consultation is actually for

An initial exit planning consultation is a discovery meeting, not a pitch and not a valuation delivery. Its job is to learn the owner’s personal, financial, and business readiness, surface the gap between where they are and where they want to be, and agree on a clear next step. You are qualifying the owner as much as they are qualifying you.

For exit planning specifically, three readiness dimensions run underneath every question: the business (is it transferable without the owner), the owner’s finances (does a sale actually fund the life they want), and the owner personally (do they know what they retire to). A good first meeting touches all three without pretending to solve any of them on the spot.

The 60-minute agenda template

Below is a full agenda you can lift into your CRM or a one-page PDF. Timings assume a 60-minute meeting. For a 90-minute session, expand discovery and the three readiness blocks proportionally.

Section 1: Welcome and frame (5 min)

Open by lowering the stakes. Owners relax when they know nothing is being decided today. State the agenda out loud and tell them how the meeting ends so there is no pressure hanging over the conversation.

Sample lines and questions:

• “Today is a fact-finding session. Nothing gets decided, and I am not giving advice yet. Is that a fair way to use the hour?”
• “Before we start, what would make this an hour well spent for you?”

Section 2: The owner and the goal (10 min)

Let the owner talk. This block tells you their real motivation, which is rarely the one they lead with. Listen for the trigger event, health, a burnout, an unsolicited offer, a partner dispute.

Sample questions:

• “What made you decide to look at this now rather than a year ago or a year from now?”
• “When you picture stepping back, what year are you imagining?”
• “Have you had any offers or approaches already?”
• “Who else is part of this decision with you?”

Section 3: Business readiness (13 min)

This is where you assess transferability. The core question behind all of these: can the business run and grow without the owner in the room. Take notes the owner can see you taking. It signals rigor.

Sample questions:

• “If you were out for 90 days with no contact, what breaks first?”
• “What share of revenue comes from your top three customers?”
• “Who makes the decisions you make today if you are not there?”
• “How much of your revenue is recurring versus one-time?”
• “How clean are your financials, and who prepares them?”

Section 4: Financial readiness (10 min)

Here you find out whether an exit funds the owner’s life. Be careful with language. You can explore the gap between assets and needs without projecting a sale price or promising an outcome. Frame any numbers as general planning ranges the owner brings, not figures you produce.

Sample questions:

• “Outside the business, what other assets are part of your retirement picture?”
• “Have you ever mapped what income you would need after you exit?”
• “Is there a number in your head that the business needs to deliver for this to work?”
• “What happens to your income the day you stop working in the business?”

Section 5: Personal readiness (8 min)

Deals die when owners are not personally ready, even when the numbers work. Ask what they retire to, not just what they retire from. Family dynamics belong here too.

Sample questions:

• “What do you want more of on the other side of this?”
• “Is anyone in the family expected to take over or stay involved?”
• “What would you refuse to accept in a deal, no matter the price?”
• “On a scale of one to ten, how ready do you feel to let go?”

Section 6: Process and your role (8 min)

Now, and only now, you talk about how you work. Owners are more receptive after they have been heard. Describe your process, your team, your fees, and the boundaries of your role plainly. If you are a registered investment adviser or you facilitate the sale of a business, this is where accuracy protects you.

Sample lines:

• “Here is how a typical engagement runs, and here is what I charge.”
• “I coordinate with your CPA and attorney; I do not replace them.”
• “I cannot promise a price or a result, and anyone who does should worry you.”

Section 7: Next step and close (6 min)

Recap what you heard in the owner’s own words, then agree on one next action. One. A readiness assessment, a follow-up with the spouse, a document request. Vague enthusiasm is not a next step.

Sample close:

• “Here is what I heard: [recap]. Did I get that right?”
• “The logical next step is [one action]. Does that work for you?”

Compliance and the mistakes to avoid

Intake conversations and the templates behind them can trigger real rules. None of this is legal advice; confirm your obligations with your own counsel and compliance team.

• SEC Marketing Rule (if you are an RIA): anything promotional in your intake, follow-up emails, or leave-behinds is an advertisement. Do not imply guaranteed outcomes, cherry-pick results, or use testimonials without the required disclosures. Keep the consultation educational.
• M&A broker framework (if you facilitate sales): if you help arrange the sale of a business, understand the federal M&A broker conditions and any state licensing that applies to your activity before you present yourself as the person who will sell the company.
• No performance guarantees: never promise a valuation, a multiple, or a sale price in a first meeting. Frame all figures as the owner’s own planning ranges, not your projections.
• No misleading valuation claims: avoid throwing out “businesses like yours sell for X” without a real, defensible basis. A casual number in the first meeting becomes an anchor and a liability.
• Confidentiality and documents: do not ask an owner to email financials before you have a confidentiality agreement and a secure way to receive them.

How this fits the bigger picture

A consistent consultation agenda is one asset in a larger owner-acquisition system: the content that gets owners to book, the intake that qualifies them, and the follow-up that converts. When the whole path is intentional, your close rate stops depending on how you felt that day. For the full picture, see the marketing plan for exit planning advisors, which shows where the initial consultation sits in the funnel and what feeds it.

Treat this template as version one. After ten meetings, look at where owners drop off or go quiet, and adjust the timing and questions to fit the owners you actually want to serve.

Close

A clear agenda does two things at once: it makes the owner feel understood, and it makes you look like someone who runs a real practice. Copy the template, adapt the questions to your voice, and standardize it across every first meeting. If you want the consultation to sit inside a marketing and intake system that fills your calendar with the right owners, book a call or start with the hub above.

Frequently asked questions

How long should an initial exit planning consultation be?

Sixty minutes is enough for a focused discovery meeting. Book 90 minutes if the owner has a partner attending or a complex situation, and expand the three readiness blocks proportionally. Anything under 45 minutes tends to skip personal and financial readiness.

Should I give the owner a valuation in the first meeting?

No. A first meeting is for discovery, not delivery. Casual price figures become anchors and, if you are an RIA or facilitate sales, can raise compliance issues. Frame any numbers as the owner’s own planning ranges and reserve real valuation work for a paid, documented engagement.

What compliance rules apply to my intake process?

If you are a registered investment adviser, the SEC Marketing Rule treats promotional intake material as advertising, so avoid guarantees and undisclosed testimonials. If you facilitate the sale of a business, review the M&A broker framework and any state licensing. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm with your own counsel.

What is the single most important question to ask an owner?

“If you were out for 90 days with no contact, what breaks first?” It exposes owner dependence, which is the biggest driver of transferability, and it opens the door to every other business-readiness question naturally.

How do I end the consultation without being pushy?

Recap what you heard in the owner’s own words, confirm you got it right, then propose exactly one concrete next step such as a readiness assessment or a follow-up with the spouse. One clear action beats vague enthusiasm and keeps momentum without pressure.

Can I reuse this agenda for every owner?

Yes, standardizing the structure is the point. Keep the seven sections and timing consistent, then adapt the specific questions to the owner’s industry and situation. Review your notes after roughly ten meetings and refine the questions that consistently surface the most useful answers.