Winning deals comes down to two things, according to Danny Piper of NewCap Partners: clients need to feel confident that you understand their industry, and they have to like and respect you. The pitch deck matters. The track record matters. But neither closes the gap if those two things are not there first.
Piper shared this during our recent interview on building an independent investment banking practice. It is a simple framework, and it cuts through a lot of noise about what actually drives client decisions.
Key Takeaways
- Clients evaluate bankers on industry knowledge and personal trust
- Hard conversations are where bankers earn credibility with clients
- Knowing which deal terms are realistic protects both the client and the banker’s credibility
- Knowing when not to fight for a client is as important as knowing when to - Bankers who earn trust before a deal gets difficult are the ones clients call back
Two Questions Every Client Is Asking Before They Sign
Before a client hires an investment banker, they are working through two questions. Can this person credibly represent my business? And do I trust them?
Danny Piper put it plainly:
“The way you win deals is really, it’s two things. One, you have to demonstrate enough knowledge of what their industry is that they feel comfortable. And then two, they have to like you... and they have to respect you.”
The knowledge piece is something bankers can build through research, sector fluency, and time in the market. Trust is harder to manufacture, and clients are better at detecting the absence of it than bankers tend to assume.
The importance of trust is particularly evident in the lower middle market, where long-term relationships, reputation, and referrals often play an outsized role in winning mandates. A banker's credibility with a client is not a soft advantage. It is a competitive advantage.
The Hard Conversation Is the Trust Test
Most deals hit a difficult moment. A seller's expectations drift from what the market will actually support. A buyer pushes on terms. The numbers stop adding up the way the client hoped.
What happens next depends on the relationship the banker built before that moment arrived. As Geoffrey Smith, Managing Director at Harris Williams, noted in an interview with Axial on investment banking client relationships, "Clients often learn the most about their advisor when things are tough versus when they are going well." He added that advisors earn credibility by "being honest and talking about things owners don't necessarily want to hear."
Piper made the same point from a deal management perspective:
“Sometimes it’s hard discussions. But when you learn to have hard discussions with them—especially when there are times in a deal that they’re gonna go all over the place—they need to be brought back down to reality for certain things.”
A banker who softens that message to avoid conflict does real damage to the client’s outcome. A banker who can deliver it clearly and be heard, because the client already trusts their judgment, is doing the job. Building that kind of relationship is not a soft skill. It is what separates advisors who win repeat business from those who don’t.
Knowing What’s Realistic Is Half the Job
One of the most important things an M&A advisor does is tell a client what is and is not achievable on a given deal. That means knowing what buyers will accept on price, structure, and terms, and being honest about where a client’s position is off.
Danny framed it as a core professional discipline:
“There’s some things you want to go to the mat and fight for your client because you should. But that doesn’t mean you should fight for everything, because sometimes what your client wants is pretty off-market.”
A banker who fights for every position loses credibility on the ones that matter. Counterparties learn quickly which arguments are real positions and which are posturing. Calibrating that judgment early, before the deal is in motion, is a direct service to the client and one of the clearest signals of M&A advisory experience.
When to Push and When to Let It Go
The flip side is knowing when a client is right and holding the line anyway. Not every seller position is unreasonable. Not every buyer demand is legitimate. The judgment call matters in both directions.
Bankers can only make that call credibly if the client already trusts their read on the situation. Without that, the conversation becomes a negotiation with the client instead of with the counterparty. Piper was direct about how foundational this is:
“It is fundamentally, I think it’s without it, I don’t know how anybody can do it.”
He was not describing trust as a nice quality to have. He was describing it as the prerequisite for every other part of the banker’s job.
What This Means for Bankers Building a Practice
The two things Piper named, knowledge and trust, are not built during a pitch. They are built over time, through honest conversations, through delivering hard news clearly, and through consistently demonstrating that the client’s outcome matters more than a smooth process. Bankers who build that foundation early are the ones who close M&A deals, and the ones clients return to.
Building trust with clients is only one part of building a successful independent investment banking practice. The other is having the right infrastructure behind you. Learn how Finalis helps independent M&A advisors build and grow their practices with broker-dealer affiliation, compliance, and operational support.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do M&A clients look for when hiring an investment banker? Experienced advisors like Danny Piper argue that clients evaluate two things above all: whether the banker understands their industry, and whether they trust the person. Track records and credentials inform that judgment, but they don’t replace it. Bankers who demonstrate genuine sector knowledge and earn client trust early win more business over time.
How do investment bankers build trust with clients? Bankers build trust by being honest when it’s uncomfortable. That means delivering realistic assessments of valuation and deal terms, pushing back on positions that won’t hold up, and being a consistent voice even when the client doesn’t want to hear it. Advisors who avoid hard conversations early tend to face harder ones later.
What does it mean to know what’s “market” in a deal? Knowing what’s market means understanding what buyers will realistically pay and what terms they will accept in a given type of transaction. Investment bankers use this knowledge to advise clients on where to hold firm and where flexibility serves their interests. Advisors who lack this calibration lose credibility with counterparties and provide less effective advocacy for their clients.
Should an investment banker always fight for everything the client wants? No. Fighting for every position dilutes a banker’s credibility on the positions that matter. Effective M&A advisors distinguish between terms worth contesting and positions that are unlikely to hold. Being transparent with clients about that difference is part of the job.
What makes some investment bankers more effective than others at closing deals? The bankers who consistently close M&A deals are the ones clients trust to tell them the truth. That trust is built before the deal gets difficult, through clear communication, honest assessments, and demonstrated knowledge of the market. Credentials get a banker in the door. The relationship is what closes the deal.
.jpg)
