Busted process as a junior?

Curious how common it is on here that you are on what seems like a promising sell-side mandate, work your ass off for a few months, and the deal dies right at the finish line.

Have been absolutely grinding on this one deal the past ~4 months, a few key buyers dropped at the last minute and owners had unrealistic value goals. We ended up getting a final bid at the lower end of the range we pitched and the owner said no. Not even “let’s put it on hold for 6 months and remarket”, just straight up fired us. Would imagine they hire a new bank and try again as soon as our engagement letter expires.

Obviously can’t blame the junior team here, but my VP and MD are both freaking out, have gotten reamed out a ton this week for little things that have previously never been an issue. Now I can’t put this deal on my resume, no closing dinner, just overall sucks. Feels like all those late nights and ruined weeks are wasted.

Just curious how you guys deal with this when it happens, I know it’s probably on the senior team at the end of the day but can’t help feeling like a bit of a failure. Also sucks because I know closed deals are referenced during bonus time for us, and on top of that would be great to have a closed deal for PE recruiting. Just venting here mostly but wondering how others deal with this…

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Not on you at all. Have been on the ass end of too many mandates where the value expectations are unrealistic. Managing and working through client expectations (of which value is almost always at the top) is literally job description for an MD. Obviously circumstances matter, often mid process markets turn, things happen etc. But at the end of the day, your MD is going to be held to task for not generating ROI while burning man hours and resources, regardless of circumstance. This is part of why there is a lot of pressure at the MD level.

Like above poster said, highlighting this on your resume on a no-names basis is fine and it is perfectly acceptable to say "ultimately value expectations were not met" because that is not on you.

 

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