Leadership Training Exercises: Building an Exit Action Plan
Jul 09, 2025
Most Business Owners Aren’t Ready to Exit — Are You?
You’ve spent years building your business, pouring in time, energy, and vision. But when it comes time to exit — whether through a sale, succession, or merger — most owners discover they’re not as ready as they thought. They haven’t guided their team through some useful leadership training exercises to help build a solid foundation for transition.
During one of our client’s recent strategy meeting, the leadership team was discerning the right priorities for the next quarter. One of the team members was asked to promise sales results for a particular division. After a solid 10 minutes of discussion, he asked for a few minutes to make some calculations. It was as if we were waiting for the New Year’s Eve ball to drop, the anticipation was so palpable.
After a few minutes, he was ready to share — “I don’t know” was all he said.
What?! You’re the key sales leader in a growing organization, have known about this quarterly planning meeting for at least three months and your response to, “What’s our sales goal promise for the quarter?” ends with, “I don’t know?”
The issue in this situation was not the absence of an answer. It was the absence of an answer after a wealth of preparation time given.
Interesting and unfortunately, all too common, especially when we put this scenario in the domain of preparing your business for any of the various types of exit planning be it selling, owning in perpetuity, hiring great people to run your firm for you, or even personal goals such as building a business that gives you the freedom to spend more time with your family or traveling. In this entry, we'll focus on the goal of eventual sale and exit.
While your financials might be solid, buyers look for much more than a strong bottom line. They want transferable value: systems, leadership, scalability and predictability. Unfortunately, many leadership teams only realize this late in the game, when offers come in lower than expected or deals fall through altogether.
Your day-to-day intention helps increase your business’s value.
This 5-Step Exit Checklist eBook is a great resource for this— it walks you through the 8 key drivers of company value, areas like customer satisfaction, recurring revenue and owner dependence — what buyers care about most.
Whether your exit is 12 months or 10 years away, this leadership training exercise helps you:
- Pinpoint gaps that could lower your valuation
- Align your leadership team around a value-building strategy
- Prepare for conversations with potential buyers, investors, or successors
The result? A confident, profitable exit. Business owners who use this checklist often discover hidden value and also hidden risks. With that insight, they can make strategic improvements that drive real business growth and increase their company's exit value.
Imagine entering exit discussions with confidence, a stronger valuation and options on the table because you started preparing today.
Ready to assess your business like a buyer would?
Download our free Exit Checklist: A 5-Step Personal Action Plan and start to plan a smart, stress-free exit.
Preston True
Preston True is the founder of Get TPA Fit, a rapidly growing business coaching and value-building firm. Based in Detroit, Michigan, TPA has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and leadership teams on day-to-day problem solving, business culture and long range vision, so they ultimately learn how to delete chaos, earn more and build value.
