How important are M&A advisors when selling the company

I've gone through the sale of a company a few times and yes it is crucial to engage M&A advisors if you want to maximize the number of companies competing for you, your sale price and agreeable terms.

The person negotiating the deal for the acquiring company has probably done scores of deals; you've done none.

When a novice sits down at a table of card sharks and asks them to teach him to how to play poker… they will.

Absolutely not with that level of revenue. Your revenue is trivial. Until your revenue is at least an order of magnitude higher, there's not going to be an M&A firm in the world where it will be worth their time to work with you.

Your best best is an acqui-hire for a few hundred K and signing bonuses for your team. These can be executed quickly and without the painstaking due diligence of a real acquisition.

+1, We've been doing our introductory phase with these types the past few months, looking for an exit in 18-24 months. While they are very complimentary and will monitor us, they all want us to get to the 7-10m range before getting serious. We are at 4m with an ebitda of 2m. I'm sure it varies by industry, but they are looking for 3% of the purchase price, so theoretically an exit in the 20-30m range they are looking for a commission of 600 - 900k. A couple of them have sent out feelers to industry leaders and the response is the same, get to 7-10m and then we have something. Again, it's going to vary by industry, but these guys are looking for 500k+ paydays.

Never been a part of the acqui-hire thing, but seems like that's a good option if possible.

Agree with other commenters, 200k revenue = too small to justify M&A firm fees. However, you can track down a smaller, individual M&A advisor that will have time for you and cost less. Where? Between asking around in banking/finance circles, your network (esp founders/execs of companies that were sold) and LinkedIn, you can find a seasoned ex-employee of M&A firm/dept that is now consulting.