A failed DIY deal. Fatigued owners. Underperforming locations. Here is how TUSK Practice Sales turned it all around. 

Selling your practice is a high-stakes process with little room for error. In the early days of TUSK, we regularly worked with owners who came to us after failed attempts at running their own deals. They had grown fatigued managing both the process and their practice, gotten stuck on the nuanced language in legal documents, or simply found themselves disappointed by a deal they once thought was the opportunity of a lifetime.

This case study follows a multi-location healthcare group that came to TUSK after a failed attempt to sell unrepresented. While the DIY process yielded no results, it gave the owners space to take a hard look at their business and, ultimately, achieve a better outcome than they thought possible. Through TUSK’s structured valuation process, strategic consolidation support, and competitive marketed sales approach, the group secured 61% higher value than the original offer they had been pursuing on their own.

The Challenge: A Failed DIY Deal

An unsolicited acquisition offer arrived that, on first glance, looked like the opportunity of a lifetime. The owners began negotiating independently, without the guidance of a practice sales advisor. Months passed. Progress stalled. The process consumed time that should have been spent on patient care, team management, and running the business.

The owners grew fatigued, and their goals had diverged. One was ready for a clean exit and wanted to return full-time to clinical work. The other was energized by the prospect of continued growth. What had seemed like a straightforward transaction had become a drain on both the business and the people running it.

The Discovery: An Honest Valuation 

The owners reached out to TUSK and received a complimentary practice valuation. The findings were clarifying and not entirely easy to hear. The group had a mixed portfolio: several high-performing locations, a solid middle tier, and a handful of practices that were meaningfully dragging down the group’s overall EBITDA. 

We knew the group was not ready for market and were not afraid to say so. Many healthcare owners go to market without a clear picture or a clear plan. After a failed DIY deal, these owners needed both, and we knew that getting there was the only way to achieve the best outcome for everyone involved.

The owners absorbed the assessment and made a strategic decision: before going to market, they would work on the business, not just in it.

The TUSK Approach: Built to Compete

TUSK worked alongside the owners to consolidate underperforming locations and strengthen operational consistency across the group. The goal was not simply to trim the portfolio. It was to construct a narrative that sophisticated acquirers would find credible and compelling.

With a leaner, higher-performing group of 7 practices prepared for market, TUSK launched its Marketed Sales Process. Rather than responding to a single buyer’s terms, TUSK created competition among buyers, driving urgency and price in the sellers’ favor.

The Result: 5 LOIs. 61% Higher Value. 

TUSK’s process generated 5 Letters of Intent, every one of them exceeding the owners’ financial expectations. The final sale price came in at 61% higher value than the original unsolicited offer the owners had spent months pursuing on their own.

Perhaps just as importantly, both owners got what they needed. The owner ready to exit found a clean transition that honored their contribution and their timeline. The owner eager for continued growth was positioned within the acquiring partnership to keep building. A deal that works for both sides of a diverging ownership structure is rarely the result of luck. It is the result of a process designed to create options.

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