This awesome Linkedin post from Laura Horton triggered a trip down memory lane. Pardot early days → growing like crazy → being acquired by ExactTarget → being acquired by Salesforce 10 months later.

We were fortunate to be acquired by two great companies, and Adam Blitzer, Pardot COO, was a tremendous leader throughout the experience. It was a wild ride with tons of learning along the way.

Acquisitions and mergers create amazing opportunities for all involved. They also bring a lot of change, uncertainty, and compromise.

If you have an acquisition now, soon, or one day, here are 6 strategies to maximize the opportunity ahead.

6 Things To Maximize Success After Acquisition

1. Make the most of the resources and expertise.

Don’t fight the wave! Lean into the opportunities afforded by a big company.

There’s more resources: people to help, budget for hiring or special initiatives, business infrastructure, global reach, potential to scale quickly.

And more expertise: financial gurus, product geniuses, business veterans, industry thought leaders.

It’s easy to say, “Our way has been working. Leave us alone.” But then you miss out on the advantages of the acquisition!

Adam Blitzer embraced and articulated this approach within Pardot and it created more openness and collaboration. It felt better and drove better results.

2. Meet as many people as possible.

Use your time as the “new kid” to connect with anyone and everyone. People are eager to learn what you do and understand your company and product.

Dave Duke shared this advice during the ExactTarget acquisition. He was right and I’ve shared it many times since.

Even at the largest companies, relationships are key. Build those relationships early and often. Go for quantity to start and meet people at all levels, in all departments.

To share about yourself:

• Practice a clear, concise explanation of your role, team, product, company.
• Keep it high level unless someone really, really digs in. Most people at the acquiring company don’t know more than the press release. It’s been hush hush until the public announcement.
• Know your metrics (e.g. 100 customers, 50 people on the team, CSAT of 8.5). Numbers are the universal love language of companies big and small.

To build rapport:

• Ask good questions.
• Learn about people’s experience or background. No one doesn’t like talking about themselves 😉
• Make a genuine connection. Find something you have in common, no matter how small.
• Be helpful through intros, resources, or information.

Don’t be shy about reaching out to people more senior than you, especially one level up. I was hesitant to “bother” certain folks and missed out on building key relationships. A lesson I learned so you don’t have to!

3. Learn the culture.

Figure out as quickly as you can:

• how things get done
• who has influence
• what people care about
• how the org chart works, who reports to who
• unwritten rules
• email, calendar and meeting norms

Observe, ask questions, and compare notes with others. Meeting lots of people will help with this.

4. Find a trusted friend or mentor at the new company.

Who is well-respected and a top performer? Who is awesome at getting shit done despite big company pace and politics? Who do you want to learn from? Who has been there a long time and knows everyone? Who can give you the backstory when something seems odd?

Find these people! Hitch your wagon to them. Meet with them regularly. Learn everything you can.

5. Support people’s journeys.

Some people will love and thrive in the new environment. Others will get frustrated and want to get back to startup life.

Each of those things is okay. Yes, we always want to retain top talent but the most important thing is that people are happy in their careers, wherever that may be. It’s also playing the long game since you may work with them again one day.

Adam Blitzer would jokingly say, “If it stinks, don’t stay. I’ll help you find something else. I’ll also leave if it stinks.” (He stayed 8 years. 😀)

Giving people freedom and support instead of hollow claims of “nothing will change” was powerful. Those that moved on left on great terms and many Pardot alums stay in touch or work together today.

6. Don’t glorify the “good ole days.”

Yes, there was autonomy, camaraderie, ping pong tournaments, and hoodies.

But there was also constant worry over the competitor with 10x more funding, an infinite product backlog, and only one marketing person.

If the company had grown organically, things would have changed anyway. Bigger teams, more rules, slower pace, and more structure come with scale. Also, good things like new roles, better benefits, more office locations, and more stability. It’s the nature of growth.

Have you been through an acquisition? What advice or learnings do you have?