The language
Their words, written once: book of business, tuck-in, perpetuation, producer, appointment, contingents
Prepared by BioCreative Strategies for WalkerHughes and BW Forsyth · 2026-10-29
One operating system, laid out for WalkerHughes
BioCreative builds each company its own AI operating system on one standard: the foundation first (its context and a well-structured database), then the skills and tools, the agents and the screens, and the OS that runs them. We built it for CARR inside Barry-Wehmiller's Azure. These four views show the same system for WalkerHughes: a different market, a different buyer, the same parts.
1 · The inputs Open →every list, registry and feed, how we'd get it, and where it lands
2 · The OS Open →BW's platform above, the WalkerHughes OS and Brain, raw to ready, their context underneath
3 · Who does the work Open →the agents by team, with their skills and tools
4 · The lifecycle Open →from every agency in the footprint to a closed and integrated deal
Each view opens in its own tab. Click a card above, or a tab at the top.
How the four fit together
Barry-Wehmiller's platform · governs the data and the AI, and watches every agent run
1 · The inputsWhat comes inLists, registries and feeds about every agency and owner in the footprint
2 · The OSWhere it's made cleanOne record per agency and owner, enriched, scored, with its signals attached
3 · Who does the workThe team of agentsFour teams, each agent with one job: find, read, reach, close
4 · The lifecycleWhere it landsAgencies moving from identified to acquired, a person deciding at every gate
↺ every reply, meeting and signed deal comes back in as an input, so the system gets sharper with every turn
WalkerHughes's context · their seller story, deal criteria and words, written once, read by every view above
The inputs are the raw material: who is out there, and what is moving.
The OS is the machine that turns them into one clean picture of the market.
The agents are the team that runs the machine, each with its own skills and tools.
The lifecycle is the result: owners reached, deals made, books integrated.
where a Foundry agent can work
The OS: from raw inputs to ready work
Barry-Wehmiller's platform governs data and AI from the top; the WalkerHughes OS works from the bottom up. Every input lands in Raw, gets one id, climbs a ladder of enrichment, rests in one database, and becomes work a person approves.
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Above · Barry-Wehmiller's Enterprise Platform · top-downBW structures and governs. Each company's OS reads from it, and writes its own sources back up.
BW Enterprise Platform
WalkerHughes is a BW Forsyth company. BW's platform governs the data and the AI across the family.
Fabric · OneLakeServes governed data. WalkerHughes's CRM, DealCloud records and acquired books can reach us here as an input
Databricks + MDMBronze to gold, one master id across BW. The lists we map can land here too
Azure AI FoundryBW's models, agents and search. A Foundry agent can be registered in the WalkerHughes OS and work at any layer ()
ArizeWatches the AI: every WalkerHughes agent run traced and scored, cost included
↓ sign-in, governed data, BW's master id, Foundry agents · ↑ mapped sources and agent traces
The WalkerHughes AI Operating System · bottom-up, its owngoverns how everything WalkerHughes is named, built, registered and used
The WalkerHughes OS
The things specific to WalkerHughes. It decides how an agent is built, how a skill or tool is registered, and who may use what. Their own server, database, repository and context. Everything it holds goes into the WalkerHughes Brain.
The taxonomy
Agency types, book mix (commercial, personal, benefits, specialty), regions, owner personas, deal stages
Fleet registry
Every agent with its job card: Registry, Ladder, Market Desk, Campaign Manager, the messaging agent, the Conductor
Skill registry
The runbooks each agent follows: sweep a county, enrich an agency, fill a campaign, write the brief
Tool registry
What the agents act through: the producer database, Clay, email finding, HeyReach, EmailBison, Claude. Keys in Key Vault
Users and licences
Entra sign-in on BW's tenant: corp dev, regional leaders, Forsyth, each seeing their own tabs
How agents are built
Context → data → skills and tools → agents → fleet. Propose, then a person confirms; the build loop; the boundaries
Routers
The Conductor reads state and proposes the next move; any agent asks the Brain through one door
Runs on WalkerHughes's own environment inside BW's tenant, set up with BW IT the way CARR's wasOwned from day one: the database, the code and the knowledge base
↓ everything the OS knows
The brain · one brain over the whole WalkerHughes systemone catalog, one graph, one search over every layer; Foundry can sit at any of them
The WalkerHughes Brain
Sits on top of everything WalkerHughes: what the OS holds, the context, what Fabric brings in, every agency and owner, every deal and touch.
Joined on one id, never copied. Any agent calls it through one door. What it can't answer goes on a gap list.
What the OS knows
The language, taxonomy, registries and build rules, read in place
The context
The seller story, deal criteria and segments: the foundation (bottom band)
Catalog over Raw
Every list, registry and feed: what came in, when, from where
Lineage of every step
Which agent, rung and gate moved each agency or owner
The agency graph
Agencies ↔ owners ↔ producers ↔ carriers ↔ networks ↔ deals ↔ competitors' buys
Market knowledge
Deals, moves and trends by week, from the Market Desk. Market facts, never contact details
Use over Ready
What each brief, draft and approval read, and what came back from it
Memory of the system
Agent runs, findings and lessons. Every run also traced in Arize
Three doors, in order
1SQL over each store, in place
2The graph across agencies, owners, carriers and deals
3Search by meaning, on BW's Foundry
Below: the pyramid on WalkerHughes's database. Context is the foundation (bottom band); well-structured SQL sits on it; skills, tools and agents move data through the two steps; Resolved holds it; Ready on the right is where it lands for people.
↕↕↕↕↕
Raw · bronze
Step 1 · route, match, identify
Step 2 · climb and read
Resolved · silver
Ready · gold · the WalkerHughes app
Raw lands first · staged · nothing writes straight in
Structured
names agencies, owners and producers
- Producer database NIPR
- State licensee lists IN · IL (NAIC)
- Agent lookups MO · OH
- Association members Trusted Choice · Big "I"
- Carrier agent locators Erie · Auto-Owners …
- County-by-county sweep scraper agents
- Owner LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Their lists SourceScrub · HubSpot
→
ID system
Registry agentinput → producer number or license?
→ agency domain or exact name / alias?
→ match · or mint once
→ agency domain or exact name / alias?
→ match · or mint once
Every agency and every licensed owner gets one record and one id, whatever list it came from, Fabric included.
A person approves each mint batch
→
Agency ladder
Ladder agentL0 licensed→L1 sized + typed→L2 enriched→L3 site read→L4 seller score→L5 owner found
Book mix, carriers, network, team size from the website and the registries. Free rungs run at once; paid rungs wait for a yes.
Corp dev sets the target status
Owner steps
people, on their agencyPlaced→Found→Principal?→Persona→Email→Reachable
Gates: footprint · already in a deal · already acquired · do-not-contact · not already reached → ready
A person reviews every new owner record
→
Resolved
one database, joined on the WalkerHughes id
Agencies ~10,000
in the footprint · id, ladder level, book mix, seller score, target status
Owners and producers DB
license, years licensed, persona, email, LinkedIn
→
From BW · Fabric and their systems
their own records, read-only
- Deal records DealCloud
- Contacts and activity HubSpot
- Acquired books AMS360, after close
- BW master id MDM
Read through Fabric where BW serves it; through the vendor's API where it doesn't. Never written back without a yes.
→
matched back to the ID system: one id
System landing
daily syncread DealCloud · HubSpot
→ copies, never merged
→ each agency + owner → Registry
→ copies, never merged
→ each agency + owner → Registry
The same landing CARR uses for its CRM through Fabric.
→
Deal context
read by every agentopen deal → don't prospect
acquired → part of WalkerHughes
last touch · owner · stage
acquired → part of WalkerHughes
last touch · owner · stage
So outreach never lands on an agency already in talks, already bought, or owned by a colleague's relationship.
"DealCloud disagrees" is a proposal; corp dev confirms
→
Deal copies DB
one read view per agency, keyed by the id
Messaging matrix DB
region × agency type × owner persona × channel, compiled from the spine
→
Unstructured
market records: context, linked to agencies
- Trade news, RSS Insurance Journal · IA Mag
- Carrier news, RSS Carrier Management · IBA
- Agency M&A OPTIS (RSS) · MarshBerry
- Regulators IN orders · MO discipline
- License changes producer-database alerts
- Agency websites team pages · changes
- Job posts · obituaries web
→
Stakeholder Registry
nightlyLinks each record to an agency by id, then exact name or a learned alias ("Smith Ins. Agency" = "Smith Insurance Group"). A miss waits in a queue.
A person confirms what it is unsure of
Market value gate
a cold readour footprint? an agency deal, a hire,
a departure, a retirement? → read
else → screened out
a departure, a retirement? → read
else → screened out
Corp dev sets the bar
→
Market Desk · the read
news agent + Trend Lab1 · classify once: deal, buyer, move, risk
2 · tag terms, count by week (trends)
3 · the weekly agency M&A brief (Fri)
2 · tag terms, count by week (trends)
3 · the weekly agency M&A brief (Fri)
Tags flow downstream: a seller signal on the agency, a reason to write on the owner, a competitor on the map.
Corp dev reads the brief before it goes out
→
Linked records DB
deals, news, filings and changes, by agency
Signals and trends DB
seller signals per agency; terms and competitor moves by week
→
Engagement
who touched what we put out
- Connects, accepts, replies HeyReach
- Sent, opened, replied EmailBison
- Meetings booked calendar
- Site visits, forms their website
- Posts liked, commented social
→
Engagement intake
channels sync · hourlyvendor event → the owner's status
→ the touch ledger · a bounce → blocked
→ the touch ledger · a bounce → blocked
A reply goes to corp dev; the workflow stops there
→
Straight through
Touches skip the climb: every later campaign reads them as "already reached", per channel and sender.
→
Touch ledger DB
every touch per owner × channel × sender
→
The WalkerHughes app
one screen corp dev opens each morning
agents read Resolved, never Raw
CORP DEV · THE CORE
Agency universe
every agency on the map, state by state, by seller score
Agency page + intelligence report
one agency in depth: owner, book, carriers, signals, sources
Campaign Manager
who goes in each campaign, which sender, which sequence; fills from the ready owners
Email + LinkedIn
messaging agent drafts from the matrix; EmailBison and HeyReach; a person approves every send
Campaign tasks
accepts and replies, drafted on a click
Deal pipeline
from first reply to close, beside DealCloud
INTELLIGENCE
The Friday M&A brief
who sold, who bought where, which owners moved
Signal desk
a signal on a target agency → a task for corp dev
SALES SYSTEM
Meeting and deal plans
the plan before each owner call; the plan per deal
Collateral by stage
owner pages, LOI and proposal drafts, integration plans
OPS
ID system · Fleet · Access
ids and merges, the agents on screen, role-based tabs
every send, accept, reply and meeting comes back as Raw: engagement
↑ the data sits on the context: well-structured SQL, compiled from it
Foundation · WalkerHughes's context: the base everything above is built onwritten once, compiled into the database so agents read rows, never prose
WalkerHughes's context
Where any page, rule or screen disagrees with it, the context wins.
The spineWho WalkerHughes is · the seller story (evergreen capital, keep your name and your people) · deal criteria · segments · personas · what may be said
Market intelligence setupThe sources and feeds, the watch terms, the signal types, the competitors to track
The platform's rulesThe ladder, the campaign fill, outbound, the gates, the boundaries
How it movesWritten in their repository → compiled → loaded. Nothing hand-edited in the database
↑ feeds Raw
What counts as a source
- The list and registry map sources
- The feeds and their filters feeds
- The county grid footprint
↑ feeds Step 1
Who is who
- Agency, cluster, carrier, competitor roles
- Producer numbers, licenses keys
- Already acquired, in a deal holds
Ids first, then exact name or a learned alias. Never a similarity score.
↑ feeds Step 2
How to read and rank
- Book mix and size bands taxonomy
- The seller score deal criteria
- Owner personas taxonomy
- Regions and corridors footprint
↑ held in Resolved
Compiled into SQL
- Taxonomy tables
- The messaging matrix
- The fit verdict per agency
- What agents may read
↑ governs Ready
What may be said
- The seller story and its proof
- Brady Benefits' "people-first" words
- Voice, tone, brand
Email and LinkedIn only; no AI voice calls (TCPA, Illinois BIPA).
Beyond the core · the menu, when they want morethe same foundation, more channels, the whole lifecycle
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The inputs, in depth
Every source we'd recommend, checked 2026-10-29: what it gives, how we'd get it, what it costs where a price is published, and which box on the OS map it lands in.
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Structured: who is out there
Lands in Raw (lane 1), then the ID system gives every agency and licensed owner one id, then the agency ladder and owner steps climb it.
| Source | What it gives | How we get it | Cost | Lands in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NIPR Producer Database | Licenses, lines of authority, carrier appointments and terminations, by producer number, for producers and agencies | Batch reports, alerts and API, as a subscriber | PAID on request (one reseller: $1.25 per producer to load, $0.23 a month for alerts) | ID system key · ladder L0–L1 · owner steps |
| NAIC report service (Illinois and others) | Bulk licensee and agency lists: producer number, tax id, lines, first active date, address, email | Bulk CSV | PAID a few cents a record, set by each state | ID system · ladder L0–L1 · tenure signal |
| Indiana producer contact list | Every resident and non-resident producer and agency | Public-records request | FREE or a small fee | ID system · ladder L0 |
| Missouri agent and agency search | One record at a time, with discipline | Scraper agent | FREE | ID system · regulatory signal |
| Ohio agent locator | Each agency's current and terminated carrier appointments | Scraper agent | FREE | Ladder L3 · carrier signal |
| Trusted Choice · Big "I" state associations | Every member agency (Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio) | Scraper agent | FREE | ID system · network signal |
| Carrier agent locators | Which carriers appoint an agency (Erie, Westfield, Auto-Owners, Cincinnati, Grange, Travelers) | Scraper agent | FREE | Ladder L3 · book mix |
| County-by-county map search | Every storefront agency, with category and reviews | Map search API, swept by a grid agent | PAID $32 per 1,000 calls after 5,000 free a month | ID system · coverage check |
| Agency websites | Team page, lines written, carriers, verticals, who's who | Site reader (the roster scraper we built for a healthcare client) | FREE | Ladder L3 · owner steps |
| LinkedIn · Sales Navigator | The owner's profile, tenure, team changes | Their seats | PAID per seat | Owner steps · outreach |
| Clay find-people waterfall · email finding | Owner emails and profiles, five sources in turn | Clay table and email finder | PAID per credit, each run approved | Owner steps (L5) |
Their systems, and BW's
Lands in lane 2 as read-only copies, matched to the same ids, so outreach never lands on an agency already in talks or already bought.
| System | What it gives | How we get it | Cost | Lands in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DealCloud (Intapp) | Deal records, stages, relationships | REST API, or through Fabric if BW serves it | THEIRS | Deal context · pipeline |
| HubSpot | Contacts, companies, activity | REST API with a private-app token | THEIRS | System landing · Ready |
| SourceScrub | Firmographics; already pushes to HubSpot and DealCloud | Through those pushes; API is an add-on | THEIRS | Lane 1 via HubSpot |
| Vertafore AMS360 | The book of business, after a close | Vendor API with the agency's authorization | THEIRS | Integration, post-close |
| BW platform: Fabric, Databricks MDM, Foundry, Arize | Governed data down; our sources up; agents in Foundry; every run traced in Arize | As CARR does today, with BW IT | THEIRS | Above the OS · the Brain |
Unstructured: what is moving
Lands in lane 3. The Stakeholder Registry links each item to its agency (by id, then name or a learned alias); the Market Desk's gate reads only what matters, classifies it, tags it and counts it by week.
| Source | What it gives | How we get it | Cost | Lands in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insurance Journal | National and Midwest news, agency deals | RSS (news and Midwest feeds, tested) | FREE | Registry · Market Desk |
| Carrier Management · IA Magazine · Insurance Business America | Carriers, agency practice, people moves | RSS (tested) | FREE | Market Desk |
| OPTIS Partners | Quarterly agency M&A counts and buyers (144 deals in Q3 2026) | RSS (tested) | FREE | Market Desk · competitor moves |
| MarshBerry · Reagan Consulting | Deal announcements and market reports | Scraper agent (no feed) | FREE | Market Desk |
| Indiana enforcement orders · Missouri discipline | Regulatory trouble at an agency | Scraper agent (quarterly PDFs; lookups) | FREE | Registry · risk signal |
| License changes | Lapses, continuing-education gaps, producers leaving | Producer-database alerts and list deltas | PAID with the database | Registry · seller signals |
| Website changes · job posts · obituaries | A shrinking team, a hire, a retirement, the management system named in a post | Web archive, job boards, obituary sites | FREE | Registry · seller signals |
Seller signals: what the score weighs
Computed in Step 2 on each agency (ladder L4), held in Resolved, and read by the Campaign Manager and the messaging agent.
| Signal | Why it matters | Fed by |
|---|---|---|
| Long tenure | Principal first licensed before about 1995: nearer to exit | NAIC lists · producer database · LinkedIn |
| No successor | One licensed producer, or none younger at the address | State lists · producer database · team page |
| Producers leaving | Affiliation terminations; a shrinking team | Producer-database alerts · LinkedIn |
| Carrier stagnation | No new appointments in three years, or terminations | Ohio locator · producer database |
| Book mix | Commercial and benefits books are worth more and fit WalkerHughes | Lines of authority · website · map category |
| Network membership | Smart Choice books move more easily; SIAA and Keystone carry exit terms | Network and association listings |
| A competitor buying nearby | Owners nearby are being called by other buyers | Market Desk (OPTIS, Insurance Journal, MarshBerry) |
| Regulatory trouble | A risk flag, or a reason they'd sell | Indiana orders · Missouri discipline |
Engagement: what comes back
Lands in lane 4, goes straight to the touch ledger, and every later campaign reads it.
| Source | What it gives | How | Lands in |
|---|---|---|---|
| HeyReach | Connects, accepts, replies, per sender | Hourly sync | Touch ledger · campaign tasks |
| EmailBison | Sent, opened, replied, bounced | Hourly sync | Touch ledger · blocklist on bounce |
| Calendar · website | Meetings booked; visits and forms | Calendar and site analytics | Touch ledger · pipeline |
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Who does the work: the agent org chart
Every agent in the WalkerHughes OS, drawn the way a company draws its people. The OS sits on top, then the services every team shares. The four teams run left to right, the way the work flows: the data system finds every agency, intelligence reads and scores it, marketing reaches the owners, and sales management carries the deal to a signature. Under them, every channel marketing runs. A person approves at every edge.
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The WalkerHughes OS
One operating system for WalkerHughes, on its own server, database and repository inside BW's tenant.
Vocabulary
one word, one meaning: their words, written once
Rules
what may be said, who approves what, nothing sends on its own
The build loop
look → plan → approve → build → write back
Registers
databases · knowledge · skills · tools · agents · screens
Runs it
The Conductor
Reads the state of every agent and proposes the next move. Answers to corp dev.
Builds it
BioCreative, with their team
Plans each change, gets approval, builds it, writes it back. Their team learns to run and extend it.
Above it
BW's platform
Foundry agents can join any team below; Arize traces and scores every agent run.
The OS level · shared services, done once for every team
The teams, left to right · data in → intelligence → marketing → sales
The data systemwho is out there, on one id
Registry agent
One id per agency and per licensed owner. Matches on producer number, license, domain or a learned alias; proposes a mint when nothing matches.
Stakeholder Registry
Links every news item, filing, license change and website change to its agency, and learns the aliases ("Smith Ins. Agency" is "Smith Insurance Group").
Sweep agents
County by county and state by state: the licensing lists, association directories, carrier locators and the map search, staged before anything is minted.
Skills sweep a county · mint an agency · place an owner · merge duplicates
Tools producer database · state licensee lists · Trusted Choice · carrier locators · map search
Tools producer database · state licensee lists · Trusted Choice · carrier locators · map search
Intelligencegoing deeper: read, classify, find the people
Ladder agent
Climbs every agency: sized and typed, website read (book mix, carriers, lines, team), scored for sale, owner found and reachable. Scrapes each agency's site for its people.
Market Desk
A cold read on every item; a neutral summary written once; tags and trends counted by week.
News agent
Reads the trade feeds and M&A trackers; links each story to an agency.
Signals agent
Turns a seller signal on a target agency (a departure, a retirement, a competitor buying nearby) into a task for corp dev.
Brief writer
The Friday M&A brief: who sold, who bought where, which owners moved.
Skills enrich an agency · read a website · find the owner · score a seller · gate and tag · write the brief
Tools site reader · Clay waterfall · email finding · Insurance Journal · OPTIS · MarshBerry
Tools site reader · Clay waterfall · email finding · Insurance Journal · OPTIS · MarshBerry
Marketingevery channel that reaches the owners
Campaign Manager
Plans each campaign: who goes in, which sender, which sequence; fills it from the ready owners.
Messaging agent
One message per owner from the matrix and a sourced fact pack; checked before a person sees it. Never sends.
Channels sync
Email and LinkedIn in and out every hour; every reply handed to a person.
Social manager
Posts for the company and its leaders: ideas, drafts, a calendar, review, analytics. Social listening scores who engages.
Search and website
SEO through the blog, GEO (how AI answers mention them), and Google Ads with a landing page per term.
Paid social New
LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram ads aimed at the agencies on the target list.
Event scraper
The association and carrier events in the footprint, who exhibits and attends, matched to agencies.
The Studio
Branded images, video and voice for every channel: Veo, HeyGen, ElevenLabs, image models, 3D. Reviewed in one queue.
Content and downloads
The newsletter from the Friday brief; ebooks and guides for owners (perpetuation, valuation); case studies of owners who joined; webinars. Any other channel can be added the same way.
Skills fill a campaign · draft a message · second touch · post · write the blog · run an ad · produce a film
Tools EmailBison · HeyReach · the social manager · Search Console · Google Ads · the Studio
Tools EmailBison · HeyReach · the social manager · Search Console · Google Ads · the Studio
Sales managementfrom first reply to signed
Pipeline manager
Holds the stages and their rules, moves deals across when the gates are met, and sends the weekly pipeline review. Mirrors DealCloud.
Meeting plans · Green Sheets
A plan before every owner call: who is in the room, the objective, the questions; a brief after it, from the transcript.
Deal plans · Blue Sheets
One living plan per deal: who decides and how they lean, where it stands, the red flags, the next move.
Account plans · Gold Sheets
The long play for an agency, a region or a platform deal, and the research behind it.
Collateral and paper by stage
On demand at each stage: the NDA early, an owner page, the valuation summary, the LOI and proposal drafts, the integration plan. People review every one.
Skills pipeline review · meeting plan · deal plan · account plan · draft the paper · follow-up in context
Tools DealCloud · HubSpot · meeting transcripts · email
Tools DealCloud · HubSpot · meeting transcripts · email
The channels marketing runs · each one reads the same database and writes its engagement back
Outbound
- Email the cold sequence from warmed domains; the newsletter, opt-in
- LinkedIn the connection request, the follow-up, InMail, a profile view or a like
- Calling a live call with its script, by a person (never an AI voice)
Social
- Leaders' voices Ben and the regional leaders on LinkedIn, X and Instagram
- The company the LinkedIn page, X, Instagram carousels and Reels, Threads and Bluesky
- Paid social New LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram ads to the target list
The website
- The pages a page for owners thinking about what's next, and its conversions
- Booking a form and a calendar on every page
- SEO and GEO the blog, and how AI answers describe WalkerHughes
- Google Ads search ads per term, each with its landing page
Video and audio
- YouTube shorts, explainers, owner stories
- Webinars and podcasts perpetuation and valuation, with partners
Content and downloads
- The newsletter drawn from the Friday M&A brief
- Ebooks and guides a perpetuation guide, a valuation checklist
- Case studies owners who joined, in their words
- Market reports the agency M&A market by state
Events
- Association and carrier events the Big "I" state conventions and carrier meetings
- Attendee lists matched to agencies, with a plan per event
- Their own events owner dinners and roundtables
Watching it work
- Social listening who engages, matched to owners
- Website analytics visits and conversions per page
- SEO tracking positions and audits
- GEO tracking share of voice across AI engines
- Competitive tracking the consolidators' terms and pages
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Where it lands: the deal lifecycle
Where the outputs land. Three parts, top to bottom: the lifecycle (every agency's status and every owner's line, phase by phase, team by team), the deal pipeline opened out stage by stage (the sheets, the sales aids and the paper at each one), and the channels beneath it all.
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The lifecycle
From every agency in the footprint to a signed deal, an integrated book, and round again. Every agency holds one status and every owner moves along one line; the two lines are tracked side by side. The four teams work it left to right, and a person decides at every gate.
The wordswhat each part of this view means
◇ Agency statusThe one status every agency holds: identified, target, in outreach, warm, in talks, acquired, or not a fit.
◇ Owner lineThe one line every owner or principal moves along: entered, enriched, targeted, contacted, engaged, replied, in conversation, signer.
◇ GateThe moment an agency changes hands between teams: minted, campaign-ready, a real reply, first meeting held, LOI signed, closed.
◇ A person decidesAgents draft and propose. Corp dev decides what counts, what sends, and every step of a deal.
The phasesby team
0Sources and the universethe data system
1Read, scored and targetedintelligence
2Contactedmarketing
3Engagedmarketing
4Qualified and handed offmarketing → sales management
5In talks: valuation and offersales management
6LOI, diligence and closesales management · Forsyth
7Integration, and round againoperations · referrals
The gateswhere an agency changes hands
◇ minted
◇ campaign-ready
◇ first send
◇ warmth accepted
◇ a real reply · qualified
◇ first meeting held
◆ closed
◆ integrated
The agencyone status per agency
identifiedIn the ID queuea candidate from a list, a sweep or a filing · Sweep agents · Registry agentidentifiedMinted and typedone id, its type and region · Registry agent
identifiedRead and scoredwebsite read, book mix, carriers, seller score · Ladder agenttargetOn the target listabove the bar, ranked by seller score · Ladder agent · signals agent
in outreachIn a campaignthe first send to an owner · Campaign Manager · messaging agent
warmWarman owner accepted, opened, or engaged with content; a person accepts the warmth · channels sync · social listening
in talksHanded to sales managementa real reply, interested; the opportunity opens · reply classifier · pipeline manager
in talksValuation and offerthe book read, the offer shaped · deal plan · paper agent
in talksUnder LOIdiligence and the purchase agreement · pipeline manageracquiredClosedsigned; DealCloud and the brief updated
acquiredIntegratingthe book into AMS360; the owner becomes a regional leaderwarmNot nowback to warm on a schedule, by a person's choicenot a fitDisqualifiedout of footprint, the wrong book, or gone
The ownerone line per person
enteredEnteredthe owner exists, with the source that found themenrichedEnrichedlicense, years licensed, LinkedIn, email · Ladder agent
targetedTargetedon a campaign, by a person's approval of the fill
contactedContacteda real send, approved before it went · messaging agent
engagedEngagedan accept, a click, a like (warm)repliedRepliedlabelled by one classifier
qualifiedIn conversationinterested, asks for a call, or books one
on the dealThe decidera buying role on the opportunity, beside co-owners and key producers
signerThe signerthe person who signs the paper
leaderRegional leaderstays on to run the regionreferrerA referrerintroduces the next owner
A person decidesagents propose
which candidates mint; each paid enrichment
the target bar; the seller score's weights
the campaign plan; every message
what counts as warm
what qualifies; the hand-off
whether to meet; the valuation; the offer
the LOI, the price, the close
the integration plan; who to ask for a referral
What they seein the app
the agency universe map · ID review
agency pages · the target list
campaigns · campaign tasks
social listening · the reply inbox
the hand-off queue
the deal plan · the meeting plan
the pipeline, beside DealCloud
the integration board · the Friday brief
Two lines, tracked together. The agency's status and the owner's line move side by side, from the first entry to a signed deal. Every move of either is one row: what moved, from where to where, who or what moved it, and why.
The seller score is a filter, never a step. It says who is worth reaching. An owner's engagement never moves the agency on its own; it writes a warmth proposal, and a person accepts it.
After the close is its own phase. Integration has its own needs: the book into AMS360, carriers re-appointed, the team brought over, and the owner's next role.
The deal pipeline, stage by stage
Phases 4 to 6 above, opened out. The probability is set by the stage, not guessed. The sheets, the sales aids and the paper sit under the stage they belong to; they don't move the deal by themselves. The gates are what must be true before a deal moves on.
Deal stagewith its probability
Qualified lead—
First meeting set20%
In conversation40%
Valuation and offer60%
LOI signed75%
Diligence and closing90%
Closed: acquired100%
Closed: not now0%
What is true
an owner replied interested, with the agency, the source and the campaign; the opportunity opens
a first call is on the calendar with the owner
the first call happened; the owner is open to selling or partnering
the book has been read; an offer is being shaped
a letter of intent is signed; diligence starts
a verbal yes on terms; the purchase agreement is being written
signed; the agency becomes part of WalkerHughes
not now, or not a fit; the reason is recorded and the agency returns to warm
People on the dealbuying roles
Economic the owner, and any co-owner or spouse · User the producers and staff who come over · Technical their CPA, attorney or advisor · Coach a carrier rep, a network contact, or an owner who joined · and on our side the regional leader and Forsyth, with a strength, a mode and a rating for each
The sheetsMiller Heiman
Gold Sheet the account plan for the agency, a region, or a platform deal, all the way through
Green Sheet the plan before every call: who's in the room, the objective, the questions; the brief after it, from the transcript
Blue Sheet the deal plan from in conversation on: who decides and how they lean, the red flags, the next move
Sales aidsby stage, on demand
The hand-off cardthe owner, the agency, the source and the campaign
A Green Sheetbefore the call
An owner pagebuilt for them
An owner pagebuilt for them
The meeting briefwhat was said, promised and asked
The valuation summarythe book, the multiple, the structure
The diligence listwhat to gather, by when
The integration plancarriers, the team, the book
The welcomethe announcement, the owner's story
The loss reviewthe reason, and when to come back
The paperdrafted, reviewed by people
NDAbefore the books are opened
Offer letterthe terms in plain words
LOIprice, structure, earn-out, rollover
Purchase agreementand the owner's employment agreement
Signedthe paper is the gate
Gate to leavewhat must be true
routed with its source and campaign
the first meeting held; a buying role on the owner
a Blue Sheet drafted; the decider named
an offer made and recorded
the LOI signed
the purchase agreement signed
the integration plan started
a loss reason, with nothing else open
Agents
reply classifier · pipeline manager
pipeline manager · meeting plans
meeting plans · deal plans
deal plans · paper agent
paper agent · pipeline manager
paper agent · deal plans
pipeline manager · brief writer
pipeline manager · signals agent
Rules and windowspipeline discipline
The living summary on every open deal, refreshed only when something happens (an email, a meeting, a stage change); silence shows as days since the last touch
The weekly pipeline review every open deal, each week, sent to the deal team
Signals that prompt a touch a stage change, a brief, an email, silence, news on the agency, a competitor's deal nearby; nothing sends, a person acts
The channels, beneath the lifecycle
The channels move each agency from the target list to warm to a first meeting. Some keep working through the pipeline and after the close. Each bar spans the statuses the channel works across.
Identifiedthe data system
Target listintelligence · marketing
In outreachmarketing
Warmmarketing · nurture
In talkssales management
Acquiredoperations
Entry sourceshow an agency enters
Outbound
Social
The website
Content
Events
Reads back
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