Why Private Equity Firms Call Customers Before Closing

Private Equity Data Guy · Sep 9, 2026 · 35m · transcript

I sat down with Dan Grainger, who runs the private equity practice at T4, a voice of customer research firm that ended up in private equity almost by accident. He spends his time inside letter of intent windows, calling the customers of companies my listeners are trying to buy or fix. We talked about what those customers say once nobody from the target company is on the line.

Dan walked me through real deals where customer interviews changed the outcome. One packaging company lost twenty five million dollars off its price after customers described new competitors already undercutting them…