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Scoring Methodology

How Dossier grades mandates, ranks buyers, and surfaces risk signals — and where the data comes from.

The Three Headline Scores

Every mandate receives three scores from 0 to 100. Each score is calculated from a weighted set of inputs. Weights can be customized per firm during onboarding.

Sellability Score
Measures how attractive the asset is likely to be to the buyer market. A high sellability score means the business has characteristics that buyers consistently pay premiums for.
Revenue growth rate25%Higher growth = higher score. Sub-5% growth flags as a risk.
EBITDA margin25%Margin above 20% scores strongly. Below 10% is a drag.
Sector attractiveness20%Healthcare, software, and business services score higher than commoditized manufacturing.
Revenue vs deal size15%Deal size relative to revenue signals valuation reasonableness.
Geography15%US, UK, and Western Europe score highest for buyer depth.
Score = (growth x 0.25) + (margin x 0.25) + (sector x 0.20) + (size_fit x 0.15) + (geo x 0.15)
Buyer Readiness Score
Measures how well the current buyer universe maps to this specific mandate. A high score means the right buyers exist, are active, and are sized correctly for this deal.
Sector match30%How many active buyers have this sector in their stated focus.
Check size fit30%Deal size falls within the buyer check size range.
Buyer activity level25%Recent acquisition activity from this buyer in the past 18 months.
Geography fit15%Buyer has made acquisitions in this geography before.
Score = (sector_match x 0.30) + (check_fit x 0.30) + (activity x 0.25) + (geo_fit x 0.15)
Momentum Score
Measures the current energy in the process. A high momentum score means buyers are actively engaging, interactions are recent, and the process is moving forward.
Number of recent interactions30%Interactions in the last 30 days score highest.
Engagement level30%LOIs and management meetings score higher than intro calls.
Count of interested buyers25%More active buyers means a more competitive process.
Recency of last interaction15%Processes with no activity in 45+ days are flagged.
Score = (recency x 0.30) + (engagement x 0.30) + (buyer_count x 0.25) + (last_touch x 0.15)

Priority Labels

Each mandate is assigned one of three priority labels based on its combined scores:

Ready NowSellability 75 or above AND Momentum 65 or above. Asset is strong and process is active. Focus time here.
NurtureSellability 55 or above OR Momentum between 40 and 65. Good asset but process needs attention. Re-engage buyers.
DeprioritizeSellability below 55 AND Momentum below 40. Low quality or stalled. Revisit positioning or timing.

Data Sources: Today vs Roadmap

In the current pilot, data is entered manually or imported from a firm existing deal pipeline. The intelligence layer works on top of whatever data a firm already has.

SignalToday6-Month Roadmap
Company financialsManually entered or CIM importAutomatic import from Pitchbook, Crunchbase, Companies House
Buyer activityManually logged interactionsLive feed from public M&A databases and press releases
Sector attractivenessStatic scoring tableDynamic — updated quarterly from deal volume data
CEO and founder signalsNot yet includedLinkedIn tenure, age estimation, succession indicators
News and macro signalsNot yet includedReal-time news feed with AI tagging per mandate
Stock price and compsNot yet includedPublic comparable company trading multiples
Geographic riskStatic scoringLive country risk index from political and economic feeds

Intelligence Signals We Are Building

These are the signals we are building toward. Each one adds a layer of intelligence that no CRM currently provides.

CEO succession probability
Founder age plus tenure plus family background plus recent hiring patterns. A 63-year-old founder with 30 years in business and no named successor is a strong sell-side signal.
Sector M&A heat index
Rolling 90-day count of closed deals in this sector. High activity means motivated buyers and compressed timelines.
Buyer mandate freshness
How recently a buyer closed their last deal. Buyers who closed 18 or more months ago are more likely to be actively deploying capital.
News sentiment score
AI scan of news mentions for the company, sector, and key buyers. Flags regulatory risk, litigation, and leadership changes.
Geographic stability index
Country-level political and economic risk score. Flags active conflicts, currency instability, and regulatory changes.
Comparable transaction multiples
Recent closed deals in the same sector and size range. Anchors valuation expectations and flags outliers early.

How We Are Different from DealCloud

DealCloud stores what you tell it.
Meridian tells you what to do next.
DealCloud is a CRM — it tracks relationships.
Meridian is an intelligence layer — it scores opportunities.
DealCloud requires manual data entry to be useful.
Meridian extracts signal from the data you already have.
DealCloud treats all mandates equally.
Meridian ranks and prioritizes so you focus on the right deals.
DealCloud does not learn your preferences.
Meridian adapts to your firm deal thesis over time.

Firm Onboarding: Making It Yours

During onboarding, each firm tells us their ideal mandate profile. This does three things:

1. Re-weights the scoring model to match what your firm actually closes.
2. Filters the buyer universe to show only buyers relevant to your deal flow.
3. Sets baseline thresholds for Ready Now, Nurture, and Deprioritize labels.

Over time, as your firm closes deals and marks others as dead, the system learns which signals actually predicted success for your specific thesis. This is the moat — the longer you use it, the smarter it gets about your deals specifically.