I think you can reduce scuttlebutt/in-depth DD to two factors:
1) How good is the sales team
2) How good is expense control
Most analysts can identify #2 easily and focus on that. But #1 is as if not more important.
Lumped into #1 is marketing as well. How is a company identifying prospects, warming them, and then selling.
What is their sales process? What's their close rate, most common objections, how is the team organized, leads tracked etc.
I've found investors who are/were entrepreneurs or business owners "get" this and often identify opportunities the market misses because they see talent.
Investors usually see sales as a "solved problem" but don't realize how unsophisticated most companies are.
Most companies are waiting for the phone to ring, or farming their existing and past customer list. I'm not just talking small companies, some of the worst sales staff I've met are larger "successful/compounder" enterprise sales people who are utterly clueless.
They have a giant book that was given to them and they are taking orders. They have no idea how to break into a new relationship.
Everyone wants to own good businesses, but good businesses aren't the ones focused on how much napkins cost in the break room.
They have a sales and marketing team that knows how to grow brand new relationships and do it profitably for the company.
The problem is for most investors/analysts this is extremely hard so they focus on the easy stuff, this is where value is added, spend the time & learn.
Best way to learn? Go sell stuff! Sell something, anything.
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