A confidential introduction between two parties with strategic reason to talk produces a different conversation to a listing enquiry.
There is a structural difference between an enquiry and an introduction. An enquiry begins with a buyer who found a listing. An introduction begins with an acquirer who has been identified because this specific business fits something they are trying to do.
That difference shows up in the negotiation. Strategic buyers are prepared to pay for the thing they lack — a customer base, a capability, a geography, a licence — in a way that financially-driven buyers looking for a multiple are not.
It also shows up in deliverability. Buyers approached on a strategic basis tend to have thought about integration before they have thought about price, which makes the period between Heads of Terms and completion considerably less fragile.