Real Success in Business Brokerage with Gregory Kovsky

What if an abundance mindset isn’t just about being positive—but about being selective?
Are you chasing every listing that comes your way, or intentionally building a practice grounded in trust and long-term success?

Moving from a numbers-driven hustle to an abundance-driven approach means redefining what growth looks like. It’s no longer about stacking listings—it’s about deep relationships, quality representation, and credibility that compounds over time. When you focus on serving first, passing on misaligned deals, and mastering your craft, you stop running after volume and start engineering meaningful, sustainable success.

In this episode, host Jason Cutter is joined by Gregory Kovsky, President & CEO of IBA, who shares three decades of business brokerage experience. Gregory reveals why most listings don’t sell, what it really takes to value a business accurately, and how the “four parties to persuade” can determine the outcome of any deal. He also shares real-world lessons in integrity, patience, and persistence—showing that the brokers who win big are the ones who play the long game.

If you’re ready to move beyond transactional tactics and build a trusted, referral-driven business, don’t miss this episode. Subscribe now and share it with a broker who’s ready to grow with purpose and conviction.

Guest Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-kovsky-460aab7/
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.ibainc.com

View Transcript

Jason Cutter [00:00:03]:

On this episode, I have Gregory Kovsky. He is the president and CEO of iba, the Pacific Northwest leading business brokerage and M and A firm. Gregory, welcome to the Business Broker Show.

Gregory Kovsky [00:00:15]:

Thank you. Honored to be here.

Jason Cutter [00:00:17]:

I am super excited for you to be here. And the audience is going to find out as we have this conversation and go through it. Just to give people a little bit of background on you is you started in the M and a industry over 30 years ago, worked for IBA as a broker. After six years of being a top performer there, ended up purchasing IBA from the founder and he’d been running it ever since. You guys now have what, 10 offices in Washington and Oregon. And over the company’s 50 year history, I believe it’s somewhere around 4400 transactions. Gregory is also a published author, seminar speaker, advocate for entrepreneurship. His expertise spans basically everything you would think of for small and medium businesses.

Jason Cutter [00:01:03]:

He’s constantly speaking and sharing knowledge. And I’m so glad that you’re here because you’re really the catalyst for the business broker growth business and for this podcast. Did you know that?

Gregory Kovsky [00:01:18]:

I did not know that, but I’m honored. I mean, as you know, you’ve been a sales development guru for my team over multiple years, having worked on site during annual off site events where we focus on training, education, skill development.

Jason Cutter [00:01:45]:

Yeah, it’s been a fun relationship. So it all started in 2020, which I think is a fun kind of look back early pandemic connected with you on LinkedIn. I was going through kind of a focus at the time where I thought, you know what, the good people for me to connect with would be business brokers. Because as you’re potentially helping a business exit, they might want to hel...