Industrial Services vs Manufacturing - How Are You Pricing “People Risk”?

I’ve been thinking through a key difference between industrial manufacturing and industrial services businesses, especially from an acquisition and downside protection standpoint. In a typical manufacturing business, you’re buying: - Physical assets (machines, equipment) - Process knowledge / IP - A trained workforce to operate it If things go sideways post-close and employees leave, the business may take a hit, but you still retain hard assets + process know-how to rebuild over time. In contrast, with industrial services (field service, maintenance, repair, install, etc.): - There are minimal hard assets - Most of the value sits in people + relationships + tacit knowledge If key technicians or crews walk out, you lose institutional knowledge + customer continuity. In many cases, the business can deteriorate very quickly. How are you underwriting this risk? - Do you apply a lower multiple vs manufacturing? - How do you diligence employee stickiness? - Are you using earnouts, retention bonuses, or longer seller transitions? - How do you assess if customer relationships are tied to the company vs individuals? Curious how others are pricing and structuring deals to manage this.