Brokers send deals to buyers who are easy to send deals to. Give each broker a one-page profile with your criteria, your funding, and your operating role. Then answer every teaser within 48 hours with a decision. In our experience a broker keeps 200 or more buyers on a list and sends new listings to the 20 who reply fast. Be one of the 20.
What does a broker need to see?
Three things: proof that you can pay, criteria a broker can match in ten seconds, and evidence that you respond.
A broker gets paid at close, so the first question is whether you can close. If you have committed capital, state the amount. If you plan to borrow, name the lender you have spoken to. SBA 7(a) loans go up to $5 million, and lenders typically ask you to put about 10 percent of the price in cash. A broker who reads "pre-qualified with a 7(a) lender for up to $3 million" knows which listings to send you. A broker who reads "exploring financing options" sends nothing.
The IBBA's description of a serious buyer lists the same points: a prepared profile, clear criteria, and a credible financing plan.
Write a one-page buyer profile
Keep it to one page and five fields. Business type: the activities you want and the ones you exclude. Geography: name the states or metro areas, not the region. Size: a revenue or SDE range and a price ceiling. Role: whether you will run the company or keep the current management team. Funding: committed cash and the loan plan, with amounts.
Operating experience is not acquisition experience. A broker would rather read "I ran a 40-person HVAC branch and have not bought a company" than find out later.
Do not attach bank statements to a cold email; send proof of funds the day the broker asks.
Find brokers whose listings match your criteria
Most brokers work one region and a few industries. Read their active listings before you write. If a firm's last 20 listings are restaurants and retail, your profile for a $2 million EBITDA industrial services company will sit unread.
Large networks such as Sunbelt have local offices across the country; use the office directory to find the broker who covers your states. Add regional M&A advisors for deals above about $1 million in EBITDA, where many main-street brokers stop. Aim for 20 to 30 brokers whose listings overlap your criteria, not 200 names copied from a directory.
Record each firm, what it lists, and the date you wrote.
Send a first message a broker can answer
Suppose you ran service operations and want a maintenance business. Your message reads:
Subject: Buyer profile: commercial maintenance, GA/NC/SC, $500K to $1.5M SDE
Hi [Name], I'm a former regional operations manager for a commercial HVAC service company. I'm buying a commercial maintenance or facilities services business in Georgia, North Carolina, or South Carolina with $500K to $1.5M in SDE. I will run the company day to day. I have $400K in cash and a pre-qualification letter from an SBA 7(a) lender for up to $3M. I'm not looking at construction-only contractors. My one-page profile is attached. Do you have anything active that fits, and can you add me to your list for new listings?
Each fact in the message answers a filter the broker already runs: type, place, size, role, money. Keep the biography in the profile; the message is not a résumé.
Why do brokers stop sending deals to some buyers?
Because silence costs them time. A broker sends a teaser, chases signed NDAs, and hears nothing from most of the list. After two or three rounds of silence the broker stops sending, and nobody tells you.
Reply to every teaser within 48 hours with one of three answers and a reason:
- Review. "Yes, send the NDA." Return it the same day.
- Pass. "Pass. We need recurring service revenue and this looks project-based." The reason lets the broker filter the next one.
- Clarify. "Is the owner staying for a transition? If not, pass." Name the missing fact.
A fast pass is worth more to a broker than a slow maybe. Buyers on the receiving end of teasers filter the same way, and how buyers decide which deals to engage shows that 30-second scan from the other side.
Keep your criteria current and your pipeline clean
Tell each broker when something changes: your funding closes, your size range moves, you go under LOI, you pause. Check in every 60 to 90 days with something new, never with "just following up".
Deduplicate. The same business arrives from two brokers more often than you expect. Note the source and date of each introduction and tell both brokers when it happens. Broker listings and direct owner outreach are separate pipelines; if you also write to owners, how search funds find off-market businesses covers that process.
PrivSource is a deal network where advisors and owners share lower-middle-market opportunities with approved buyers. You apply for buy-side access once, state your criteria, and receive matched deals instead of chasing each broker. It does not replace the profile or the 48-hour reply; advisors on the network judge you the same way.
