Anyone willing to share their search funnel stats?
July 30, 2024
by a searcher from University of Virginia-Darden - Darden School of Business in Denver, CO, USA
Hello - I'm looking to ballpark the funnel ratios for an "average" search of a small company (Between 1-10M Rev). I've been researching and have seen different sources (like the 2021 Stanford Primer, other posts here, some books, etc...) But I haven't found something recent ( < 3 years)
For people who already aquired (or experienced searcher) one or more 1-10M Rev businesses. Would you like to help a fellow searcher by sharing an approximate of your ratios OR your opinion on funnel stats?
• Initial reach-out: x leads contacted (Total reach outs)
• Positive Follow-up:
• Financials/Docs Shared:
• LOI signed:
• DueDiligences:
• Acquisitions:
Hopefully this post helps many searchers!
from Deakin University in Melbourne VIC, Australia
from University of Edinburgh in Sammamish, WA, USA
1. Contacts -700+
2, Answers -600+
3. Follow up - ~50% (a more significant number fell through just by reading materials shared after signing the NDA)
4. Meetings - 5
5. Initial Business Review -4
5.1 Franchisor Blocked (conflict of interest) - 1
6. LOI - 3
7. Seller decided not to sell - 1
8. Sold to another buyer - 1
9. Deal -1 -> Sold after turn around.
I was not doing this effectively, so I pivoted. Now, I still work with brokers that I met through the process above, but I've developed an ideal business model and scorecard since I started community outreach activities. I just started, so the numbers are not significant.
1. Outreach activities - 5
2 Leads - 7
3. Meetings###-###-#### i didn't follow up)
4. Deal Criteria Pass Score - 0
The criteria and score I set for my minimum bar for the deal to get a passing score is pretty high now, and if I look retrospectively back at my first funnel, the only business that met this criteria was the one in point 7, where the seller decided not to sell. I bring up this point as you might look at my second funnel and think the seven leads could be better. Don't interpret it that way. The community activities I'm doing gave better leads than my first funnel. The difference is that I learned what I wanted from my first funnel and the deal I closed and exited. Now I only look for businesses that 100% meet my minimum bar., e.g., one of the leads i passed up was a great business. However, from the meeting, i walked away with the impression that i would have had difficulty working with the owner, and they had too many critical positions filled with family members who he said would stay.