Broker Calls & Initial Owner Calls

January 03, 2026

by a searcher from Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management in Brooklyn, NY, USA

Hi, I am about to have my first few broker calls on deals that I am interested, then hopefully if they go well I'll have my initial call with the owner(s) for one or more of these deals. I recognize that initial calls are meant to build a rapport with the broker/seller, find out what the seller wants in an offer, show I'm a serious buyer, and present as a reasonable person to work with, without getting too into the weeds. With that said, I have questions about some of the add-backs, customer concentration, etc. I am therefore curious to learn a bit about when do people feel it is best to ask which level of questions as it relates to: 1) broker call, 2) seller call, 3) site visit, 4) pre/post-LOI, etc.

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Reply by an intermediary
from University of Texas at Tyler in Tyler, TX, USA

From my personal perspective, the more certain a broker and consequently an owner are that you can close the deal (financial proof) the more info they're likely to give you. A good broker should vet that from the beginning, so when you get to the point of having calls with the owner, you'd most likely be in a position to ask whatever info you'd like about the business. I would steer clear of valuation-related questions when talking to the owner, however, and go through the broker or the owner's accountant (whoever did the valuation) for things like that. Owners are known to get defensive about finances in particular and you don't want to lose out on a good deal because you pressed too hard about X expense or why they're outsourcing Y. If the info presented to you in the CIM is detailed enough and the initial calls go well, the site visit usually clears up any other operating procedures questions and the diligence phase clears up any fine details in the finances.

Reply by a searcher
from Northwestern University in Chicago, IL, USA

I think your instinct is correct to ask key questions early on, but not try to do detailed diligence on the deal in initial talks. In general, I think its fair and important to ask questions pre-LOI that materially impact whether you'd want to buy the business or materially impact how much you'd be willing to offer. Things that are more "good to know" or would have a small impact on your offer can wait. I'd start with the broker. In my experience, they'd often only have answers to higher level questions and then suggest I ask the seller things the broker didn't know. Even when the broker provided an answer, I sometimes liked to ask the question to the seller just to verify their answers were consistent.

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