Cold Calling/Approaching Owners
October 19, 2023
by a searcher from Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Hoping to learn from those of you who have had success approaching business owners about purchasing their off-market company: What works well in that initial conversation/outreach? What doesn't? I've had a mixed bag of results thus far, so I'm anxious to learn some new techniques or strategies.
Would love to hear from current operators as well! Thanks in advance!
from Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, UT, USA
First, think twice about automated outreach that isn't targeted. :)
But if you end up deciding to do automated outreach, here are some quick thoughts:
- Meet people where they are. Not everyone responds to the same types of messaging tactics. I'd try a multi-channel approach but still target it based on what you think they'll best respond to. Cold email is pretty innocuous. I usually do a combination of automated email and LinkedIn. Some sellers are so old school you might try calling and/or letters? I haven't sent a letter yet but I'm thinking about it...
- Automation tools: my favorites for LinkedIn and email automation are Dripify and Growbots.
- Lead data sourcing: if you have access to ZoomInfo for your search, their data is the best. I've tried a couple of others too but I prefer to someone on Upwork to build me a custom, targeted list.
- Hire a consultant: To get started with my automated outreach sequences, I found it really useful the first time to get a consultant to help me write and set up the outreach sequences in the tool I chose. If you've never done this before, I highly recommend it.
- Lead capture funnel: make sure you make it really easy for someone to schedule a call with you. The automation tools can help with that. Just make sure you set it up properly and that you work on optimizing the funnel.
Good luck!
from University of San Francisco in Redwood City, CA, USA
I tend to mention that I've seen their business around town and am just now thinking about getting into the industry. I also mention I'm from the area as that helps a lot in putting me ahead of people emailing/calling them from hundreds or thousands of miles away.
This may be *too* nuanced for some, but similar to cold sales fundamentals of not trying to sell the product in the first 5 minutes, I don't even mention buying a business in the beginning. The only thing I ask from them is 5-10 minutes of their time answering some questions I have. Local owners will especially take pride in giving you the lay of the land. This way their guard is down and thus are typically much more honest and realistic about the good, bad, and ugly.
I've had almost all of the owners I've spoken to tell me in our first conversation what their plans for retirement are and probably half of them have said they'd like to sell their business but haven't put much thought into how. This is how I found the current deal I'm working on right now.
Oh, and vast majority of the "5-10 minute" calls have lasted at least 30 minutes. Good luck!