Does anyone have a good way to increase deal flow?

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December 02, 2023

by a searcher from Arizona State University in San Antonio, TX, USA

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for businesses to acquire and wanted to know what are some good ways to increase deal flow. I have signed up for multiple sites and talked to a few brokers, but I would like to get to the point where I am able to review up to 10 possible deals a week.

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Reply by a searcher
from Southwestern University in Houston, TX, USA
Here's the thing with deal flow: You either need to create a machine or attach yourself to an existing machine. One of the greatest problems in getting a deal done is becoming focused on a single opportunity - and odds are it isn't going to pan out - and letting your dealflow machine die.

That means starting all over every time a business disappoints you. We look at a lot of businesses and 90% aren't going to work out. If you start - stop - start every time, it's going to be very painful and take a lot of time.

If you send out the same template "Your business stood out in our search" letter (e-mail or physical) as everyone else, you're going to miss a lot of opportunities. These days, we don't talk to an owner who hasn't received these letters and - usually due to the experience when they called the first one back - they just throw them away now.

As with any marketing / advertising effort, you've got to be able to stand out from the crowd in order to get the owners' attention. I know this sounds like I'm leading up to a lead gen service I'm selling, but I'm not. I'm just saying that you've got to figure out how to make you and your search notable to people who get peppered with the same dreck every day.

Find a hook. Find an angle. Find a differentiator. It's the same thing you'll have to do after you buy a business, so you might as well get started thinking that way now.
commentor profile
Reply by a professional
in San Francisco, CA, USA
It's all about sending out the right messaging at scale ^redacted‌. Here's one example: "Hi [name], I'm a private investor looking to invest in or acquire a [type of company] with [criteria]. Your company came up in my research as a possible investment opportunity, and I'm writing to see if you might be interested in receiving an investment in [company name]. Let me know if there's interest and we can set up a call to discuss.

If you're working on a limited budget, you can hire people from India or the Philippines to scrape public data at $5/hr and send out emails on your behalf.

If you have a decent budget and are hiring interns, tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, LeadIQ, Outreach/Salesloft, Slybroadcast, and AiSDR can help you find contacts and send messages at scale.

If you want to invest in automating the process (i.e. it's not a one-off search), reach out to me and my AI dev shop can assist. Good luck!
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