For business brokers & M&A advisors
The Ultimate Matchup
We find and book qualified valuation consultations with the business owners entering the exit window, months before they list, by reading the firmographic and owner-level signals that precede a sale.
You win once you're at the table, the valuation, the buyer network, the deal command do the work. Growth comes down to one thing: getting in front of the right owner who has a sellable business, before another broker does. Most brokerages lean on referrals and inbound from owners who already decided to sell. But that reaches a fraction of the market, and almost no brokerage has anyone systematically finding the sellable owners who haven't listed yet.
Sources: Marketdata LLC, "The U.S. Business Brokers Industry" (2024); IBBA & M&A Source Market Pulse (Q3 2025); California Association of Business Brokers.
The opportunity is historic. Retiring boomers are expected to sell or transfer some $10 trillion in assets held across roughly 12 million privately owned businesses over the coming years, and they make up nearly 60% of the owners now bringing companies to market. Yet the market is 80% untapped, only about one in five business sales actually runs through a broker. Most owners try to sell on their own, or never list at all, because they don't know where to start. That gap, millions of sellable owners with no broker, is exactly the market your brokerage exists to win.
But who's making that happen? Usually the brokers themselves, between deals, closers with no time to prospect. Referrals don't scale to every sellable company in your market, and the owners who most need a broker are the ones who'd otherwise try to sell alone. The sellable owners are out there, entering the exit window right now; no one is identifying them and reaching out on purpose. Listings are the part we fix, with data that pinpoints sellable owners, and outreach that gets you in front of them first.
Not "leads." Not a list. A confirmed consultation with a business owner whose company is genuinely sellable, who is seriously weighing an exit, and who is early enough that you're the first broker in the conversation, warmed up before they arrive, ready for you to do what you do best: be the expert who wins the listing.
We identify the seller before the referral ever comes, combining firmographic fit (profitability, size, industry, cash flow, transferability) with owner-level signals (founder age and tenure, no clear successor, a new CFO, exit-planning or M&A activity) using ZoomInfo and premium data. Then we reach them, qualify the listing and intent, and book the consultation. You meet genuine sellers, not unscreened lists.
That qualification is the whole point: your brokers' time goes to owners whose companies are genuinely sellable and who are genuinely considering an exit, not unqualified lists. You spend your days on consultations that become listings.
Programs run $5,250/mo (one dedicated Playmaker) to $14,750/mo (three), on six-month terms, data, technology, and management included. Set that against the math that actually matters for a brokerage: a single closed transaction can mean a six-figure commission, plus the referrals a satisfied seller sends to other owners. One won listing usually pays for the whole program, many times over.
In-house BD rep
~$154K
per person, per year, all-in
Salary, benefits, tools, data, management, and a 3 to 6 month ramp before they're productive. A rep who can't fill the pipeline still costs every penny.
Calling shop / per-seat
~$11K
per seat, per month, typical
Unscreened lists, auto-dialers, activity reports. You pay for names that were never sellable and never qualified.
Alleyoop programs
$5,250–$14,750
per month, six-month terms
One flat fee, the team, the data, the technology. Qualified valuation consultations on your calendar, live in under 30 days. See the programs →
One connected system, not a phone bank. Firmographic data finds sellable companies, marketing warms them to your firm, we read the owner-level signals that reveal readiness, we qualify the listing and intent, and a real person books the valuation consultation.
We build the target list, profitable, transferable companies of the right size and industry, led by owners in the exit window, pinpointed by firmographics, owner demographics, and intent signals using ZoomInfo and premium data.
The right marketing warms those exact owners to your brokerage and track record before any outreach, so your name carries weight when the first conversation happens.
Our technology reads the triggers that precede a sale, a founder reaching retirement age with no clear successor, a newly hired CFO, exit-planning or M&A activity, a milestone anniversary, often long before the owner calls a broker.
We qualify the things that actually matter, whether the business is sellable, the owner's genuine interest in an exit, and timing, so a consultation is a serious seller, not a curiosity.
When an owner has a sellable business and is genuinely interested, a dedicated Playmaker, a real person, has the conversation and books the valuation consultation on your calendar.
By the time an owner is interviewing brokers, the decision to sell is already made, and the broker is often chosen on the first warm introduction. But the decision was set in motion long before: the founder turned 60, a child declined to take over, a CFO was hired to clean up the books, a competitor sold. Those triggers are visible in the data well before any listing. The broker who reads them and reaches out first wins the listing.
So the outbound has to be always-on and signal-driven. A program is live in under 30 days, with first valuation consultations landing in weeks 3 to 4, which means a steady flow of owners genuinely entering the exit window while your competitors wait on referrals. The earlier you read the signal, the more listings you win before another broker is introduced.
And it compounds. Every listing you win feeds the marketplace flywheel, more listings attract more buyers, and more buyers help you win the next listing, plus the referrals a satisfied seller sends to peers facing the same decision. The sellable owners you identify this quarter become the listings next quarter and the closed deals the quarter after. A brokerage that prospects on data builds a pipeline competitors never see.
Three things make business brokerage ideal for a real outbound program: one closed deal can mean a six-figure commission, the sellable owner can be identified by data before any competitor, and an 80%-untapped market sits on top of a historic retirement wave. Win a listing and you're not just making a sale, you're feeding a marketplace flywheel and a referral chain. The only hard part is reaching sellable owners first. That's the one thing we do.
A single closed transaction can mean a six-figure commission, and a satisfied seller refers other owners making the same move. So a consultation that becomes a listing isn't one deal; it's a commission and a referral chain. Outbound that fills your pipeline pays back many times over.
The sellable owner is identifiable by data: a profitable, transferable company of the right size, led by an owner in the exit window with no clear successor. We screen for that fit and read the signals with ZoomInfo's firmographic and intent data, so you reach genuine sellers, not unscreened lists or owners who'll never list.
Only about one in five business sales runs through a broker, even as boomers bring some $10 trillion in businesses to market over the coming years. The demand is enormous and barely served. Build a data-driven engine now and you capture sellable owners before they try to sell alone, or before another broker finds them.
Straight answers to what operators ask before they start a program. New to the model? Start with the full guide: what outsourced appointment setting is and what it should cost.
Most brokers rely on referrals and inbound from owners who already decided to sell, a small slice of the market, since only about one in five business sales even involve a broker. The edge is reaching owners earlier, by combining firmographic fit (profitable, transferable companies of the right size and industry) with the signals that precede an exit: an owner past 60 with no clear successor, a recently hired CFO, exploratory M&A activity, declining engagement. Outsourced appointment setting does that systematically: using firmographic and intent data to find sellable owners, reaching them first, and booking qualified valuation consultations with your team.
It is paying a specialized team to find, contact, qualify, and book valuation consultations with the business owners who run sellable companies and are weighing an exit, so your brokers spend time with real sellers instead of cold prospecting. The provider supplies the people, the data, and the technology; you supply the deal expertise and the relationship that wins the listing.
Expect $5,000-$15,000 per month for a serious program. Alleyoop runs $5,250/mo for one dedicated Playmaker to $14,750/mo for three, on six-month terms with data and technology included. Because a single closed transaction can mean a six-figure commission, and a satisfied seller refers other owners making the same move, one won listing usually covers the program many times over.
Now, and then continuously. Selling a business is a multi-year decision, and owners weigh their options long before they list, so the firmographic and intent signals appear well ahead of any sale. A program is live in under 30 days with first valuation consultations in weeks 3-4, and running always-on means you reach owners as they enter the exit window, while competitors wait for a referral that may never come.
Most brokerages need both. Your brokers are deal experts who value businesses and run transactions; they rarely have the time to mine data and prospect cold. Outsourcing the top of the funnel, identifying sellable owners and booking the consultation, lets your brokers do what they do best, while a specialist fills the calendar with real valuation consultations at a fraction of the cost of another full-time hire.
We combine firmographic fit with intent, using ZoomInfo and premium data. Firmographics: profitable, transferable companies of the right size, industry, and cash flow to actually sell. Owner-level signals: a founder past retirement age with no clear successor, a recently hired CFO, exploratory M&A or exit-planning activity, a milestone anniversary. Then we qualify the listing and genuine interest before booking, so a consultation is a real seller, not a curiosity.
Lead generation usually means a list of company names you still have to research and chase, most of which aren't sellable or ready. Appointment setting goes further: a real person screens for firmographic fit, reads the owner-level signals, qualifies the listing and intent, and books a confirmed valuation consultation on your calendar. You get a genuine seller in front of your brokers, not a spreadsheet of cold contacts.
Boomers are bringing some $10 trillion in businesses to market, and four out of five sell without ever calling a broker. The sellable owners who'd list with you are out there right now, entering the exit window. The brokerages that win are identifying them by data and reaching out first, while competitors wait for a referral that may never come. Start now and you'll have qualified valuation consultations on the calendar in weeks. Let's get you there first.
The assist is ours. The win is yours.