For ESOP advisors, plan designers & administrators
The Ultimate Handoff
We find and book qualified feasibility consultations with the business owners who are genuine ESOP candidates and entering the succession window, identified by firmographic fit and the owner- and company-level signals that precede an exit.
You win once you're in the room, the feasibility analysis, the valuation, the structuring, the technical command do the work. Growth comes down to one thing: getting in front of the right owner who is a genuine ESOP candidate. Most firms lean on referrals from CPAs and attorneys and on the rare owner who already knows what an ESOP is. But that reaches a fraction of the market, and almost no firm has anyone systematically finding the qualified candidates who don't yet know they qualify.
Sources: McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility, "The Great Ownership Transfer" (2026); U.S. Census / Eqvista owner-age analysis (2025); National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO), 2026.
The opportunity is historic. McKinsey estimates roughly 6 million businesses will change hands by 2035, as much as $5 trillion in enterprise value, as the founder generation retires, and around 2.9 million U.S. companies are already owned by someone past 55. Yet 92% of small-business exits happen through closure, not a sale or transfer, largely because owners don't know their alternatives. An ESOP is one of those alternatives, a structured, tax-advantaged way to sell while preserving the company and its jobs, but the typical owner doesn't know whether they qualify or how it works. That confusion is exactly where your firm comes in.
But who's making that happen? Usually the principals, between engagements, technical experts with no time, and often no appetite, to prospect. Referrals don't scale to every qualified company in your market, and the owners who'd benefit most are the ones who've never heard of an ESOP. The candidates are out there, entering the succession window right now; no one is identifying them and reaching out on purpose. Targeting is the part we fix, with data that pinpoints genuine candidates, and outreach that gets you in front of them first.
Not "leads." Not a list. A confirmed consultation with a business owner whose company actually fits the ESOP profile, who is genuinely weighing succession, and who is early enough that you're the first firm in the conversation, warmed up before they arrive, ready for you to do what you do best: be the expert who earns the engagement.
We identify the candidate before the referral ever comes, combining firmographic fit (profitability, size, industry, payroll, closely-held ownership) with owner- and company-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 suitability and intent, and book the consultation. You meet genuine candidates, not unscreened lists.
That qualification is the whole point: your advisors' time goes to owners whose companies genuinely fit and who are genuinely considering a transition, not unqualified lists. You spend your days on consultations that become engagements.
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 an ESOP practice: one engagement spans feasibility, valuation, structuring, plan design, and legal work, then recurring annual administration and valuation for the life of the plan. One won client 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 ESOP candidates and never qualified.
Alleyoop programs
$5,250–$14,750
per month, six-month terms
One flat fee, the team, the data, the technology. Qualified feasibility consultations on your calendar, live in under 30 days. See the programs →
One connected system, not a phone bank. Firmographic data finds companies that fit the ESOP profile, marketing warms them to your firm, we read the owner- and company-level signals that reveal readiness, we qualify suitability and intent, and a real person books the feasibility consultation.
We build the target list, profitable, closely-held companies of the right size and industry, led by owners in the succession window, pinpointed by firmographics, owner demographics, and company-level signals using ZoomInfo and premium data.
The right marketing warms those exact owners to your firm and the ESOP concept before any outreach, so your name carries weight when the first conversation happens.
Our technology reads the triggers that precede a succession decision, 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 an advisor.
We qualify the things that actually matter, firmographic fit, the owner's genuine interest in a transition, and timing, so a consultation is a serious candidate, not a curiosity.
When an owner is a genuine candidate and genuinely interested, a dedicated Playmaker, a real person, has the conversation and books the feasibility consultation on your calendar.
By the time an owner is interviewing ESOP advisors, the decision to explore a transition is already made, and the firm 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 professionalize the books, a competitor sold. Those triggers are visible in the data well before any referral. The firm that reads them and reaches out first earns the engagement.
So the outbound has to be always-on and signal-driven. A program is live in under 30 days, with first feasibility consultations landing in weeks 3 to 4, which means a steady flow of owners genuinely entering the succession window while your competitors wait on referrals. The earlier you read the signal, the more engagements you win before another firm is introduced.
And it compounds. An ESOP engagement isn't one transaction, it's feasibility, the transaction itself, then administration and valuation that recur for the life of the plan, plus the referrals a satisfied owner sends to peers facing the same decision. The candidates you identify this quarter become the engagements next quarter and the recurring book the years after. A firm that prospects on data builds a pipeline competitors never see.
Three things make ESOP advisory ideal for a real outbound program: one engagement spans multiple high-value workstreams plus recurring administration, the candidate can be identified by data before any competitor, and the succession wave is a structural multi-year tailwind. Win a client and you're not making a sale, you're winning the transaction and years of recurring work behind it. The only hard part is reaching the right owners first. That's the one thing we do.
An ESOP isn't a one-time sale. Formation spans feasibility, valuation, structuring, plan design, and legal, then annual administration and valuation recur for the life of the plan. So a consultation that becomes a client isn't one fee; it's a multi-year relationship. Outbound that fills your pipeline pays back for years.
The right ESOP candidate is identifiable by data: a profitable, closely-held company of the right size, led by an owner in the succession 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 candidates, not unscreened lists or owners who'll never qualify.
The founder generation is retiring, with up to $5 trillion in business value set to change hands by 2035, and policy is leaning in, with the Senate unanimously passing the Retire Through Ownership Act in 2025. This runs for years, not quarters. Build a data-driven engine now and you own the candidate pool as the wave keeps coming.
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 firms rely on referrals from CPAs and attorneys and on owners who already know what an ESOP is, a small slice of a very large market, since most owners don't realize they may qualify. The edge is reaching the right owners earlier, by combining firmographic fit (profitable, closely-held companies of the right size and industry) with the signals that precede an exit: an owner past 55 with no clear successor, a recently hired CFO, exploratory M&A activity. Outsourced appointment setting does that systematically: using firmographic and intent data to find genuine candidates, reaching them first, and booking qualified feasibility consultations with your team.
It is paying a specialized team to find, contact, qualify, and book feasibility consultations with the business owners who are genuine ESOP candidates and weighing succession, so your advisors spend time with real prospects instead of cold prospecting. The provider supplies the people, the data, and the technology; you supply the technical expertise and the relationship that closes.
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 ESOP engagement spans feasibility, valuation, structuring, plan design, and legal work, and is followed by recurring annual administration and valuation for the life of the plan, one won client usually covers the program many times over.
Now, and then continuously. Succession is a multi-year decision, and owners weigh their options long before they act, so the firmographic and intent signals appear well ahead of any engagement. A program is live in under 30 days with first feasibility consultations in weeks 3-4, and running always-on means you reach owners as they enter the succession window, while competitors wait for a referral that may never come.
Most firms need both. Your advisors are technical experts who run feasibility and structuring; they rarely have the time or inclination to mine data and prospect cold. Outsourcing the top of the funnel, identifying candidates and booking the consultation, lets your advisors do what they do best, while a specialist fills the calendar with real feasibility consultations at a fraction of the cost of another full-time hire.
We combine firmographic fit with intent, using ZoomInfo and premium data. Firmographics: closely-held companies of the right size, profitability, industry, and payroll to support an ESOP. Owner- and company-level signals: a founder past retirement age with no clear successor, a recently hired CFO, exploratory M&A or exit-planning activity, sustained profitability and headcount. Then we qualify suitability and genuine interest before booking, so a consultation is a real candidate, not a curiosity.
Lead generation usually means a list of company names you still have to research and chase, most of which aren't ESOP candidates at all. Appointment setting goes further: a real person screens for firmographic fit, reads the owner- and company-level signals, qualifies suitability and intent, and books a confirmed feasibility consultation on your calendar. You get a genuine candidate in front of your advisors, not a spreadsheet of cold contacts.
Up to $5 trillion in business value is about to change hands as the founder generation retires, and most of those owners don't yet know an ESOP is an option. The qualified candidates who'd engage your firm are out there right now, entering the succession window. The firms 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 feasibility consultations on the calendar in weeks. Let's get you there first.
The assist is ours. The win is yours.