by Cristian Anastasiu, Excendio Advisors
You Received a Call From a Buyer… Now What?
Understanding unsolicited buyer outreach – and what it really means for your likelihood of a successful sale.
You’ve received a call from a buyer interested in acquiring your business…
Or maybe three to five calls. Every week. Week after week.
It’s flattering – no question. For an IT business owner, this steady stream of inbound interest feels like confirmation that your years of hard work have created something valuable and desirable.
But that raises two critical questions:
- What should you actually do with these calls?
- Is there any downside to replying to most (or all) of them?
Responding casually can quietly cost you leverage, credibility, and value – without you ever realizing it happened. Here’s why, and what to do instead.
First, let’s look at some hard data.
- Understanding Buyer Behavior: What the Numbers Really Mean
The average lower middle market Private Equity (PE) firm evaluates around 600 CIMs (Confidential Information Memoranda) a year – closer to 1,000 if you count the less formal calls with business owners.
And how many deals do they actually close?
On average, those PE firms close 3 – 5 transactions a year, say up to 10 in a good year. That puts the odds of any single conversation with a PE firm turning into a closed deal at around 1%.
It’s worth sitting with what that means: when a buyer calls you, you’re not being singled out. You’re one name in a pipeline of hundreds, most of which go nowhere.
- What Our Clients’ Inbound Buyer Data Shows
During our engagements, clients forward us the unsolicited outreach they receive. We qualify the inbound interest and follow up on their behalf. Here’s what last year’s data looked like.
Who’s actually calling:
- 50%+ of buyer inquiries came from firms not actually aware of what business our clients were in
- Another 30%+ came from buyers interested in “IT” broadly, but with minimal understanding of the client’s specific niche, model, revenue mix, or capabilities
What it led to:
- Less than 3% of these solicitations resulted in an actual call with the owner
- 0% led to an offer
When we spoke with these buyers – or more commonly, the outsourced call centers making the calls – the story became even clearer: many callers are required to make hundreds of outbound calls per week, and call volume is their key performance metric.
They’re incentivized to “spray and pray.”
Not to qualify.
Not to understand.
Not to match.
Just to dial.
- The Number That Should Change How You Think About This
We recently surveyed several thousand IT business owners who sold their companies over the last 22+ years. One finding stands out above the rest:
In 85% of closed transactions, the owner did not know the buyer before the formal sale process began.
The buyer who ultimately paid the highest price, with the best structure and the strongest cultural fit, was not someone the seller had been casually talking to for months. It was someone surfaced through a structured process.
- A Real-World Comparison: Structured Process vs. Random Inbound Calls
In a recent MSP transaction we facilitated, we began with hundreds of potential buyers screened, narrowed to dozens qualified, narrowed again to 8 carefully curated management meetings.
Those 8 meetings yielded 5 competitive offers, a signed LOI, and a closed transaction in under 90 days.
Now compare that to what a single PE firm’s entire annual pipeline looks like: roughly 1,000 outreach attempts across all the owners they contact, producing only 3 – 5 closed deals a year, firm-wide. That’s the pool you’re sitting in every time you take one of these calls – you are one needle in a very large haystack.
- So… Is There Any Downside to Responding to These Calls?
Yes. Several.
Time and energy drain. Fielding calls, repeating your story, sending materials, answering follow-ups-this can consume dozens of hours over months. And none of that time is spent positioning your business strategically. You’re simply reacting, deal after deal, with nothing compounding in your favor.
Lower perceived value from being unprepared. When you respond to ad-hoc inquiries, are you providing the right data in the right sequence? Are you positioning your company to highlight the best fit for that specific buyer? Are you protecting sensitive information, or revealing too much too early? Few owners can run this dance well without support-and doing it poorly can quietly weaken valuation, negotiating leverage, or deal terms before a real process ever begins.
Market messaging risk. This is the most overlooked one. When you engage casually, you can unintentionally signal to the market that you’re curious, not committed. Buyers keep notes. So when the day comes when you’re ready to run a competitive process, you may already be categorized as “kicking tires.” Your credibility can be lower. Your negotiating leverage can be diluted. Some buyers may pass, thinking “we’ve already talked to them.” That quiet reputational footprint matters more than most owners realize.
- The Right Question Isn’t “Should I Respond?” – It’s “Am I Truly Ready to Sell?”
Many owners say: “I’d sell if I got an offer I can’t refuse.”
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: the offers you “can’t refuse” only appear when multiple qualified buyers are competing for you at the same time.
If you’re emotionally and strategically ready to consider a sale, it’s far more effective to prepare properly, position the business correctly, run a structured process, and drive multiple buyers to the table simultaneously. That’s how you maximize valuation, structure, certainty, and fit-not by picking up every call that comes in.
- If You Want to Increase the Odds of a Successful Transaction…
…you need a plan for how to handle inbound interest before you decide to respond. An M&A advisor can help you:
- Evaluate inbound inquiries
- Protect confidentiality and leverage
- Build phased data access
- Craft your story
- Engage selectively
- Position you for competitive offers-on your terms
All without cost or obligation. We don’t charge retainers. We only earn a fee if we help you close a successful transaction-we get paid when you get paid, at closing.
If you’d like to explore a strategy that gives you control, increases your odds, and protects your time, we’d be glad to talk.