Acquisition leads: business owners researching a sale
Owners rarely announce that they're thinking about selling. They read about it first: what the business is worth, how a sale works, what happens to their staff. These are the owners doing that reading right now.
What are acquisition leads?
Acquisition leads are business owners who may sell, merge or bring in a buyer, bought by business brokers, M&A advisors, private equity firms and search funds looking for deals before they reach the market. Intent-based acquisition leads are people at US companies whose recent reading is about selling a business, valuation, exit planning or mergers and acquisitions, matched to their company with title, size, revenue range and contact details. Unlike a business-for-sale listing, which every buyer sees once a broker has taken the mandate, these owners haven't gone to market; unlike a bought list of owners, each one showed interest in an exit within the last two weeks.
Owners researching a sale, a valuation or an exit
An owner usually sells a company once, and starts reading long before calling a broker. They look up valuation multiples, exit planning, earn-outs and what a buyer will ask for in diligence. That reading is the earliest signal a deal-maker can get, well before a listing or a banker's teaser goes out.
We count the people researching sale and exit topics every day and match them to their company, so you can keep to owners and CEOs of companies the size you buy or advise. A search fund wants a different list from a lower middle market banker, and both can be built from the same topics.
| Topic | Category | People researching (US) |
|---|---|---|
| Selling a Business | Small Business | 57,654 |
| Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) | Investment Banking | 41,561 |
| Selling a Company | Investment Banking | 30,990 |
| Business Transition | Restructuring & Transaction Advisory | 29,824 |
| Small Business Sale & Exit Planning | Restructuring & Transaction Advisory | 15,380 |
| Business Exit Planning | Financial Planning & Management | 14,042 |
| Sale of Business | Mergers & Acquisitions | 3,055 |
| Business Valuation and Exit Planning | Investment Banking | 2,461 |
As of November 13, 2026. People in the US researching each topic on that day, counted exactly; the page checks for a new day every hour. People often research several topics, so the rows overlap: the total above counts each person once. A lane keeps a rolling 14-day window, so it also holds people from earlier days.
Ways to buy acquisition leads
The common ways to buy acquisition leads, side by side. Third-party prices come from each seller's own pages or a named industry source, checked November 2026 and linked below; where nobody publishes a figure, the row says how the price is set.
| Way to buy | Price | Exclusivity | Contact data included | Timing | Contract or subscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intent leadsPeople researching your topics, which you export yourself | 10¢ falling to 5¢ per lead; counts and samples free | Not exclusive, but no form fill is split among buyers | Name, title, company, business and personal email, mobiles with do-not-call flags, LinkedIn | Researched in the last 14 days; new people every data day | None: prepaid balance, top-ups from $250 |
| Seller lead services for brokersVendors that run ads to owners and pass on the ones who respond | $25–$100 per seller lead at BusinessBrokersLeads, the lower prices on 6-month and 1-year contracts; $29 per lead plus 8% of your commission at Top Broker Leads12 | Varies by vendor; ask whether the same owner is sold to other brokers in your area | The owner's name, phone, email and the answers from the ad form | Days after the owner answered an ad | Contracts of 6 to 12 months for the lowest per-lead price; a 20-lead minimum ($580) at Top Broker Leads |
| Booked seller appointmentsOutbound teams call owners and book them with you | $200–$250 per booked seller appointment at BrokerPartnerz3 | Booked for your firm only | A meeting on your calendar with an owner who agreed to talk | Weeks of calling before the first meetings land | Set per engagement |
| Business-for-sale marketplacesListing sites where brokers post businesses already on the market | Broker memberships, priced by plan; BizBuySell doesn't publish its broker rates4 | Not exclusive: every registered buyer sees the same listing | The listing and the broker; the owner stays behind an NDA | After the owner has hired a broker and gone to market | Monthly, quarterly or annual memberships; BizBuySell charges a fee for ending a term early |
- BusinessBrokersLeads, Pricing, as of November 2026.
- Top Broker Leads, Pricing, as of November 2026.
- BrokerPartnerz, Services, as of November 2026.
- BizBuySell, Broker rates, as of November 2026.
Who uses acquisition leads
Business brokers and M&A advisors
Owners who haven't picked an advisor yet, while they're still working out what the company is worth.
Private equity, search funds and holdcos
Proprietary deal flow: owners of companies in your size range who are thinking about an exit but haven't gone to market.
Exit planners, valuation firms and deal lawyers
Valuations, exit plans, tax structuring and sale agreements, offered to owners researching exactly that.
Every field we have, at one price per person
Name, job title, company and website, business email with its validation status, personal email, every mobile we have with its own do-not-call flag, direct and company phones, LinkedIn, department, title and employer history, schools, home city, age, gender, household income, net worth, homeowner, married and children at home, the company's size, revenue, NAICS and SIC codes and address, and why they're here: the topics they researched or the pages they visited. The same fields in the dashboard, the CSV, the API and the webhook.
Every field, by group 70 in all
Who they are33
- First Name
- Last Name
- Job Title
- Seniority
- Standard Title
- Department
- Job Function
- Sub-departments
- Headline
- Title History
- Employer History
- Education
- LinkedIn Connections
- Company
- Website
- Industry
- NAICS
- SIC
- Employees
- Employee Range
- Revenue
- Revenue Range
- Company Address
- City
- State
- Company ZIP
- Company Country
- Company Description
- Photo
- LinkedIn Headline
- Current Title (LinkedIn)
- Current Company (LinkedIn)
- Location (LinkedIn)
Home and household11
- Home City
- Home State
- Home ZIP
- Home Country
- Age Range
- Gender
- Household Income
- Net Worth
- Homeowner
- Married
- Children at Home
How to reach them12
- Business Email
- Email Status
- Personal Email
- Mobile
- Mobile on DNC
- Direct Phone
- Company Phone
- Company LinkedIn
- X (Twitter)
- GitHub
- All Mobiles
Why they're here9
- Intent Topics
- Intent Score
- Last Active
- Visited Page
- Visited At
- Lane
- Keywords Matched
- Intent Strength
- First Seen
The ID that lasts5
- Exported
- Seen Before
- Suppressed
- Lead ID
- Person ID
Aim it at the people you can serve
Every lane takes the same filters as Search, so you only pay for people at companies you can sell to. For this market, these matter most:
- Seniority set to owner, founder or partner, plus titles such as CEO and president, so you reach the person who can sell.
- Employee count and revenue bands that match your deal range, and NAICS codes for the industries you buy in.
- HQ state, for brokers who work one region.
- Leave out customers, open deals and anyone already in your CRM with an exclusion list.
- Require a mobile, a mobile that isn't on do-not-call lists, or a business email.
- Set the minimum intent strength: low, medium or high.
Pay per lead, only when you export
100% usage-based: pay per lead, no subscription. From 10¢ a person, falling to 5¢ as your month grows, with no seats or contract: add funds to a prepaid balance and spend them on any lane.
Intent leads
Charged once a month per person, however many of your lanes find them.
| People this month | Each |
|---|---|
| First 2,500 | 10¢ |
| 2,501 – 7,500 | 8¢ |
| 7,501 – 20,000 | 6.7¢ |
| Above 20,000 | 5¢ |
10,000 in a month cost $817.50; 50,000 in a month cost $2,987.50. Only the people inside each band get its price. More than 100,000 a month? Talk to us.
Free before you buy
Size the market and check who's in it at no cost.
- Daily counts for every lane and every topic.
- Samples of the people in a lane, before you export.
- Quotes on every export, shown before you pay.
- Exclusion lists, so you never pay for people you already have.
- API, webhooks and CSV on every account.
Set it up in 3 steps
- 01
Add the topics
Create a free account and start a lane with topics such as “Selling a Business”, “Business Valuation and Exit Planning” and “Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)”. Or describe what you sell and pick from the topics we suggest.
- 02
Narrow it to your market
Keep owners, founders and CEOs, set the company sizes and revenue you buy in, and add the states you cover.
- 03
Export, or have them sent
Check the count free every day. Export a CSV when it looks right, pull leads through the API, or have each new person sent to your CRM by webhook.
How to work acquisition leads
- 01
Qualify the company before the person
Check employee count, revenue range and industry on each lead against your thesis or your listing sweet spot. An owner of a two-person shop and a 120-person distributor read the same articles; only one fits a private equity check.
- 02
Write as a buyer or an advisor, not a marketer
Owners answer specifics: the industries you buy or sell in, the deal sizes you handle and one recent transaction they can look up. A vague “we'd love to explore a partnership” reads like every other unsolicited note in their inbox.
- 03
Offer a confidential valuation conversation
What the company is worth is the question behind most of this research. A short call that walks through how buyers value a business like theirs earns a meeting without asking them to commit to selling.
- 04
Never mention what they read
Don't tell an owner you know they're researching a sale. Write to their own email, keep the subject line neutral, and assume staff or a business partner might see the message.
- 05
Keep the owners who say not yet
Most owners researching an exit don't sell this quarter. Put every reply of “maybe next year” on a reminder, and send a short note when a comparable company in their industry sells.
Cadence
Export weekly. Send a personal email in week 1 and one follow-up with a relevant deal or market note in week 2, then check in once a quarter. Owners who answer “not now” stay on the list with a date to come back, not off it.
Subject{company} and what comes next
Hi {first name}, I run {firm}. We {buy / advise owners of} {industry} companies in {region}, most recently {one deal they can look up}. If you've started thinking about what {company} would be worth to a buyer, or what a sale would mean for you and your team, I'm glad to walk through it on a confidential 20-minute call. No pitch book and no obligation. {name}, {firm}
Acquisition leads questions
How counts, targeting and prices work for acquisition leads. The lanes guide covers keywords, filters and strength in detail.
How much do acquisition leads cost?
100% usage-based: pay per lead, no subscription. Intent Leads charges 10¢ per lead for the first 2,500 in a month, then 8¢ up to 7,500, 6.7¢ up to 20,000 and 5¢ after that, from a prepaid balance. Counts and samples are free, and each person is charged once a month however many of your lanes find them. Other ways to buy them, as of November 2026. Seller lead services for brokers: $25–$100 per seller lead at BusinessBrokersLeads, the lower prices on 6-month and 1-year contracts; $29 per lead plus 8% of your commission at Top Broker Leads. Booked seller appointments: $200–$250 per booked seller appointment at BrokerPartnerz. Business-for-sale marketplaces: Broker memberships, priced by plan; BizBuySell doesn't publish its broker rates.
Are these companies for sale?
No. These are owners and executives researching selling, valuing or exiting a business. Some will sell this year, some are early, and some are researching for a client. Treat them as owners worth a conversation, not as listings.
Are acquisition leads exclusive?
No, and they aren't a listing either. Another firm could reach the same owner through its own outreach, but nobody is shopping this owner's company around: they haven't hired a broker or sent out a teaser, so the first credible buyer or advisor to reach them sets the tone.
How fresh are the owner leads?
The counts on this page are for November 13, 2026, the latest data day. Each owner researched sale or exit topics in the last 14 days, and new owners appear with every data day. A weekly export reaches them while they're still working out what the business is worth, before an advisor is signed.
Can I target owners in one state or metro area?
Yes. Filter on the state or city of the company's headquarters, or a radius around a ZIP code, which suits brokers who list in one region. Each lead also has the company's full address.
Do acquisition leads include the owner's phone number?
On November 13, 2026, 127,718 of the 166,158 people researching selling, valuing or exiting a business (77%) had at least one mobile number. When we have it, yes: every mobile comes with its own do-not-call flag. Leads also carry a business email with its validation status, a personal email and the company's phone, so you can reach an owner away from a shared inbox.
Can I target only owners of companies in my deal size?
Yes. Set seniority to owner, founder or partner, add titles such as CEO and president, then set employee count and revenue range. Small owners tend to read about selling a business; larger companies read about mergers and acquisitions, so the topics help split them too.
How do I find business owners who want to sell before they list?
Look for the reading they do first: valuation, exit planning and what a sale involves. Owners researching those topics are the earliest group you can reach without a referral, and a confidential, no-pressure valuation conversation is the usual way in.
Keep exploring
Leads for nearby markets
Lead lists by ICP
Guides and comparisons
- What is intent data?Intent data shows which people and companies are researching a topic right now. How B2B buyer intent data is collected, scored and priced, and how to use it.
- ZoomInfo pricing in 2026: plans, credits and what a contact costsZoomInfo pricing in 2026: free Lite, quoted annual plans, $0.38 self-serve credits and a $33,500 median contract, with the cost per contact worked out.
- Apollo pricing in 2026: plans, credits and what 1,000 phone numbers costApollo pricing in 2026: $0 to $119 a seat a month, 1 credit per email and 8 per phone number, and what 1,000 US contacts with a phone cost on each plan.