Deal Sourcing

professional profile

March 01, 2023

by a professional from Temple University - The Fox School of Business in Philadelphia, PA, USA

The most common places I see deal flow come from are conferences, bankers / brokers, and referrals.

What are alternative and reliable places to meet prospects?
How do you approach a new prospect in person at a conference?

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commentor profile
Reply by a searcher
from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in Tampa, FL, USA
Hi Vincent,

Just my 2 cents:

There are 15,000 + VC, PE, Family Offices, Sponsors, Searchers, etc., active every day in the US alone. You need a plan! You need to be prepared! And you need to be Hungry!!!! Because if this stuff were easy… everyone would do it!

Think Guerilla Marketing… Assuming that you’re starting out with a shoestring budget… 1) Define your goals (like an acquisition mandate), 2) Define your target (size, market, industry, geo, etc.), and get sniper like, I’d recommend staying away from the shotgun approach, personal preference…, 3) Know your Audience (C-Suite, Board members, founders, etc.), 4) Build a target list (LinkedIn, data miners, web crawl, industry, and Association data, etc.) 5) Build a marketing plan, 6) Build your elevator pitch and, 7) Then market, market, market - Social Media, Email, Phone call, network, influencers, etc. And don’t stop until you have a strong “qualified” pipeline. 8) Then market, market, and market some more…

When you get really comfortable with your elevator pitch approaching a new prospect anywhere will be easy and second nature.
commentor profile
Reply by a professional
from Villanova University in West Chester, PA, USA
^redacted‌ I saw your local to Philly as well. I'm an active member of ACG Philadelphia - acg.org and it's been really beneficial. There's also a Wharton ETA Philly Meetup that was posted on here. I just network with whoever is a genuine connection and follow up after, sometimes reach out to a few people before to let them know you'd like to connect. Then, I always ask who they're looking to meet, and that can be a good segue into who you're looking to meet. I'd be happy to connect since we're both in the Philadelphia area. I'll send you a DM.
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