No doubt everyone here's dealt with the battle of trying to get a broker to provide info and take them seriously. Coming from an intermediary who's often dealing with brokers here's my advice.

DO YOUR RESEARCH ON THE INDUSTRY.
I can't emphasize this enough. There is nothing more frustrating than a broker having to educate a buyer on the basics of an industry. I assure you that any respected PE group of Independent sponsor looking at the same deal is you will be well educated on an industry prior to discussing anything with the seller. This doesn't mean 10 minutes of a good search, this means hours of research, understanding the in's and out's of what your looking at. You should be able to hold a reasonable conversation with someone else who is not in the industry and be able to explain what struggles the industry has, what trends have looked like, and the most basics on how operations typically work. (Note the details can be lessened for super niche industries, but if you're looking at something traditional like HVAC, Plumbing, Cleaning, Accounting, Ect. that is a cookie cutter industry with 1000's of operators that will speak openly you shouldn't be asking basic questions about industry.

Prove your able to close.
Okay, so you've got an SBA preapproval. That's great. But most of the time they're not worth the paper their written on. You should have 3 banks lined up that youre going to go to with the deal. You should have a PFS available (even if the seller/broker isnt asking for it), a resume of why you're qualified to run a business (and an MBA isn't enough comfort for most sellers).. Do you have private investors lined up? if so, share their bios, put together a CIM about you and your legitimacy. There are A LOT of searchers out there who tire kick, ask a million questions and are half in half out wasting sellers and brokers time. (My last listing I got 25+ inquires in day 1 of posting the business and it wasn't anything super attractive. Everyone will get the NDA/CIM but not everyone will get their questions passed on immediately to the seller. The seller is running a business and selling the business is time consuming. It is my job to weed out the ones that are just asking to ask and those that are likely to close.

Be prepared to pay 100% cash (With financing is fine).
Yeah its not right for every deal, but when I have 5 other buyers lined up and you ask as the first question "will the seller do an earn out" you're instantly kicked to the back of the line.

Know who you're competing against in the process.
If you're competing against 20 other PE groups that are already established doing a roll up... you probably shouldnt waste your time because you're going to offer 4x and maybe if you have prvt money behind you 5.5x but you're not going to compete with the 8x that PE is going to offer for the same company. I'll be honest, this one is a tough one because I dont know how you can get an idea of who's in the mix and what these guys are typically paying for certain companies but if you can find a way to connect with PE groups doing roll ups in the industry (or asking the broker what the $ the company went for post close) they usually can fill you in on how competitive things get.


Gain a relative comfort pre LOI but save the Due Diligence for post LOI.
You should be gaining a high level of comfort of the business, submitting and IOI so the valuation is established and then going into final details if the IOI is agreed upon as reasonable by sellers. At that point ask for the odd things that you want to see pre due LOI like balance sheet by month, or whatever else there may be that's not a typical item provided in a CIM/initial data room.


I'll leave you with this: want to request a 1000 CIMs a day? I say go for it. But do you research on the company, industry, and the valuation expectations prior to setting up any management intros or asking countless in depth follow up questions that answers ultimately wont change your mind on the fact that the company isnt a good fit for you. If you're actually interested in the opportunity, spend some time proving it and you'll be taken much more seriously. Once you've closed on your first business you wont have to prove yourself every time you meet a new broker, but until then... put in the work.