CASE STUDY – BOUTIQUE M&A ADVISORY
Qualified sellers, without the founder's prospecting hours.
A boutique M&A advisory firm moved its seller prospecting to AI agents writing in the founder's own voice. About 1,200 hours of research, writing and follow-up came off the founder's desk over seven months – roughly $90K of his time – and the owners who book are right-sized and genuinely looking to sell.
Results
Seven months of seller prospecting, without the founder doing it.
- ~3,100
- owners researched and screened
- Against size, vertical, ownership and timing
- ~9,000
- personalised emails sent
- In the founder's own voice
- ~1,200h
- hours returned
- Modelled, about 40 a week
- ~$90K
- value of time returned
- The founder's time, modelled
At a glance
The short version.
The time
About 1,200 hours of research, writing and follow-up off the founder's desk over seven months.
The leads
Appropriately sized owners who are genuinely looking to sell.
The value
Roughly $90K of the founder's time, spent on owners instead of on prospecting.
The voice
Outreach goes out as the founder – a digital twin trained on his own writing – so sellers arrive feeling they already know him.
The situation
More seller conversations, without the prospecting hours.
The firm sells privately held businesses across several service verticals, and origination is everything. Consistent outreach meant hours of research, screening and writing every week, on top of live mandates, and a prior cold-email agency had produced contacts that went nowhere. The founder wanted more seller conversations without spending his own hours on prospecting, and without spray-and-pray outreach that risked the brand.
- Previous cold-email agency produced low-quality, unqualified contacts
- Generic outreach risked the firm's brand and wasted partner time
- Consistent prospecting took hours of research and writing every week, alongside live mandates
- Lead quality mattered more than lead volume
What went live
Outreach that sounds like the founder and screens for intent.
Tight list building & screening
AI agents build and screen target lists to the firm's criteria – size, vertical, ownership profile and timing signals – so only plausible sellers make it into the sequence.
Digital twin in the founder's voice
Multi-touch email sequences are written by an AI 'digital twin' trained on the founder's own writing – so a seller who books a meeting feels they've been talking to him all along.
Proof points, not pitch decks
The messaging leads with real, specific proof – a recent sale, signed NDAs, active qualified buyers – and a low-pressure question about timing, which surfaces the owners who are actually ready.
Founder review before send
He reviews every list and script before anything sends, so the brand stays his and the quality bar stays high. Meetings book straight into his calendar once a seller confirms.
Where the hours went
The work that came off the founder's desk.
| Activity | Hours |
|---|---|
| Company research and screening | ~306 |
| Owner identification | ~204 |
| Email personalisation | ~612 |
| Reply handling | ~20 |
| List hygiene and CRM | ~77 |
| Less: founder review time | (~47) |
| Net time returned | ~1,170 – roughly $90K of the founder's time |
Volumes and per-unit times are Analyst3 estimates of the same work done by hand. Hours are modelled, not client reported, and do not rest on reply rates, meetings or a closed transaction. Full assumptions are available on request.
The value
The founder's time back, and the right sellers in the diary.
The research, screening, writing and follow-up that consistent outreach demands now runs without the founder – about 1,200 hours over seven months, roughly $90K of his time. What reaches him is a short list of decisions and a diary of owners worth meeting: appropriately sized, genuinely looking to sell, and far less likely to ghost than other channels. Because the outreach leads with credible proof and runs in his own voice, every conversation starts with rapport already built.
What's realistic
Quality first; the cycle takes time.
Cold outreach is a slower channel than inbound – a seller who's ready today is rare, and conversations mature over months – and it's one channel among several the firm runs. The value here isn't overnight volume; it's a steady flow of the right conversations – qualified owners who actually show up – feeding a pipeline that closes on its own timeline.
“We'd used a cold-email agency before and the leads were junk. This is the opposite – the owners are the right size, they actually want to sell, and they show up. Leading with a real proof point pulls in exactly the people you want.”
Founder, boutique M&A advisory firm
Results
Hours back, and the right conversations.
Hours returned
About 1,200 hours of research, writing and follow-up off the founder's desk.
Value of the time
Roughly $90K of the founder's time.
Qualified, not junk
Right-sized owners genuinely looking to sell – a clear step up from the previous agency.
They show up
Strong meeting attendance, far less ghosting than other channels.
Want your prospecting hours back?
We'll talk through your verticals, your ideal seller and how many hours the outreach would take off your desk.