The 2,000 Email Reality Check

Here's what nobody tells you about proprietary search: You're about to send 2,000 emails to get 100 responses to schedule 20 calls to make 3 offers to buy 1 business.

Those LinkedIn influencers posting about their "off-market deal that fell into my lap"? They sent 500 emails that week. They just don't mention the 499 that went nowhere.

Welcome to proprietary search — where you convince business owners who've never thought about selling to sell to you, a stranger from the internet with a generic Gmail address. Sound impossible? It kind of is. But it also works.

Why You're Doing This to Yourself

Everyone else is fighting over the same overpriced listings on BizBuySell. That carwash in Tulsa? Seventeen MBA graduates are modeling its cash flows right now. Meanwhile, there's a profitable HVAC company three towns over whose owner just turned 67 and whose kids became lawyers instead of taking over the family business.

That's your target. The owner who'd sell for the right price but hasn't hired a broker because he's been too busy running the business for 30 years to think about exit planning.

The Tools (And Why Most of Them Suck)

You need software to manage this insanity. Here's the truth about your options:

HubSpot - Free tier exists, which is great because you're probably broke from business school. But setting it up is like assembling IKEA furniture in Swedish. By the time you figure out their workflow builder, you could have manually emailed 200 plumbers.

Outreach.io - Built for enterprise sales teams with enterprise budgets. Costs $100+/month and assumes you have a "RevOps specialist" (whatever that is). Overkill unless you're running a search fund with other people's money.

Reply.io - The sweet spot for most searchers. $89/month gets you multi-channel outreach and decent analytics. Learning curve is real though — budget a weekend and a bottle of whiskey to figure it out.

GMass - $25/month because it's basically a Chrome extension pretending to be enterprise software. Perfect if you're testing the waters and don't want to commit. Breaks randomly, but at this price point, it's still cheaper than most alternatives.

Lemlist - $69/month for email-only,$99 if you want multichannel. Includes email warmup (crucial unless you want Gmail to banish you to spam hell). French company, so the UI occasionally does inexplicable things. Their personalization features are solid if you're willing to put in the work.

Smartlead - The nuclear option. Unlimited email warmup, complex sequences, every feature imaginable. Also requires a computer science degree to set up properly. For serious searchers only.

The Ugly Truth About Cold Outreach

Your first 100 emails will be garbage. Your subject lines will scream "SPAM" and your value prop will make zero sense. You'll accidentally call someone by the wrong name (pro tip: always triple-check mail merge fields).

Around email 500, you'll find your voice. By email 1,000, you'll have actual data on what works. The subject line "Quick question about [Company Name]" will outperform your clever wordplay every time.

Here's what actually works:

• Keep it under 75 words
• Mention something specific about their business (proves you're not a bot)
• Don't pretend you're something you're not
• Include a clear call to action
• Follow up 3 times (yes, really)

The Math Nobody Wants to Admit

Let's be real about response rates:

• 2-3% response rate is good (not a typo)
• Half of those responses will be "not interested"
• Another quarter will be "interesting but not now"
• You're fighting for that final 25%

So when you send those 2,000 emails, you're hoping for 50 positive responses. From those, maybe 10-15 turn into real conversations. From those, perhaps 2-3 become legitimate opportunities.

This is why most people quit after 200 emails. Don't be most people.

Pick Your Weapon

If you're broke but ambitious: GMass at $25/month + a strong coffee habit

If you're funded and serious: Reply.io at $89/month + a virtual assistant to help with the grunt work

If you're technical and obsessive: Smartlead + prepare to live in spreadsheets

If you're testing the waters: HubSpot free tier + patience of a saint

The Bottom Line

Proprietary search isn't about having the perfect tool. It's about showing up every day, sending those emails, and not taking the silence personally. The owner who ghosts you today might forward your third follow-up to their golf buddy who's actually ready to sell.

The tools just keep you organized while you play a numbers game. Pick one that doesn't make you want to throw your laptop out the window, then get to work.

Because somewhere out there is a business owner who's been waiting for someone like you to reach out. They just don't know it yet.