• Here is what kissing a lot of frogs looks like in numbers. This is the volume behind one closed acquisition.
• Roughly 28,000 listings scanned and 1,300 that match your criteria. Most listings are a no for a simple reason: wrong size, wrong industry, wrong place.
• About 650 NDAs signed, 291 CIMs reviewed, and 81 deals that earn a serious look. This is the stretch where you actually get good at evaluating businesses.
• Nine to fourteen LOIs, two or three accepted, and one close.
• Those numbers are not meant to scare you. They are the reason to have a system. The top of the funnel, the scanning, is the part software does for you. Your hours belong further down.

Funnel figures from Athena Simpson, founder of AcquiMatch, drawn from searchers running structured acquisition processes. Scanning means a ten-second look at the headline, price and financials.

• Brokers are super busy. On a good listing they hear from a lot of buyers, and they ignore most of them.
• A buyer profile lets a broker size you up in seconds. Start with a quick bullet-point snapshot of who you are.
• Then a quick bullet-point snapshot of your buy box, so they know what to send you.
• Make sure your financial credentials are in there. If they know you're well funded and have relevant experience, you are far more likely to get a response.
• One more thing: your online profiles, LinkedIn in particular, need to match what you put in that email. Brokers check.

• The most common way I see a good deal stall: the buyer finds it, then struggles with the financing.
• Talk to a lender before you need one. Prequalification tells you what you can really buy, and it is a line on your profile that brokers respect.
• A prequalified buyer goes from accepted LOI straight into underwriting.
• A buyer who waits starts the lender conversation after the LOI, while the seller is still taking calls from other buyers.

• Brokers guard the CIM. Before they send it, they want to believe your down payment is real, and proof of funds is what settles that.
• The strongest evidence is a bank or brokerage statement showing the balance. There is nothing to interpret: an account, a number, a date.
• Next is a proof-of-funds letter from your bank or brokerage, then a letter from your banker or CPA. Both are someone vouching for the money instead of the money showing itself.
• A completed personal financial statement is the weakest of the four. A lender will ask for one anyway, but you wrote it, so it carries your word and not your bank's.
• A lender prequalification letter is not on this list. It proves borrowing capacity, which is a different question from whether you have the cash. Carry one of each. Black out account numbers before you send anything.

The ranking reflects how hard each document is to fake, not a rule anyone publishes. What a given broker accepts varies, and bigger listings usually ask for more.