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Data-backed workflows for sourcing, screening, and scaling local deals
Private equity’s next frontier isn’t sitting on cap tables—it’s operating on Main Street.
Over the past five years, we’ve worked with dozens of PE teams—particularly those focused on roll-ups, regional consolidations, franchise expansions, and infrastructure-light SMB takeovers. The standout performers all share one thing in common:
They treat deal sourcing like outbound sales—but optimized for margin, not meetings.
The traditional broker-first, wait-for-referral model doesn’t deliver enough volume—or control. The new model is about real-time visibility, structured targeting, and playbook-driven operations post-close.
In this post, we’ll break down the data workflows, signal triggers, and campaign strategies used by top-performing PE teams sourcing and scaling high-value SMBs across the country.
Forget backchannel referrals and 12-month-old lists from pitchbook. Today’s leading private equity teams use dynamic signal-based sourcing models that surface unlisted, unrepresented, and fast-scaling SMBs before they hit a broker’s inbox.
Here’s what they’re watching:
Openmart enables PE teams to scan 300k+ SMBs weekly, identifying fast-moving or under-leveraged businesses before competition surfaces. By pairing firmographic data with intent signals like ad spend, hiring velocity, and review dynamics, sourcing becomes a programmatic workflow—not a luck-driven chase.
Yes—your competitors are cold emailing.
And the best ones are outperforming traditional origination partners by systematizing their outreach motion.
Below are prospecting benchmarks collected from PE teams using Openmart, Instantly, and Apollo for direct SMB outreach:
Note: Top teams run rolling 3-sequence cadences, test subject lines weekly, and segment by business type + signal.
They never send “Are you open to selling?” blind—every message references a trigger (e.g., new location, ops hire, Yelp dip).
The best SMB targets don’t usually wave a “for sale” flag.
They’re often owners in transition, with operational upside, strong local share, and no clear succession path.
Based on interviews with >40 PE partners and Openmart signal tracking, here are the five most common pre-acquisition traits:
Using Openmart’s business profile filters, deal teams can surface SMBs with “latent leverage”—those ready to scale, but held back by outdated systems, inefficient marketing, or owner dependency.
PE firms increasingly operate like GTM teams:
Here’s how best-in-class teams structure their sourcing:
Most teams overestimate their total addressable market. your real TAM = SMBs that:
Use filters like age of domain, employee count, and location growth to slice your TAM into weekly target batches.
The most advanced teams don’t just rely on firmographics.
They rank leads by signals using:
Signal Category
Openmart assigns these scores automatically—allowing deal teams to prioritize weekly outreach toward businesses showing live behavior patterns, not just static tags.
The best outreach campaigns focus on narrative, not transaction.
Instead of “Are you open to being acquired?”, top emails lead with:
Cadence example (7-day):
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Once the deal is closed, it’s not about headlines—it’s about systems.
Great operators standardize, measure, and scale using a focused post-close value creation plan.
What gets tracked post-close:
If you're still waiting on brokers, you’re late.
If your CRM is full of 18-month-old emails, you're slower than your competitors.
Modern PE firms are winning deals by treating SMBs as markets to explore, not just companies to evaluate.
And that requires:
With Openmart, deal teams can find the right business at the right time—whether they’re looking to buy one or fifty.
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