The hidden costs of building buyer lists in-house are draining resources from boutique M&A firms and advisors. Between expensive database subscriptions, analyst hours, and constant data maintenance, the traditional approach to buyer research has become unsustainable. Save time on M&A deals by outsourcing this critical function to specialists delivering faster results, higher-quality contacts, and significant cost savings. Allow your team to focus on what matters most: closing deals.
The True Cost of In-House Research
Building buyer lists internally carries steep expenses that extend far beyond salary lines. PitchBook subscriptions alone run $20,000-$25,000 annually for basic access, with additional seats costing $7,000 each. Even with these tools, firms still need analysts to filter and verify data—a process that consumes tens of hours per deal.
The real costs multiply quickly. Hiring an entry-level analyst at $150,000 salary actually costs over $400,000 in the first year when factoring in recruitment, training, benefits, and overhead. Managing Directors who spend 20 hours weekly training junior staff forfeit approximately $8,000 in billable time—every single week. For a mid-market firm with two analysts, total staff costs approach $400,000 annually, creating massive fixed overhead regardless of deal volume.
Save Time on M&A Deals with Fresh Data
Manual lists suffer from rapid decay. Industry research shows 22-30% of B2B contact data becomes outdated annually. Without continuous maintenance, one in five contacts may be wrong within a year, wasting precious outreach opportunities on bounced emails and disconnected numbers.
Even current data doesn’t solve the efficiency problem. Filtering and ranking prospects should take seconds with the right tools, not hours of manual work. Traditional processes require multiple review cycles that stretch 40-hour projects into 80+ hour workweeks, bogging down senior bankers in formatting and data entry when they should be engaging buyers.
Why Outsourcing Delivers Superior Results
Specialized providers transform buyer list creation from a burden into a competitive advantage:
Curated, Targeted Lists: Expert teams identify buyers with both capital and strategic motivation for your specific transaction. You receive focused contact sets with decision-maker names, titles, and verified emails—not generic database exports.
Continuously Updated Data: Professional services maintain live databases refreshed with active deal intelligence, ensuring your lists remain current and highly targeted without any effort from your team.
Rapid Turnaround: External specialists deliver qualified buyer lists within 24-48 hours, scaling instantly with your deal flow. No hiring delays, no training periods—just immediate capacity when you need it.
Save Time on M&A Deals: The Cost Comparison
The numbers speak clearly:
- PitchBook subscription: $25,000/year for three users, plus analyst hours for each list
- In-house staffing: $400,000/year for two analysts across all deals
- Outsourcing: $500 for 200 qualified contacts (just $2.50 per buyer)
For a firm handling 10 deals annually, outsourcing complete deal materials (buyer lists, CIMs, valuations) costs $30,000-$50,000 total versus $400,000+ in fixed staffing expenses. That’s potential savings of 90% while maintaining or improving quality.
Small teams find database subscriptions particularly inefficient—paying premium annual fees for tools used sporadically, then still investing hours in manual research and verification.
The InfoGate Financial Advantage
InfoGate Financial specializes in M&A support for boutique firms, delivering “buyer lists built for action.” Their team of licensed investment banking analysts filters private equity and strategic buyers by sector, size, and mandate using continuously updated deal pipelines.
Transparent pricing eliminates surprises: $500 delivers 200 targeted contacts with no subscription fees or multi-year commitments. You pay only when you need a list. Their process emphasizes understanding your goals upfront and refining results until they align exactly with your strategy—providing precision in deal preparation without micromanagement.
Focus Your Resources Where They Matter
Every hour spent building lists manually is an hour not spent courting buyers or negotiating terms. By outsourcing to specialists, M&A advisors eliminate training burdens, avoid data decay problems, and receive current, qualified contacts immediately.
The choice for boutique firms is straightforward: let experts handle data assembly so your team concentrates on strategy and relationships. With cost-effective pricing, fast turnaround, and continuously refreshed intelligence, outsourcing buyer lists represents a smarter investment than expensive licenses or overstretched staff. Save time on M&A deals and reallocate your resources from research to revenue—it could save hundreds of thousands while increasing your win rate.