The broker meets the seller first
In Kansas City, both Google's AI and ChatGPT put brokers ahead of lawyers, and ChatGPT did the same in Denver. The seller often meets the broker first, so the broker's short list of lawyers is the list that counts.
Be the lawyer the broker sends the seller to
An owner selling the business they built usually talks to a broker first and a lawyer second. As your Fractional CMO, I build your firm's relationships with the brokers, CPAs, and wealth advisors who meet sellers early, and the sell-side pages AI answers draw on, so your firm is the name they hear for the sale and for the estate plan that often comes after it.
Sell-side · Our researchWhat we found
The brokers came first, then the lawyers
Asked how to sell a small business in Kansas City, ChatGPT listed three brokers before any lawyer. Then it named three law firms, each linked to its own sell-side or M&A page, and told the owner to "look for a lawyer who represents sellers, not just buyers."
I'm Joshua David Little. I've run my own consulting firm since 2004, I've helped attorneys prepare complex cases for trial, and I ran the first family-law ad on ChatGPT, before the platform allowed legal-services ads.
/ What sell-side firms are up against
The broker usually gets the first call
Selling a business is something most owners do once. In Census Bureau data, 51% of the owners of businesses with employees were 55 or older,² so many owners are at the age when an exit comes into view. They search for a broker, or for the idea of an exit: business broker gets 18,100 searches a month nationally, against 720 for mergers and acquisitions lawyer.¹ In Kansas City, Google's AI brought the lawyer in after its section on brokers, to review the letter of intent and draft the purchase agreement.
Owners search for the plan long before the lawyer
business succession planning gets 1,600 searches a month and buy sell agreement 1,900, against 320 for business succession planning attorney and 110 for buy sell agreement attorney.¹ The owner is thinking about the plan long before thinking about who will draft it.
A seller may have no deal lawyer to call
A seller may have an accountant they've trusted for years and no transaction lawyer at all. So they call the lawyer someone they trust names, or the one an AI answer puts in front of them.
/ What sellers search and ask AI
Brokers first, then the lawyers whose pages say they represent sellers
What they type into Google (average monthly searches, US)¹
- business broker: 18,100
- buy sell agreement: 1,900
- business succession planning: 1,600
- mergers and acquisitions lawyer: 720
- business succession planning attorney: 320
- buy sell agreement attorney: 110
What they ask AI
We put the same question to Google's AI and to ChatGPT in Denver and Kansas City: "I want to sell my small business in [city, state]. Do I need a lawyer as well as a business broker, and how do I find the right one?"
- Kansas City. Google's AI gave brokers the first and longer section, named one local law practice, and told the seller to hire the lawyer "to review the Letter of Intent (LOI) and draft the final purchase agreement." ChatGPT listed three brokers first, then three law firms, each linked to its own sell-side or M&A page, and told the seller to find a lawyer who has negotiated purchase agreements for businesses similar in size.
- Denver. ChatGPT again listed brokers first, then three firms. Google's AI built its answer mostly from law firms' own pages about selling a business, named two Denver firms, and told the seller to make sure a firm's "typical client or transaction size matches your small business scale." One firm appeared in both answers, and its homepage offered free guides.
- The CPA, beside both. Both assistants told the seller to bring in a CPA for the tax structuring and the purchase price allocation.
The broker leads, and the lawyers named were often the ones whose pages were about selling a business.
/ What the cited pages look like
The firms that got named had said whom they represent
The pages Google's AI drew on in Denver were law firms' pages about selling a business, with titles like "Denver, Colorado Attorney For Selling A Business." ChatGPT linked each Kansas City firm it named to that firm's own sell-side or M&A page. Both assistants told sellers to look for a lawyer who handles deals their size.
For a sell-side firm, that means a page for each step of a sale, written for the seller, that says you represent sellers and what size of business you usually sell. It means pages for the earlier questions too, such as succession and the buy-sell agreement, because that's where owners start.
/ Who sends this work
Brokers, CPAs, and wealth advisors meet the seller first
The seller's broker, CPA, wealth advisor, and exit planner are all in the room before a sale closes, and often before a lawyer is. Each of them will mention a lawyer at some point. The question is whose name comes to mind.
My approach to referrals is simple: make valuable resources and tools for the people who share a client with you, ones that help them do their own job, so that when one of their clients needs you, sending that client your way is the natural thing to do. For a broker, that might be a seller's guide to the letter of intent they can hand a new client. For an advisor, an exit readiness check to use in a planning meeting. For any of them, a session for owners thinking about a sale that you host together.
/ The client after the closing
A seller who has just closed may need your firm again
An owner who has turned a business into cash has new questions: an estate plan that reflects the sale, and what happens to anything they kept. If you judge a sell-side client only by the fee on the sale, you can undervalue them. Track them further and you may find the same client comes back for the estate plan and sends you the next owner who's ready to sell. We measure that path first, then build the follow-up that makes it deliberate.
The channels that work here
/ Where to put the effort
A referral system with brokers, CPAs, and advisors
Material made for each kind of partner, shared directly and on LinkedIn, and a record of who sends you what.
Sell-side and succession pages
A page for each question a seller brings you, saying plainly that you represent sellers and the size of business you usually sell.
From the sale to the estate plan
Follow-up that carries a seller from the closing to the estate and succession work that comes after it.
/ The 5 core marketing optimizations most firms are missing
How The Client Magnet System™ systematically optimizes and unifies your marketing
Instead of trying to convert visitors directly into clients, we strategically capture their information first so we can follow up and nurture the relationship.
Valuable resources
Create guides, toolkits, and webinars that help prospects understand their legal situation – positioning you as the expert before they ever call.
Strategic capture
Get contact information and permission to follow up by offering something genuinely helpful, not just a consultation request.
Systematic follow-up
Automated emails that continue providing value while keeping your firm top-of-mind during their decision process.
Testing and improvement
Continuously refine what's working through data – not guesswork – so your results keep getting better.
Clear tracking and ROI
Know exactly which marketing activities generate clients and how much each client costs to acquire so we know which platforms to amplify and which need more optimization.
How each step looks for a sell-side firm: The entry is a seller's guide shared through a broker or a CPA; then follow-up that keeps helping the owner who is a year or more from selling, and tracking that follows each seller from the guide to the signed engagement and on to the estate plan.
Services that fit
Referral marketing · The referral flywheel · Blogs and situation pages · AI search optimization (GEO) · Fractional CMO
/ Your first resources
Resources your partners can hand to a seller
Before you sign the LOI is a seller's guide co-branded with a broker. The owner's exit readiness check is co-branded with an advisor. Each puts your firm's name in a partner's hands at the moment a seller needs it, and gives the seller a reason to stay in touch with you.
Results
/ Results from the system
One client firm
About 75 times its ad spend back in estimated case value.³
Another client firm
About 11 times its ad spend back in estimated case value, from a campaign built on the Client Magnet System, tracked to the booked consultation.³
More for business-law firms
Marketing for business-law firms · Be the lawyer business owners are told to call.
Estate planning: working with financial advisors and CPAs · Giving advisors something useful to forward, and easing the worry on both sides.
Would an AI send a business owner to you? · What the assistants told owners selling a business in Denver and Kansas City.
FAQ
Will this work for my practice area?
The system is based on best practices that work across industries, so it adapts to any practice area with customized resources and messaging for your specific clients.
How do we get in before the broker?
Often you won't, and you don't need to. In three of the four answers we looked at, the broker came first. The goal is to be the lawyer the broker, the CPA, and the advisor name, and to be findable by the owners who start with a question about succession or a buy-sell agreement instead of a broker. Those owners may be years from a sale, which is why the follow-up is built in from the start.
How do we get brokers to name us?
All four answers we saw recommended hiring both a broker and a lawyer, and Google's Denver answer said plainly that "Brokers are not licensed attorneys and cannot give legal advice." What we can build is the reason to name you: material that helps the broker's client and keeps the deal moving, and a record of every referral so you can see which brokers send work.
What follows a sale for our firm?
Often the estate plan, and the succession of whatever the owner kept. We track each seller past the closing so you can see what the client is worth to your firm over time, then build the follow-up that brings that work to you.
¹ Google Ads Keyword Planner, US, average monthly searches.
² U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey, 2018 data: owners of employer businesses aged 55 or older.
³ Case value estimated from average case value.