4 Comments
 

Based on the most helpful WSO content, brokers often have to balance their time and effort between managing inbound and outbound deals. While the context doesn't provide specific percentages, it does mention that brokers may receive off-market leads and then selectively call up a handful of their closest and trusted clients about these opportunities. This suggests that there is a mix of inbound leads provided by the brokerage and outbound efforts where brokers leverage their relationships and market knowledge to source deals.

To elaborate on point '1', which refers to the initial sourcing of deals via email, it's noted that brokers only have so much bandwidth and might only call up 5-10 of their closest and trust clients about a good off-market lead. This indicates that while inbound leads are part of the deal flow, brokers also need to actively engage in outbound activities to maintain a robust pipeline. The exact balance between inbound and outbound deals can vary depending on the brokerage firm, the individual broker's network, and the market conditions.

Sources: Last time you didn't source a deal via email, Getting Started as a Broker, Average Number of Deals Per Year, Besides relationships, what are the the main differences in an m&a process at EBvsBB, How many deals do you underwrite / do a year?

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 
Most Helpful

If you are thinking of inbound leads the way that some other sales roles (tech sales or SaaS for instance) talk about inbound leads. The answer would be absolutely zero.

The distinction id make is that the big brokerage firms (CBRE, JLL, C&W, Newmark, Colliers, etc) have large and robust teams and with that comes more activity in general. Example would be a broker in Dallas, has a client that owns property in Miami and will therefore bring in a broker at the local Miami office to help them execute on that business. Or perhaps there will be some very senior brokers that have expansive books of business, but still get approached to sell a $5mm multifamily property. That’s the kind of thing they’d maybe hand off to a more junior broker and ask them to execute on it. In all cases, nothing is for free, and whoever is bringing these things to you will still be keeping a huge portion of the fees.

 

When I was at a CB/JLL/CW my team also got a far amount of  "inbound leads" from big owners that like to evenly distribute sales assignments to keep a good relationship with everybody.  They'd literally call us and be like "we are selling 3 deals in the market this year so giving one to each of the big 3 brokerages in the market, any preference to which one you want?".  We'd also get a decent amount of inbound listings from owners that we sold the deal to originally and were coming back to give us the sale again on exit.

 

Architecto sit nihil pariatur tenetur. Recusandae deserunt sapiente optio possimus laudantium aliquid. Ad at est ut ipsam nesciunt quo sint.

Ratione et fuga officia est eos ducimus natus. Sit ut quis aut quia tenetur necessitatibus.

Voluptas deleniti quis quae qui. Sit culpa dolores voluptatibus qui distinctio. Dolor praesentium quia sequi consequuntur nihil est qui.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.3%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (47) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (83) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (74) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
Mimbs's picture
Mimbs
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”