Telemarketing for Accountants: A Good Route to Market

As an Accountant, lead generation can be challenging. In this blog, Beanstalk explores telemarketing for the accountancy sector, and how it can effectively generate sales leads that convert into new clients.

According to the CCAB, there are over 40,000 accountancy firms in the UK, from single practitioners to large audit practices.

With so many potential competitors, how do you ensure your firm gets its chance to tell your story to businesses wanting to change Accountant?

Most likely, your main new business source is referrals and word-of-mouth recommendations. This makes it hard to achieve consistent growth, year on year, due to the limited number of referrals you can generate.

You’ve undoubtedly considered and tried various marketing approaches, ranging from networking events, social media, sponsoring local sports clubs or even roundabouts.

But have you considered how effective telemarketing has proven to be for the accountancy sector?

Should you invest in Marketing or in Lead Generation?

If you’re struggling to generate leads, you aren’t alone!

Many Accountancy firms undertake marketing but are left with a sense of disappointment that their endeavours don’t generate many (or any) leads.

Research by MarketingWeek shows that 70% of B2B Marketers in SMEs cite that Lead Generation is “Priority one, two and three”.

What is the lesson that Accountancy firms can learn from this?

That building brand awareness alone isn’t enough. The firms that win the most new clients are the ones that generate the most sales leads.

If you’re investing in marketing as a way of growing your business, should you channel some of that budget into direct lead generation, such as telemarketing?

Why Do New Clients Pick Your Practice?

Even in today’s digital world, the decision about which supplier to use usually comes down to relationships.

It’s why referrals are the best leads; because your existing relationship with the referrer has a positive impact on the prospect. They’re warmer to you from the very start of the sales process.

In almost all B2B sales decisions, there are several suppliers that have the required skills and experience to satisfy the prospect’s requirements. The final decision is usually an emotional one that includes trust, gut feeling and personal chemistry.

The better you are at building relationships with your prospects, the more likely you are to win their business. This is just one area where telemarketing scores favorably against other forms of lead generation, as a skilled telemarketer will start to build a relationship with the prospect even before the first introductory meeting is arranged.

Why Telemarketing Works for Accountants

Each year, 10,000’s companies engage with a new accountancy firm.

Unquestionably, many companies change accountant to a firm they’ve been referred to.

But there are also many companies who have frustrations with their existing accountant, and change to an accountant they feel will do a better job, after going through a “beauty parade”.

The prospect may speak to an alternate to their existing accountant because the relationship has grown stale; it may be a perceived lack of responsiveness or for a host of reasons.

This is where telemarketing is effective in generating leads for accountants because it starts a two-way dialogue.

By engaging the prospect in conversation, professional telemarketing can uncover frustrations, pain points and future plans, that only come to the surface through human interaction.