Telemarketing?

DazLock

HAs anyone used a telemarketing/lead generation company to kickstart their business? If so, do you know any that charge on leads produced? the ones I have researched all seem to charge an up-front fee which, for me, seems an expensive bit of speculating.

Thanks in advance!

burg

No but I'd suggest that telemarketing might be a bit old fashioned. Get yourself talking to local businesses as people buy from people.

Work out why you do what you do and who your target client is. Work out where they hang out and what they want and need from an accountant. Then market to them. Show up regularly and often with the same clear and consistent message.

We only do online marketing and a spend of about £400 per month gives us that back at least in monthly fees from new clients. The message must be right though and you need to learn to say no if they aren't a target client. See the attached. If they don't lead you towards that goal then don't do the work.

DazLock

Hi Burg
Thanks for getting back to me- I really appreciate it.
My business plan is to solely produce R&D tax claims on a no win no fee basis. I feel a website will not attract clients as they may well not know they qualify for the tax relief.
I am planning to visit a range of manufacturing and software trade shows to speak directly to potential clients, which I think is in line with what you are saying about networking, but I feel I need something more to get the ball rolling on a day to day basis. What do you think? I am offering a referral fee to MIPs who may have clients who qualify also.
Thanks again for offering your thoughts.

burg

I'd say you need to build relationships with existing accountants. Clients who already have an accountant are unlikely to trust you as much as their existing advisor. Video's are extremely powerful especially if you can capture the potential audience within the first 8 seconds. I'd look into getting some video adverts done to target accountants.

DazLock

That sounds like a good idea, if a little daunting the idea of presenting on a video- thankfully I would have editing rights over it before anyone else could see it!
Would a client referral scheme be something you would be interested in?

DazLock

I have put a post on about R&D client referrals in the hope of getting some general feedback but as yet not had any replies. I am not sure if the vast majority of MIPs are writing up the R&D reports or whether they do not have clients who qualify.

burg

In response to your two points

1 - There aren't that many active MIP's on here compared to the overall number.

2 - Most of us I'd say have very few who qualify for R&D claims. I have about 5 out of 300 clients who qualify. We manage 4 of them and one uses a specialist.

3 - My main focus would be on quality of work over kickbacks. However I may not be representative of the overall market.

DazLock

Thanks for that. I put the percentage on for the rate of the referral scheme in order to get some feedback on whether it was reasonable or not. I guess my post was a little confused in whether it was a stab at marketing or gauging people's thoughts- I suppose it was a clumsy bit of both.
Thanks for your input, I will need to find a suitable way to direct market my service to accountants.