Your clients signal before they buy, whatever the profession
Before a client of a firm in your sector is ready to buy, it gives off signals: hundreds of kinds, from a huge range of sources, and a different set for every business. We work out yours together, then my agents watch for them. So your effort goes to the companies that are ready, rather than a whole market at once.
- A huge range, different for every business
Hundreds of kinds of signal, from a massive array of sources, and the set that matters is never the same twice. Yours is worked out with you, for your clients and your services.
- Watched, all the time
Once the set is agreed, agents watch for every signal in it, across the clients you hold and the companies you want. Nothing waits for someone to have a free Monday.
- Effort where it counts
You end up talking to the companies that are ready, with a reason, rather than addressing a whole market at once. Five professions below, and the same holds for any B2B firm.
Accountancy
Your audit clients change shape all year, and most of it maps to a service you sell. The read finds the ones worth a conversation this month, and the ones buying it elsewhere.
The question I'd ask firstHow many of your audit clients buy tax or advisory from someone else?
- Finance director hired · your audit client
- Audit threshold crossed · manufacturing client
- Director turning sixty · succession not yet raised
- Buys audit only · tax and advisory elsewhere
Legal
Every corporate client is a matter before it's a matter. The read finds the ones about to need you, in the practice areas they've never sent you work in. For private-client work, a business event becomes a personal one.
The question I'd ask firstWhich of your corporate clients has never sent you an employment or property file?
- Acquisition announced · another firm on record
- Lease signed · corporate client, new premises
- No employment work on file · client of six years
- Business sale completed · the founder's personal matters next
Engineering
Your clients' next project shows before the brief exists. The read finds the ones about to build, bid or expand, and the ones you've drifted from.
The question I'd ask firstWhich of your clients won a tender this quarter without ringing you?
- Tender won · your client, water services
- Planning lodged · logistics client, new site
- Grant awarded · energy efficiency, manufacturing client
- Regulation changed · touches four of your clients
Architecture
Developers, housebuilders, investors, operators and funders all signal before they build. The read finds the schemes about to start, the permissions about to lapse, and the contacts who moved and took the relationship with them.
The question I'd ask firstWhich of your 2021 permissions expire next year, and has anyone rung the client?
- Charge registered · funded scheme about to start
- New SPV incorporated · a housebuilder you've worked with
- Permission expires in 5 months · 2021 scheme
- Contact moved · from one operator to another
Wealth and financial planning
The life events show on the company side first. The read finds the clients with an exit, a retirement or a company change coming, and the ones holding one product with you and three elsewhere. Private individuals are never enriched through a third party; the read uses company signals and your own records.
The question I'd ask firstHow many of your clients hold one product with you and three elsewhere?
- Business sale agreed · exit proceeds
- Auto-enrolment date · company client, forty staff
- Director turning sixty-five · retirement relief window
- Single-product client · pension only, since 2019
Beyond the five
What counts as a signal changes by sector; the read stays the same. Consultancies, technology and software, recruitment, construction and property, B2B services of every kind: the same read of the book, then the market, for any firm whose growth runs through relationships and repeat clients.
Your current clients, fifty accounts at a time, read for what your sector's clients signal.