Why referrals are generating fewer enquiries for accountants
Referrals still matter. I don't think that's changed. What I think has changed is the buying process. Prospective clients now spend longer researching, comparing and reassuring themselves before they ever make contact.
I’ve been thinking about referrals recently.
Most accountancy firms still win a large proportion of their new work through recommendations. Existing clients introduce their family, friends and contacts. Solicitors and other professional advisers pass work across. That’s been true for decades, and I don’t see it changing any time soon.
Yet I’ve also noticed something else.
It’s tempting to conclude that referrals have become less effective.
I don’t think they have.
I think the buying journey has changed.
From recommendations to research
Twenty years ago, a recommendation often led fairly quickly to a conversation. Today it usually leads to research.
A prospective client visits your website. They compare it with a couple of other firms. They read about the issue they’re trying to solve. Increasingly, they’ll also ask ChatGPT, Claude or another AI assistant the same questions they might once have typed into Google.
Only then do they decide who to contact.
The referral hasn’t become less valuable. If anything, trust matters more than ever when you’re choosing a professional adviser. What has changed is that the recommendation is no longer the end of the decision. It’s the beginning of it.
I don’t think this shift happened overnight. It has been developing for years. AI has simply made it more obvious.
Google itself has been moving in the same direction, introducing AI features that encourage people to explore a subject before deciding which sources to trust. That doesn’t replace your website. It changes how prospective clients arrive there, and what they expect to find when they do. Google’s documentation on AI features in Search gives a useful overview of how that experience is evolving.
What does that mean for accountants?
If someone has been recommended three accountancy firms, they’re probably not trying to establish whether those firms are competent. They already assume they are, otherwise they wouldn’t have been recommended in the first place.
What they’re really trying to work out is which one feels right for their business.
Does this firm understand companies like mine?
Have they dealt with this problem before?
Will they explain things clearly?
Will they be interested in my business, or simply my compliance obligations?
Those are the questions that increasingly determine whether a recommendation becomes an enquiry.
I’ve written before about why clients refer you, but your website sounds like everyone else’s, and I think that article is really about this point. A referral creates trust. Your website needs to justify it.
This isn’t really about publishing more content
One reason I like carrying out content audits is that they often challenge a firm’s assumptions.
Many partners tell me they need more content.
Sometimes they’re right.
More often, I find they have a different problem.
The expertise is already there. The website just isn’t helping prospective clients discover it.
Important information is buried several clicks deep. Service pages all sound broadly the same. Questions that matter to prospective clients are answered briefly, while less important topics receive far more attention.
None of those problems is solved simply by publishing another blog post.
They’re solved by understanding how the existing website supports the buying journey, where it helps someone make a decision, and where it gets in the way.
That’s why I start with a content audit.
This shows what’s already working, where the gaps are and what should happen next. Sometimes that leads to new content. Sometimes it leads to rewriting existing pages. Quite often, it means doing less than the client expected, but doing it much better.
I’ve explained the process in more detail in my guide to content audits.
A different way of thinking about referrals
I don’t expect referrals to become any less important. If anything, I suspect they’ll become more valuable as it becomes easier to compare firms online.
What I do think has changed is where the decision happens.
The recommendation gets a prospective client as far as your website. From there, they’re deciding whether your firm understands them, whether it feels like the right fit and whether it’s worth making contact.
For many accountancy firms, that’s now the point where new business is won or lost.
Know an accountant wondering what happened to their referrals?
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