Client Expectations are changing, as are their shopping habits when it comes to sourcing professional services. In this episode of TaxCalc TV we explore what AI is doing to the traditional search engine model and how you can ensure a flow of new client wins.
Picture a business owner who's just realised MTD means they can't do their own tax any more. They don't type "accountants near me" into Google and work through ten links. They ask ChatGPT: who's the most trusted accountant in my town?
The AI gives them three names. If yours isn't one of them, you were never in the running.
That's the new reality we explored on the latest TaxCalc TV, alongside Callum McRae, Director of Marketing at Imagine That Marketing, and Johann Goree, practice owner and author. And the timing matters. Self Assessment is around the corner, MTD thresholds are dropping, accountants are retiring and private equity is shaking up client bases. In our audience poll, 41% said their biggest barrier to growth was a lack of leads. Only 3% blamed competition.
The clients are out there. Here's how to make sure they find you, watch the webinar, or read on below.
Stop chasing page one.
Start earning the recommendation.
For two decades, the prize was position one on Google. That game hasn't gone away, but a new one has started on top of it.
"SEO is about getting found. GEO is about getting recommended." - Callum McRae
Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is about being the name an AI tool gives back when someone asks who to trust. And people are asking. Callum shared that nearly 60% of Google searches now end without a single click, ChatGPT has around a billion monthly users, and almost half of Gen Z go to an AI tool before a search engine.
The good news? It's levelled the playing field. When Callum's team audits firms, the names AI recommends often aren't the big players. They're the firms that have given it the right evidence.
One more thing: if your website traffic is dipping, don't panic. Visitors arriving from an AI recommendation are already halfway sold. Watch your conversions, not just your visits.
AI is hunting for proof. Give it some.
When someone asks for the best or most trusted firm, the AI goes looking for evidence that you deserve the title. Your reviews, your accreditations, your awards and your content are that evidence.
Johann is living proof. His firm won a dealmaker award, has a strong bank of Google reviews and clearly explains its financial due diligence service online. Ask an AI tool who to use for financial due diligence, and his firm comes out above far bigger names.
"I've technically got no right to be that high up." - Johann Goree
So stop being modest. Callum recently spoke to a firm that had been shortlisted for an award and hadn't mentioned it anywhere. That's free proof left on the table. Put every award, shortlisting, membership and accreditation on your website and socials, because AI reads all of it, even when visitors don't.
Make asking for reviews automatic
Reviews are one of the strongest signals you can send. Google reviews matter, and Trustpilot carries more weight with AI than many firms realise. But it's consistency that counts. Ten reviews one month and none the next won't cut it.
Johann's fix is beautifully simple. On one-off jobs like tax returns, the last step in his firm's workflow used to be "send the invoice". Now it's "request a review". Nobody has to remember. It just happens.
He's not shy about asking in the moment either. When a client rang at half six one evening, worried about a brown envelope from HMRC, Johann helped, then asked for a review as a thank you. He got five stars.
Starting from zero? Callum's advice is to ask every client-facing team member to secure five reviews, and aim for at least 50 overall.
Write like a human, or disappear
Here's the irony: in a world flooded with AI-written content, human content is worth more than ever.
If every firm asks ChatGPT for a blog about MTD, they all end up saying the same thing, and sink into what Callum calls "the sea of sameness". Your own experience, opinions and client stories are what make you stand out.
And keep it coming. Callum recommends publishing at least weekly. If your last blog went up six months ago, then from an AI's point of view, "silence looks like you've shut down".
Two quick wins to make every post work harder:
- Put a name on it. Credit each article to the qualified expert who wrote it.
- End with an FAQ. People ask AI questions, so answer the three to five questions clients most often ask about that topic. You're handing the AI a ready-made answer to quote.
- See how TaxCalc and Engager take you from enquiry to engagement in one place: Book a demo!
Referrals still need a shop window
"We don't need a website, it's all word of mouth." We heard it in the chat, and both guests pushed back hard.
Johann's firm had three enquiries in three days this week. Every one came through the website, and every one said a client had recommended them. They'd still gone online to check the firm out first. So how many referrals are you losing because there's nothing to find?
There's a longer-term risk too. Your clients recommend you to people like them, so word of mouth alone won't reach the next generation of business owners. And if you ever sell, a buyer will value a firm with a broad marketing mix far more than one that relies on referrals.
At the very least: get a website, claim your Google Business Profile and start collecting reviews.
Your biggest leak is after the enquiry
You can do everything above and still lose the client. Why? Because, as Johann admits, accountants are often terrible at sales. Enquiries land in email, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, and quietly get forgotten.
When Johann logged three months of enquiries into Engager's deals board, he found more than £50,000 a year in potential revenue he'd simply lost track of.
"If that's in a month, what have I lost in the last 10 years of running my business?" - Johann Goree
Engager's deal forms plug that leak. Share a form on your website, on social media or as a QR code on a leaflet. Every completed form creates a prospect and a deal card automatically. From there, you move them through your pipeline, send a proposal with your pricing and turn it into a letter of engagement, with a Direct Debit mandate signed before onboarding even starts.
You can also see where people abandon your form. If they're all dropping out at the same question, like being asked for a UTR before they've even signed up, you know exactly what to fix. Put that alongside your website data and you'll finally know which marketing is actually working.
The clock's already ticking
None of this happens overnight. Callum recommends allowing six to nine months before you see real results. But it works.
One firm his team worked with started out appearing for none of the nine AI prompts it wanted to be known for. Nine months later, it was in the top three for all of them. In a meeting just a few weeks ago, the managing partner said simply: "We are winning business from ChatGPT."
The firms that start now will be the ones AI recommends when the next wave of MTD clients goes looking.
One last tip before you check where you stand: don't search in your own ChatGPT account.
It knows you, so it'll tell you you're the best. Open an incognito window for the honest answer.
