Companies House Leads: How Accountants, Web Designers and B2B Suppliers Turn New Incorporations into Paying Clients

Why new incorporations are the most underused lead source in the UK

Every working day, hundreds of new limited companies are registered at Companies House. Each one represents a director who has just made a deliberate decision to trade, usually within weeks of needing an accountant, a bank account, insurance, a website, a phone system or a supplier. That timing is the whole point: you are not interrupting a stranger, you are catching someone at the exact moment they are buying the things you sell.

Most business owners ignore this data because it feels administrative rather than commercial. That is a mistake. A new incorporation lead is not a cold prospect in the usual sense. The director has publicly announced they are starting a business, which is a far stronger buying signal than a name on a purchased list of established firms that may have had the same supplier for a decade. The signal is fresh, specific and verifiable.

The advantage is not just freshness. Incorporation data tells you the director's name, the registered address, the SIC code describing the business activity, and the date of formation. Used properly, that is enough to segment, prioritise and personalise before you pick up the phone, which is exactly what separates a scattershot list from a pipeline you can forecast.

What Companies House actually gives you (and what it doesn't)

A good new incorporation lead contains the company name, company number, incorporation date, registered office address, director names and the SIC code or codes filed at formation. Some providers enrich this with a trading address, a director's previous appointments or a phone number matched from other public sources. The raw filing is free; the value is in the enrichment, filtering and delivery.

What you do not get is a phone number in the statutory filing, a guarantee the company is trading, or any indication of budget. A newly formed company may be a dormant vehicle, a property SPV, a rebranded existing business or a genuine start-up. Your job is to filter intelligently before you spend time or money contacting anyone.

Filtering before you buy: the four questions that save you money

The fastest way to waste a lead budget is to buy every incorporation in the country and call them alphabetically. Before you buy anything, answer four questions about your own business. First, which SIC codes genuinely describe your ideal client? Second, what is the realistic minimum company age or size you can serve? Third, which region or travel radius can you actually cover? Fourth, what is the single problem you solve that a brand-new business owner is likely to have this month?

Write the answers down and turn them into a filter specification. If you are an accountant, you may want to exclude dormant SIC codes and focus on trading activities, while flagging any lead whose registered office is already an accountancy firm address. If you are a web designer, you may want professional services, trades and retail, but skip holding companies. If you sell insurance or fleet services, you may need SIC codes that imply vehicles or premises.

The filtering matters more than the volume. A list of 200 well-filtered incorporations that match your service, worked properly, will out-earn a list of 5,000 unfiltered names every time. Ask any lead provider how their data is filtered and enriched before you commit, and be suspicious of anyone who cannot explain it clearly.

Building a scoring system for new incorporation leads

Once leads arrive, you need a consistent way to decide who gets called first. A simple scoring model keeps your team honest and stops the loudest lead getting all the attention. Score each lead on four dimensions and add the totals.

• Fit: does the SIC code and location match your ideal client profile? (0-3)
• Freshness: incorporated in the last 14 days scores highest, over 60 days scores lowest (0-3)
• Reachability: is there a direct phone number or named director you can contact? (0-2)
• Signal strength: does the filing suggest real trading, such as a trading address or multiple directors? (0-2)

A lead scoring eight or above gets a call today. Five to seven gets a call this week and a LinkedIn or email touch. Below five gets a low-cost nurture sequence or is set aside. This is not about being clever; it is about making sure your best leads are never left sitting in an inbox while your team works through the dregs.

Review your scores monthly against actual conversion. If the leads you rated highly are not converting, your criteria are wrong, not necessarily the data. Adjust the weightings and try again. The scoring model is a living tool, not a one-off exercise.

The 72-hour contact plan for a new incorporation

New businesses move quickly, and so should you. The director is likely juggling registration, banking, insurance and their first customers, so your approach needs to be short, relevant and easy to say yes to. A three-touch plan over the first 72 hours works well because it matches the pace of a start-up without becoming a nuisance.

The content of the first call matters more than the channel. Do not open with a pitch. Open with a question: what kind of business have you just set up, and have you sorted your accountant, insurance or website yet? The answer tells you whether to continue, and it also tells you what to sell. A director who has already appointed an accountant is a warm lead for bookkeeping software or a marketing service, not for tax advice.

If you want fresh incorporations delivered each morning with SIC codes and director names already filtered, 9amLeads sends new business leads at 9am so your first call happens while the lead is still warm.

Common mistakes that make new business leads look worthless

The most common complaint about bought leads is that they are 'poor quality'. In practice, the problem is usually the process around the data. Calling a lead three weeks after incorporation, opening with a generic script, failing to ask whether the business is trading, and giving up after one attempt are all reasons a good lead produces nothing. A new company director may be on site, in meetings or simply not answering an unknown number the first time.

Another mistake is treating every incorporation as a sales opportunity for the same product. A one-person consultancy and a new construction firm with six directors have almost nothing in common. Segment your messaging by SIC code and company size, and route leads to the person in your team who understands that sector. If you sell to trades, the person who calls should know what a CIS registration is; if you sell to professional services, they should be able to talk about professional indemnity cover.

Finally, track outcomes in a CRM rather than a spreadsheet. You need to know which SIC codes, regions and lead ages convert, and you cannot see that if the data is scattered. A simple pipeline with stages for called, connected, qualified and won will tell you within a month whether your lead spend is working.

Compliance and the practical rules you must follow

Companies House data is public, but marketing to it is still governed by UK GDPR and PECR. Before any cold call, screen numbers against the Corporate Telephone Preference Service. Keep a record of where each lead came from, when you contacted them and what was said. If someone asks not to be contacted again, suppress them across your whole business, not just the list you bought.

For email, be cautious. PECR requires prior consent for marketing emails to individuals, with a limited exception where you obtained details in the course of a sale or negotiation. For most new incorporation outreach, a phone call followed by a permission-based email or LinkedIn message is safer and, in practice, converts better. If you are unsure, take advice from a data protection specialist; the cost of getting it wrong is far higher than the cost of a compliance review.

This is not a reason to avoid the channel. It is a reason to run it properly. A documented process, a clean suppression list and a team that understands the rules will let you use new incorporation data confidently and repeatedly.