At a glance
- Strong financials validate opportunity, but compelling narratives create conviction
- Most business cases fail due to unclear problem definition and missing human context
- Mastering strategic storytelling positions financial professionals to serve clients beyond compliance
While Innovate UK prepares to open Future Leaders Fellowships to distribute £110 million through ambitious research and innovation projects, its Smart Grant programme was recently paused after recording just a 2.8% success rate – 46 projects funded from 1,645 applications.
Meanwhile, SME bank loan success rates dropped from 80% in 2018 to around 50% in 2024.
This complex funding landscape presents both challenges and opportunities for accountants as clients increasingly seek guidance beyond traditional compliance work.
Funding specialists agree that even technically sound applications can fail because applicants struggle to clearly articulate what they’re trying to achieve. This gap between financial competence and narrative clarity is slowly creating a new advisory niche – one that combines spreadsheet skills with strategic communication.
Spreadsheets don’t sell
Lauren Regan, a communications consultant who works with businesses on funding applications, sees this pattern repeatedly in her practice.
“Strong financials demonstrate viability, but they rarely inspire commitment on their own. What makes a case persuasive is a clear, coherent narrative that frames the opportunity in human, economic, and strategic terms,” she says.
This common disconnect reflects a fundamental reality in funding decisions. Assessors and decision-makers are rarely subject matter experts in applicants’ fields. They evaluate proposals based on confidence in delivery, evidence of market understanding, governance, and their own priorities rather than technical expertise.
“Funders and boards want to understand the ‘why’ behind the numbers: what’s the core problem being solved? Who benefits? Why now? A compelling narrative creates context for the data, brings clarity to risk, and connects the proposal to a wider mission or social value. In a competitive field, it’s the story that helps your case stand out and stick,” Regan says.
The most successful applications combine rigorous data with narratives that help non-specialists understand not just what businesses plan to do, but why it matters and how success will be measured.
Building a compelling narrative
If you’re advising clients on a funding application or business case, focus on developing a narrative that captures genuine distinctiveness. Regan recommends three core elements that funding assessors consistently seek.
“I work with clients to structure their thinking around what makes their offering unique, not just in terms of the product or service being offered but the journey it took to get there, the people behind the brand and the values that drive them,” she says.
The process begins with defining the challenge clearly and evidencing genuine market need, then demonstrating how the proposed solution addresses that need effectively. “We also go a step further, by humanising the content through social proof – that could be a case study, a testimonial or a scenario that illustrates the impact,” Regan says.
A similar approach proved effective for cloud accounting platform iplicit, which raised £25 million without a traditional pitch deck.
CEO Lyndon Stickley says financials should validate the story you’re telling and the opportunity you’re offering.
“What is your startup’s story? What traction has it gained since launch? Is there complete clarity on the problem your product or service is solving, and the size of this market opportunity?
That’s what’s going to resonate with investors. They’ll take a rough pitch deck with an authentic story over a shiny deck that doesn’t excite them,” he says.
Rather than relying on presentation materials, Stickley focused on building genuine momentum.
“In my experience, the best time to start generating interest is when you don’t actually need money. If you build something exciting, generate good traction over time, and start nurturing relationships with investors early-on, they’ll eventually want in, before you even need them,” he says.
iplicit received 58 expressions of interest without a pitch deck or making a single outbound call to a venture capitalist, growth or private equity fund. “Why? Because we built a magnet, not a brochure,” Stickley says.
Common pitfalls to avoid
Even well-funded businesses with solid financials can derail their applications through predictable missteps:
- Drowning in process complexity: don’t bury unique capabilities beneath layers of operational details and industry jargon.
- One-size-fits-all messaging: one proposal shouldn’t be recycled across different funding opportunities without considering what matters to each specific audience. Grant assessors prioritise different criteria than private investors or company boards.
- Missing the story: many present detailed budgets and financial projections but fail to explain the basic narrative – what problem exists, how the business can solve it, and why it matters to the target audience.
- Desperation signals: avoid rushed or overly eager applications. Experts say this can signal financial distress, immediately shifting the power dynamic and raising red flags about business stability.
The real challenge isn’t always in teaching businesses to tell better stories – it’s convincing them that their innovative ideas aren’t as obvious to others as they seem to themselves.
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