- Small Size
- Finance
Reducing Prospecting Costs for Financial Services Lead Generation
Client Overview
A newly established, fully licensed UK bank specialising in SME financial services, with a strategic focus on expanding into the asset finance market. The organisation aimed to scale its customer acquisition while maintaining strict control over prospecting and operational costs — a common challenge in financial services lead generation.
This case study is relevant for:
UK banks, lenders, asset finance providers and financial services organisations seeking to improve financial services lead generation, reduce customer acquisition costs and increase the quality of SME prospects.
Ready to get started
Discover how data-driven intelligence can transform financial services lead generation and reduce prospecting spend.
The Financial Services Lead Generation Challenge
As the bank entered the competitive asset finance market, it faced several challenges common across financial services lead generation teams:
High prospecting costs
- Traditional prospecting methods required multiple analysts and external data sources, costing £20,000–£25,000 per campaign.
Low lead relevance
- Only 30–35% of identified prospects matched the bank’s ideal criteria for asset ownership, borrowing behaviour and risk profile.
Limited visibility of customer events
- Manual processes made it difficult to identify renewal opportunities, fully satisfied charges or changes in competitor lending.
Slow turnaround times
- Prospecting and analysis typically took 3–4 weeks, delaying outreach and reducing conversion potential.
The bank needed a faster, more accurate and cost-effective approach to financial services lead generation, without increasing headcount or budget.
The Financial Services Lead Generation Solution
The organisation partnered with DataGardener to deploy its Lending Intelligence platform, designed to support data-driven financial services lead generation at scale.
Using DataGardener, the bank was able to:
- Identify high-value SME prospects with significant asset holdings and above-average interest exposure.
- Monitor customer and prospect events including renewals, charge satisfaction and borrowing changes.
- Analyse competitor lending behaviour across the asset finance market.
- Discover new prospects with fully satisfied charges, reducing acquisition risk.
- Replace weeks of manual research with near real-time insights.
Prospecting datasets that previously took weeks to assemble were delivered in under one hour, enabling immediate action by commercial teams.
Results: Cost-Efficient Financial Services Lead Generation
Significant Cost Reduction
- 85% reduction in prospecting costs, from ~£25,000 to £3,500–£4,000 per campaign.
- Reduced reliance on manual research and external data providers.
Improved Lead Quality
- High-value prospect match rate increased from 35% to approximately 55–60%.
- 1,200+ qualified SME prospects identified, aligned to asset finance criteria.
- Higher confidence in outreach due to improved risk visibility.
Faster Time to Insight
- Prospecting turnaround reduced from 3–4 weeks to under 24 hours.
- Enabled timely engagement around renewals and competitive switching opportunities
Stronger Market Intelligence
- Analysis of 1,000+ competitor-linked SMEs.
- Greater visibility into pricing pressure and lending patterns across the market.
Together, these outcomes allowed the bank to scale financial services lead generation more efficiently while maintaining strong risk and governance standards.
Client Feedback
“DataGardener gave us a completely new level of clarity in our financial services lead generation. We significantly reduced prospecting costs while improving the quality and relevance of the leads we approached. The insights helped us move faster and with far more confidence.”
— Head of Business Development, UK Bank
Takeaway
For financial services organisations, traditional prospecting methods are increasingly costly and inefficient. By adopting data-driven financial services lead generation, this UK bank reduced acquisition costs, improved lead quality and gained real-time visibility into market opportunities — all without increasing budget or resources.
Ready to get started
See how DataGardener can help you improve financial services lead generation, reduce prospecting costs and identify higher-value opportunities with confidence.
