An R&D tax credit consultant has two customers for every study: the company that would claim the credit, and the CPA who prepares its return. The CFO or owner pays you. The CPA decides whether the study happens at all, because it is the CPA's name on the return that carries the claim. Consultants who write only to companies keep hearing "let me check with my accountant," and then nothing.
This guide is general information about marketing a specialty service, not tax advice. Credit rules change, so confirm current law and your own credentials before you tell a prospect anything about eligibility.
Who qualifies and who decides
The federal credit (Section 41 of the Internal Revenue Code) is aimed at companies that spend money developing or improving products, processes or software through a process of experimentation. In practice that means manufacturers, engineering and design firms, software companies, food and beverage producers, and contractors who design to custom specs. Your first filter is simple: does this company have engineers, developers, or technicians who test and iterate on something? A staffing agency does not. A machine shop that designs custom fixtures may.
Decision makers differ. At a company with 20 to 200 employees the owner or CFO decides to spend on a study, usually after the CPA mentions it or asks if they've heard of it. At smaller firms the CPA has more influence. A fee that's contingent or fixed is a conversation with the CFO; the engineering documentation behind it is a conversation with the engineering lead, who has to find time for interviews.
The CPA is a partner and a gatekeeper
A CPA firm with 300 business clients has a handful that probably qualify and no spare time to study them. Many CPAs are glad to hand the work to a specialist, provided the specialist doesn't take the client. So the pitch to a CPA is unlike the pitch to a company. You are saying: you keep the client, the tax return and the relationship, and I do the engineering study that you don't have staff for. Offer to write the technical memo in a form the CPA can sign off on, and say what documentation you leave behind in case of an IRS inquiry.
Compare it to a partner arrangement in a neighboring field, such as the fractional CFO relationship with accountants. Same idea: keep the accountant in the middle.
Finding product and engineering companies by name
Build the company list from signals of experimentation: job posts for mechanical, electrical, process or software engineers; patents filed; a new product announced; a new facility. Then name the right person, usually the CFO, controller or owner, using how to find decision makers at a company. For each company, also find its CPA if you can. Many firms list their accountant on their site or in a press release, and a business owner will often tell you if you ask.
The free eligibility review
The first offer is a 30-minute eligibility review, free. You ask five questions: what do you build, who designs it, what did you try that didn't work, what did you spend on engineering wages last year, and has anyone ever looked at the credit. You then say whether a study looks worth doing. Say "worth doing" and "not worth doing" with equal readiness. A consultant who tells everyone they qualify loses credibility fast, and the IRS is not forgiving of weak studies.
Think about your own economics. If a study is an $18,000 flat fee and you want 10 a year, that is $180,000 of revenue and 10 signed engagements. If a typical CPA partner sends you two a year, you need five active partners. If a quarter of eligibility reviews turn into studies, you need 40 reviews, which means about 200 companies written to if one in five replies. That arithmetic tells you why partners matter.
A first email to a CFO
Subject: Engineering wages and the R&D credit
Hi Louise, I help product and engineering companies find out whether their development work qualifies for the federal R&D tax credit. I noticed Brannock Controls hired two firmware engineers this year. If your CPA hasn't looked at the credit, I can do a free 30-minute review and tell you plainly whether a study makes sense. If it doesn't, I'll say so. Would next Tuesday work?
Ethan Roybal, Roybal Credit Advisors, 18 Mercer Street
A separate email to the CPA
Subject: A specialist for your clients with engineering staff
Hi Margaret, I do R&D credit studies for CPA firms' clients and leave the return, the relationship and the client with you. If you have two or three clients with in-house engineers, I'd be glad to do a free review of one and give you a one-page summary you can use however you like. No obligation, and I won't contact the client without your okay.
Ethan Roybal, Roybal Credit Advisors, 18 Mercer Street
Keep the address and an opt-out in both, as CAN-SPAM requires. The promise not to contact the client without permission is the line CPAs care about.
Follow up around filing deadlines
Timing matters. Calendar-year partnership and S-corporation returns are generally due in March and C-corporation returns in April, with extensions that push many filings to September and October. A CPA in the middle of busy season won't read your email. Write in January to set up conversations, in May and June when the pressure is off, and in August before extended deadlines. For the "not now" replies, follow-up wording is here, and for asking your satisfied clients to introduce you, how to ask for referrals.
If you want to see the same partner-first idea in an adjacent trade, getting clients for an accounting firm shows what the CPA's own sales side looks like, and executive search clients uses a very different trigger for a similar senior buyer. Rocketship can find the CFOs and CPAs by name, send both emails from your own Gmail, and keep the follow-up on schedule; see the AI workers.
Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required.