About Follow The Phases
We make good finance expertise easy to see
Experienced finance professionals build their reputations privately: in board meetings, in difficult quarters, in decisions nobody outside the business sees. Clients who have worked with them know exactly how good they are. Almost no one else can tell.
Follow The Phases® is a brand authority agency for established, founder-led fractional CFO and outsourced finance firms. We build and run targeted lead generation campaigns around the expertise, credibility and marketing assets these firms already have, creating or improving what’s necessary to reach suitable buyers and develop qualified business opportunities beyond referrals.
Through the 90-Day Authority Pipeline Programme, we build and launch one agreed, done-for-you lead generation campaign within 90 days.
Our focus
A specialist agencyfor fractional finance firms
We work with one kind of business: established fractional finance firms. We are not a generalist marketing agency, and we do not offer unrelated activities to every industry.
Our focus is the connection between a firm’s expertise, its credibility, its visibility and the enquiries it receives. We believe those things should work together, not separately.
Our mission
To help fractional CFO and outsourced finance firms build sustainable routes to new business beyond referrals.
We do this by turning existing expertise, proof and marketing assets into targeted, connected lead generation campaigns.
What we stand for
How we think about the work
Respect what referrals prove
Referrals are evidence that the work is trusted. We build alongside them, never against them.
Existing assets come first
We do not start by creating a new report, assessment or content programme. We look at what you already have, decide what is commercially useful and identify what is genuinely missing.
One campaign with a job
A single, focused campaign with a clear commercial purpose beats a stream of disconnected activity. Content, positioning, proof, distribution and follow-up should all work towards the same objective.
Evidence before claims
We start from research and real proof, and we never inflate a claim.
Commercial value over activity
We judge a campaign by the quality of engagement and the opportunities it supports, not by how much content is published or how many impressions it earns.
Honest about control
We control delivery and activation. We influence response. We do not control buying decisions, and we say so.
What makes us different
Built aroundwhat you already have
Many firms have excellent expertise and strong client relationships, and still depend heavily on introductions for new business. A prospective buyer needs reasons to trust a specialist firm before becoming a client. Brand authority makes relevant expertise, evidence and credibility easier for the wider market to recognise and engage with.
We start by examining the expertise and marketing resources a firm already has. Rather than automatically proposing more marketing materials, we identify the strongest opportunity, improve what’s necessary and connect the relevant elements into one targeted campaign.
- Specialist understanding of the fractional finance market
- Strategic communications expertise
- A focused delivery model built around the assets you already have
How we work with you
Direct access,clear roles
Direct access to Tariq
Tariq personally leads the strategy, development and launch of your campaign, so you work directly with the person responsible for it. There are no layers of account management between you and the work.
You approve at two points
You agree the Campaign Blueprint before we build, and you approve the campaign before it launches.
Clear roles on both sides
We manage the agreed marketing. You provide expertise, decisions and approvals, typically one to two hours a week. Your team handles sales conversations, proposals and closing.
You own what we build
You keep the agreed completed materials, subject to the terms of our agreement. Our own methods and frameworks remain ours.
Our method
Research first, then a system
We reviewed 200 UK fractional CFO and FD profiles to understand how experienced practitioners were, or were not, turning private credibility into visible authority. The findings became Beyond Referrals: The Fractional CFO Authority Report 2026 .
That research shaped the Authority Flywheel™ at its centre: six stages, worked in order, around your firm’s expertise and the marketing assets it already has. It is the method behind every engagement.
We follow our own method
We apply the same thinking to our own marketing. These are Authority Assets we built from our own expertise.
- Research
Beyond Referrals
Our research into 200 UK fractional CFO and FD profiles, and the three-tier framework that shows where a firm sits.
- Diagnostic
Authority Gap Scorecard
A 15-question diagnostic that helps show where a firm sits and which Authority Flywheel™ stage may be worth addressing first.
- Educational
Authority Flywheel™ Guide
The method behind our work, explained for firm owners.
They show how we work. They are not client results.
Our founder
Founded by Tariq Peters
“My background is public relations. The job was always the same: take credibility that already exists and help the right people see it, trust it and act on it. I saw the same pattern again and again in finance. The expertise was real, the clients were loyal, and the public picture showed a fraction of it.”
Tariq founded Follow The Phases® to help finance firms make their expertise visible and connect it to new business opportunities, and created the Authority Flywheel™, which is part of the P.H.A.S.E.S.® Brand Authority System. He has more than eight years of experience across strategic communications, public relations and brand positioning, and he personally leads the strategy, development and delivery of every campaign, with clear accountability from strategy through to launch.
He also wrote Beyond Referrals: The Fractional CFO Authority Report 2026, based on research into 200 UK fractional CFO and FD profiles.
Recognition
- PRWeek UK 30 Under 30 Honouree
- CIPR Accredited PR Practitioner
- Judge for CIPR Excellence Awards ’25, ’26 and PRWeek UK Awards ’21
- Author of Beyond Referrals: The Fractional CFO Authority Report 2026
Talk to us
Start with aconversation
The quickest way to see whether we can help is a free 25-minute Clarity Call with Tariq. You can also reach us at hello@followthephases.co.uk or on LinkedIn.
Turning trusted expertise into opportunities beyond referrals