How To Research A Prospect Before A Sales Call
Spend ten focused minutes on four sources: your own records, the company’s website (About, customers, pricing, news), recent news or press releases, and current job postings, which show what the company is investing in. Look at the person’s LinkedIn profile yourself. Write down three things you learned and two questions to ask. AI can read and condense the pages, but check its facts.
How To Do It
These steps work with the tools you already have, whatever you use.
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Start With Your Own Records
Check your CRM and inbox first: how they found you, past emails, earlier deals, who else at the company you’ve talked to. It’s the most useful research and the most often skipped.
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Read The Website Like A Buyer
About page, customer stories, pricing, and the careers page. Note what they sell, who they sell to, and how big they seem.
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Look For What Changed Recently
Search the company name in Google News and on their press page. For public companies, the latest filings on SEC EDGAR spell out priorities and risks in plain sight.
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Check The Person
Look at their LinkedIn profile: role, how long they’ve been there, what they post about. A new leader often has a mandate to change things.
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Write A One-Screen Brief
Three facts, one likely priority, two questions, one risk. If it doesn’t change how you run the call, leave it out.
What To Watch Out For
- Use research to ask better questions, not to recite their LinkedIn profile back to them.
- AI chat tools can invent facts about small companies. Check every claim against a real page before you repeat it.
- LinkedIn’s rules don’t allow scraping or automated tools on the site. View profiles yourself, one at a time.
- Time-box it: ten to fifteen minutes for a first call, more only for big deals.
How Octopus Prime Does It
Your Octopus Prime agent reads public web pages one at a time in its own browser, the way you would, and adds what’s in your own CRM and inbox. No scraping and no lists.
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Ask For A Brief
“Brief me on Lakeside Dental before my 2 p.m. with Dr. Patel. What do they offer, anything new, and what have we sent them?”
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It Reads The Public Pages
The company website, its news page and recent articles, each opened and read one at a time. It leaves LinkedIn to you.
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It Adds Your Own History
Past emails, CRM notes and any earlier meeting summaries in the project, so the brief covers what you already know.
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The Brief Lands In The Project
Three facts, two questions and links to every source, so you can check anything that looks off.
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Ready Before Each Call
Set a task due an hour before the call with the agent as owner. It wakes up and writes the brief in time.
From $10/month 30 days free No credit card
Questions
Can AI research prospects for me?
Yes. It can read public pages and your own records and condense them into a short brief. Check the sources, because AI can get facts about small companies wrong.
Does Octopus Prime scrape LinkedIn or build lead lists?
No. It doesn’t scrape or pull lists. It reads public pages one at a time, and since LinkedIn doesn’t allow automated tools, profiles are yours to check.
How long should prospect research take?
About ten to fifteen minutes for a first call. Bigger deals deserve more, but most of the value comes from your own records and the company’s own site.
Where does the brief go?
Into the project for that client or deal, next to your notes and call summaries, so the whole team can see it.
Let your agent do the steps. You approve what matters.
From $10/month 30 days free No credit card
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