TL;DR:
Ten minutes of research is enough: company basics, recent news, the person, then three questions to ask.
Research only to make the call about them. Do not recite what you found.
Save the notes in one place so you can reuse them after the call.
You have a call in twenty minutes with someone you know only by a name and a company. You could open with "So, tell me about your business", but that wastes their time and tells them you did not prepare. A short routine gets you far enough to ask better questions than that.
What the research is for
The aim is not to impress the prospect with facts. It is to understand their situation well enough to ask useful questions and to avoid obvious mistakes, such as pitching something they already have or naming a product they dropped. Everything you collect should help you ask a question or choose what to say.
Before you start
Open a blank note or document with four headings: Company basics, Recent news, The person, Questions.
Have the calendar invite or earlier email open so you know what was said before.
Set a timer for ten minutes. The limit stops research from becoming a way to avoid the call.
Use public pages only: the company's own site, its public posts, and news articles. Do not try to access private information.
Step by step
Read the company's own site (3 minutes): Open the home page and the About page. Write down what they sell, who they sell to, and roughly how large they appear to be, using words from their own page.
Search for recent news (2 minutes): Search the company name in a search engine, then look at the news results or the company's blog. Note anything from the last few months: a launch, a new location, a hire, a change of direction.
Look up the person (2 minutes): Find their public professional profile. Note their role, how long they have been in it, and what they seem to be responsible for. Do not comment on personal details.
Check your own records (1 minute): Look in your inbox and CRM for earlier conversations with anyone at the company, so you do not ask them something they already answered.
Write three questions (2 minutes): Turn gaps into open questions. Each should start with how, what or why and be about their work, not your product.
Worked example: a ten-minute pre-call research checklist
Say you sell scheduling software and you have a call with Dana, operations manager at a small dental clinic group. The company is made up for this example. Here is the note after ten minutes.
Section | What you wrote |
|---|---|
Company basics | Group of clinics. Site lists several locations and an online booking page. Mostly families, based on their wording. |
Recent news | Blog post says they opened a new location this year. Hiring front-desk staff, according to the careers page. |
The person | Operations manager. Profile says she moved into the role recently, previously ran one clinic. |
Earlier contact | She replied to our email last week asking for a call. No other history. |
Questions | 1. How do bookings get changed today when a patient cancels? 2. What changes when a new location opens? 3. What would make this quarter a success for you? |
Check what the note gives you. The new location and the hiring page suggest growth, which is a reason to ask question 2. Her recent move into the role is a reason to ask question 3 rather than assume her priorities. None of those facts need to be recited on the call; they only shape the questions.
Also write one line at the bottom: what you would like to be true at the end of the call, such as "agree on a second call with the person who handles bookings". It keeps you pointed at a next step.
Mistakes to avoid
Reading out facts at the prospect. "I saw you opened a new location" is fine once, as a reason for a question. A list of facts sounds like surveillance.
Treating a news article as certain. A headline may be old or about a different company with a similar name, so check the date and the name.
Researching for an hour. After about ten minutes the extra detail rarely changes what you ask.
Prepping only the company and forgetting the person. The same company can have people with very different concerns.
Not saving notes. After the call, add what you learned to the same document so the next call starts from there.
Doing it faster
Keep the four-heading note as a template and copy it for each call. Open the tabs you need in one go, and write while you read rather than afterwards. If you like talking things through, DuckyHelper is always there on your computer: press its key and ask out loud what a page you are reading is saying, while you carry on.
Frequently asked questions
What if I can find almost nothing about the company?
Then your questions do the work. Say you have not found much and ask them to describe what they do. Honest curiosity is better than a guess.
Should I mention my research on the call?
Once, briefly, when it explains a question. For example, "I noticed you opened a new location, how did you handle the booking side?"
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