Course resource

Sales Research Prompt Pack

Preparing for a conversation with a prospect, and preparing for the parts you cannot script.

The hard rule

Never take a fact about a company from AI without checking it. Funding, headcount, customers, revenue, leadership — all frequently fabricated and all embarrassing to repeat back to the person who actually works there.

AI's job here is to structure and interpret what you find. Finding is your job, or a search tool's.

Account research

The brief

Here is what I gathered about [COMPANY] from their site, job ads,
recent posts and news:
[PASTE RAW]

Structure it as:
- What they do, in their own words
- Who they sell to
- What is visibly changing right now
- What that change likely creates as a problem
- Where my offer [WHAT I SELL] might connect
- Three things I still do not know that I should

Use only what I pasted. Mark anything you are inferring as an inference.

Reading the job ads

Here are [COMPANY]'s open roles: [PASTE]

What does the hiring pattern suggest they are building or fixing?
Which departments are growing?
What problems do these hires imply they currently have?

Job ads are the most reliable public signal of where a company is investing, and almost nobody in sales reads them.

The trigger event

Here is recent news about [COMPANY]: [PASTE]

Which of these is a genuine trigger for a conversation about [MY OFFER],
and which is just news?
For the genuine ones: what specifically changed for them, and what
does it make urgent?

The person

Here is [PERSON]'s role and public activity: [PASTE]

- What are they likely measured on?
- What would make their quarter good or bad?
- What are they likely sceptical of, given their role?
- What would they need to take to their own boss to justify this?

That last question is the one that closes deals. People buy things they can defend internally.

Discovery call preparation

Meeting with [PERSON, ROLE] at [COMPANY].
What I know: [RESEARCH BRIEF]
What I sell: [OFFER]
What I want from this call: [OUTCOME]

Give me:
- Five open questions that would tell me whether this is a real opportunity
- Three questions that would surface their actual decision process
- Two objections I should expect from someone in this role
- The one thing I should not say

Questions should be open and specific. No "what keeps you up at night".

Question discipline: the goal of a first call is to find out whether there is a real problem, not to present. If you talk more than they do, it went badly.

During and after

The note-taking prompt

Here are my rough notes from a call with [PERSON] at [COMPANY]:
[PASTE]

Extract:
- The problem, in their words — quote them where you can
- What they have already tried
- Who else is involved in the decision
- Their stated timeline
- Budget signals, if any
- What they asked me that I could not answer
- What they did NOT say that I would expect

The last two lines are the useful ones. Unanswered questions are follow-up material; notable silences are risks.

The honest qualification

Based on these notes: [PASTE]

Assess honestly:
- Is there a real, funded problem here, or is this interest?
- Who actually decides, and have I spoken to them?
- What is the most likely reason this does not close?
- What single piece of information would most change my assessment?

Be sceptical. I would rather disqualify early than chase this for a quarter.

Sales pipelines are full of deals that were never real. This prompt is worth running on everything.

The follow-up

Call notes: [PASTE]
What we agreed: [NEXT STEPS]

Write a follow-up that:
- Summarises the problem in THEIR words, so they see I listened
- Confirms what we agreed and who does what by when
- Answers the question I could not answer on the call: [ANSWER]
- Asks nothing new

Under 150 words. Neutral, not salesy.

The proposal

Write a proposal for [COMPANY].

Their problem, in their words: [QUOTE FROM THE CALL]
Cost of it continuing: [WHAT THEY TOLD YOU]
What we will do: [SCOPE]
What we will not do: [OUT OF SCOPE — be explicit]
Timeline: [REAL ONE]
Price: [PRICE]
What we need from them: [DEPENDENCIES]

Lead with their problem, not our company background.
Include the out-of-scope section — it prevents most disputes.
Do not include a company history section.

The pre-call checklist

The failure to avoid

AI makes it easy to walk into a call sounding researched while knowing nothing. That works until the first real question.

Use these prompts to understand the account. Then close the document and have a conversation.

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