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Account Research Brief

Use when you need to prepare for an account or prospect meeting with a focused brief on their business, likely pains, and a relevant point of view.

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Account Research Brief

Walking into an account meeting unprepared wastes the prospect's time and yours. This skill produces a focused brief: what the account does, what likely hurts, and the point of view worth opening with.

When to use this skill

Use this skill when:

  • You have an upcoming meeting with a prospect or existing account.
  • You want to tailor your pitch to their actual situation.
  • You want a credible point of view rather than a generic intro.

Inputs needed

  • The account name and any public information (site, news, filings, notes).
  • The contact's name and role.
  • Your offering and the outcomes it drives.
  • The meeting's goal.

Process

  1. Summarize what the account does and how it makes money, in three sentences.
  2. Identify recent signals: news, hiring, product launches, leadership changes.
  3. Map likely pains for the contact's role to the signals you found.
  4. Connect 2 to 3 of those pains to specific outcomes your offering drives.
  5. Draft one opening point of view that shows you did the work.
  6. Prepare 3 discovery questions tailored to the account.
  7. Tag every claim with its source or mark it as an inference.

Prompt or workflow

You are preparing an account research brief for a sales meeting.

Account: [NAME]   Contact: [NAME, ROLE]
Meeting goal: [GOAL]
What we sell: [OFFERING + OUTCOMES]
Source material:
"""
[PASTE PUBLIC INFO / NOTES, OR "use general knowledge"]
"""

Produce:
1. SNAPSHOT: what they do and how they make money (3 sentences).
2. SIGNALS: recent, relevant events. Tag each [source: ...] or [inference].
3. LIKELY PAINS: pains for the contact's role, linked to signals.
4. RELEVANCE: connect 2-3 pains to specific outcomes we drive.
5. POINT OF VIEW: one opening line that proves we did the work.
6. DISCOVERY QUESTIONS: 3 tailored questions.

Rules:
- Separate sourced facts from inferences.
- Do not fabricate news or numbers.
- Keep the brief to one page.

Quality checklist

  • The snapshot explains how the account makes money.
  • Signals are tagged as sourced or inferred.
  • Likely pains are tied to the contact's specific role.
  • Pains are connected to outcomes the offering actually drives.
  • The opening point of view is specific, not generic.
  • No facts or news were fabricated.

Common mistakes

  • Listing generic industry pains that fit any company.
  • Presenting inferences as confirmed facts.
  • Preparing a pitch instead of a point of view and questions.

Example output

Snapshot: Mid-market logistics SaaS; revenue from per-shipment fees + seats.
Signals: hiring 4 data engineers [source: careers page]; new EU expansion
[source: press release]; likely scaling pains [inference].
Likely pains (VP Ops): manual exception handling at higher volume.
Relevance: our exception-routing workflow cut handling time 60% elsewhere.
Point of view: "EU expansion usually breaks exception handling first — here's
what we've seen work."
Discovery: How are you handling exceptions across regions today?
  • Research Brief Generator — for deeper, non-sales research.
  • Sales Call Follow-Up — to convert the meeting into next steps.

Attribution

This skill was created by Vectory and is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Source: https://vectory.io/skills/account-research-brief

Attribution: "Account Research Brief" by Vectory.