Contact research

Before you email a prospect, build a short contact brief that tells you who they are, what they own, and why your message belongs in their week. Research earns its keep when it changes the question you ask. The minimum useful brief has the role, a relevant trigger, and a guess at the problem that trigger creates.¹

Build the brief

Keep the note short enough to use while drafting. Fill it with facts you can point to and a decision you need to make.

A practical pass covers the person's role, company, and current project in five minutes.² Add a line for identity, a line for responsibility, a line for current context, and a line for your problem hypothesis. Leave blank anything you cannot verify. The brief is ready when it gives you enough context to ask a specific question without pretending to know the answer.

Verify identity and role

Start by matching the person in your list to the person you intend to contact. That keeps a polished email from landing with someone whose remit does not fit your reason for writing.

A sound pre-contact check covers the job title and role, followed by a review of the person's profile.³ Compare the title with the responsibilities described in the profile and with the reason the contact entered your list. Ask yourself whether this person appears to own the problem, influence it, or simply sit near it. If the public details disagree, pause the draft and resolve the mismatch before moving on.

Map responsibility

A title gives you a starting point. Next, work out why this person belongs in the conversation and what part they may play in a purchase.

Use the company's LinkedIn profile to identify the person being met with and their role.⁴ For each attendee, ask why that person is involved in the sale.⁵ Write the answer in plain language, such as the area they manage, the result they may be measured on, or the decision they may influence. If you cannot explain the person's involvement, keep researching before you write an email that assumes authority.

Questions to answer:

• What responsibility appears to sit with this person?
• Why would this person care about the issue behind the outreach?
• What would make the message useful to them even if they are not the final approver?

Find current context

Look for something that can change the wording of the email. A personal detail has limited use until it tells you what the person may be dealing with now.

A quick scan of LinkedIn activity should include checking whether the prospect posts there.⁶ LinkedIn profiles and job listings can help you research a technical buyer before the first call.⁷ Recent posts, interests in the bio or about section, cover photos, and recommendation sections are all places to look for relevant context.⁸ When a new role or relevant hire prompted the outreach, research the role, company, and priorities before contacting the person.⁹

Record the finding in the person's own professional context. A recent post, a change in remit, a hiring need, or a stated priority can give you a reason to ask about a specific situation. Move on when you have a detail that changes the question you want to ask. Skip details that only prove you visited the profile.

Write the outreach hypothesis

Turn the research into a working explanation of why the person may care. Keep it tentative so the email opens a conversation instead of claiming knowledge you do not have.

Find a nugget you can reference when you reach out to the person.¹⁰ Targeted rapport uses something relevant from the person's background.¹¹ Connect that detail to the trigger and the problem you suspect it creates. Then write a question that lets the recipient confirm, correct, or reject the hypothesis.

Use this sequence in your note:

• Context: what did the person or company make visible?
• Relevance: why could that context matter to this person's work?
• Hypothesis: what problem might follow from it?
• Question: what can the person answer from their own experience?

Keep the reference specific enough to show why you chose them and restrained enough to leave room for correction. If the detail cannot support a useful question, remove it from the email.

Run the send check

Use the final check to decide whether the contact is ready for outreach and whether the message has a reason to exist.

At least 95.4% of contacts added to a pursuit list should have pre-call research.¹² Apply that standard to your email list as well. Before sending, ask whether you can explain the person's remit, the trigger behind the outreach, the problem hypothesis, and the question you want answered. Check that the message uses a detail from the brief and that the detail supports the reason for contacting this person.

When an answer still depends on a guess, return to the relevant research step. When the brief is clear, write the email from the hypothesis and let the recipient test it.

What not to do

These mistakes create avoidable uncertainty before the recipient has read the first line.

• Do not add a contact to a sequence or send before verifying the title.¹³
• Do not treat an account as warm until you have checked that the contact has decision-making authority.¹⁴
• Company research alone leaves the individual unexamined. Research the individual as thoroughly as the company.¹⁵
• Do not send to a generic [email protected] address after you have identified the decision-maker; email that person directly.¹⁶