The job
Right now the sales rep goes into a discovery call with a prospect they know the basics about. Company size. Industry. Website. By the time they’re in the call, they’ve done 20 minutes of research. During the call, they’re still learning the business, still building context, still fishing for what matters.
When the station runs this dish well, the sales rep gets a one-page dossier 24 hours before the call. The prospect company. The people in the room (titles, background, links). The specific business problem they’re likely facing based on industry trends and company signal. One thing the rep should mention to signal that they’ve done their homework. That rep walks in informed. The first 10 minutes is spent connecting, not educating.
The difference between research that changes the call and research that’s busy work is knowing the destination upfront. The destination isn’t “here’s their website information.” It’s “walk in already informed.” That means the rep knows what keeps this business up at night, not just their revenue size.
The recipe
All seven ingredients still apply. The leverage on this dish is Output Over Process (Ingredient #5). Don’t tell the station how to find research. Tell the station the destination: the rep should walk in knowing the specific problem this prospect is probably facing. The station figures out the method.
Context matters. The station knows your industry, your target customer profile, the problems you solve. Examples matter. Show the station three dossiers you’d be proud to hand a rep. What format. How much detail. What level of insight. Guardrails matter. The dossier includes public information only. Nothing from private sources. Nothing from confidential customer calls.
How to build it
- Define your target customer profile. The company size, industry, role that’s a fit. For a home services software company, maybe it’s “facilities management teams, 50-200 employees, commercial real estate.” For a SaaS company, maybe it’s “marketing leaders, 20-50M revenue, technology or services sector.”
- Define the business problems your target customers face. What keeps them up at night. For the facilities team, maybe it’s “labor scheduling and compliance.” For the marketing leader, maybe it’s “resource planning and attribution.” These are the problems the rep should know about before the call.
- Identify the sources of public signal about a prospect. Company website. LinkedIn company page and employee profiles. Recent news. Industry reports. Customer reviews. Job postings. These are where the station finds the research.
- Define your dossier format. Company summary (one paragraph). People in the room (name, title, one line background). Business problems they’re likely facing (based on company size, industry, recent signal). One smart question (based on their business, not a template). That’s it.
- Pull three dossiers you’d hand to your best rep. This is your standard.
- Test on a mock run. Give the station three prospect companies with names and titles for the meeting. It generates dossiers. You read them. Does the rep walk in more informed. Does the dossier surface the real problems this prospect faces. Adjust.
- Go live. After each call, the rep gives feedback. Was the dossier useful. Did it signal that we’d done our homework. Did it surface the actual problem. The feedback tightens the recipe.
What breaks it
- Dossier is generic research theater. The station generates: “Company X was founded in 2010, has 47 employees, raised Series A in 2022.” Generic stuff the rep finds in 90 seconds on LinkedIn. The rep doesn’t walk in more informed. It’s just another document to read. Force the destination. The dossier should surface the specific problem this prospect is facing, not their public biography.
- Problem diagnosis is off. The station thinks a prospect is facing a problem they’re not actually facing based on surface signals. The rep mentions the problem in the first call and the prospect says “actually, that’s not our issue.” The dossier lost credibility. Get the problem diagnosis right by training on your actual customers. What problems do companies this size, in this industry, actually face.
- Format is inconsistent. One dossier is a paragraph. The next is three pages. The rep never knows what to expect or how much time to spend reading. Stick to the format. Same structure every time. Company summary. People. Problems. One smart question. Nothing else.
- Dossier includes confidential signals. The station references a customer’s private feedback about problems competitors are solving. The rep mentions it. The prospect thinks you’re sharing customer data. Stick to public sources only.
- Feedback loop dies. After the call, the rep thinks “the problem diagnosis was wrong” or “that smart question really landed.” The rep never tells the station. The station doesn’t improve because the feedback died.
When it’s working
At week four, the rep gets a dossier before every discovery call. The rep reads it in five minutes. The rep walks in knowing the prospect’s likely business problems. The prospect feels like the rep understands their world before the call starts. Discovery moves faster. The close rate is higher because the conversation starts deeper.
The signal that the recipe is sharp: after a call, the prospect says “you clearly did your homework.” That means the dossier surfaced the right problem.
Monday Move
Define your target customer profile. List the business problems your target customers face. Identify your sources of public signal about prospects. Write one dossier by hand in your format. The station is running by Tuesday.
Dish 3 of 10 on the Research Station. Build-note leverage: Output Over Process (Ingredient #5).