Lesson Content
Study the lesson, then apply the steps to a real prospect or business opportunity.
Researching Businesses
1Why research matters
Good outreach begins before the first message. Research helps you understand what a company does, who it serves, how customers contact it and where an AI or digital service may create value.
2Start with the company website
Identify products or services, target customers, locations, contact methods, calls to action, booking process and obvious technology gaps.
3Study the customer journey
Pretend you are a customer. How easy is it to ask a question, request a quote, make a booking, place an order or receive a response?
4Review social media
Look at posting frequency, content quality, video usage, engagement, unanswered comments and whether the company appears to be investing in growth.
5Identify business problems
Do not invent problems. Look for observable signals such as slow enquiry handling, repetitive questions, weak follow-up, poor lead capture, outdated pages or manual processes.
6Find the right decision maker
Depending on the service, this may be the owner, founder, managing director, sales manager, marketing manager, operations manager or customer-service manager.
7Build a research note
Record what the business does, the problem you observed, evidence for that observation, the person you should contact and the service that may be relevant.
8Prepare a hypothesis, not a claim
Your research gives you a hypothesis to discuss. Ask questions before assuming you understand the company’s internal situation.
9Prioritize
Focus on businesses where the problem is meaningful, the company appears commercially active and you can identify a relevant contact.
Assignment Research five prospects from your CRM. For each, write one observation, one possible business problem, one relevant service and three questions you could ask to verify the need.