--- name: prospect-research-brief description: "Use this skill when you need to research a specific person before reaching out or meeting them: \"look up this prospect\", \"what do I say to Jane\", \"find a personalised first line\". Reads the person's role, tenure, public posts, talks, career moves and company context, and produces a short brief with what they care about, what they are measured on, conversation hooks with sources, and a personalised opener for email and LinkedIn. For SDRs, AEs, founders and recruiters doing B2B outreach." license: MIT metadata: title: Prospect research brief category: research tags: "SDR, Sales, Founders" author: prosyo version: "1.0.0" keywords: "prospect research, research a lead before outreach, personalized outreach research, claude prospect research skill, linkedin prospect research" inputs: "Person name and company, LinkedIn profile or public links, Your offer" outputs: "Person brief, Sourced hooks, Email opener, LinkedIn opener" --- Use this for one person you are about to contact or meet. It produces a brief a rep can read in 60 seconds and a first line that proves the message was written for them. ## Inputs - Name, company and title, plus a profile link if available. - Your offer and the persona this person maps to. - Any CRM history with this person or their company. ## The play ### 1. Confirm the person Check they still work at the company and in the role. Roughly one in five B2B contacts changes jobs each year; a brief about the wrong job is wasted. ### 2. Gather in this order 1. Their own words: posts, comments, articles, podcast or event appearances from the last 6 months. 2. Career path: previous companies and roles, tenure in this role. A person 60 days into a role behaves differently from one 4 years in. 3. Company context: one or two triggers from the account level that land on their desk. 4. Shared ground: same former employer, same community, same school, a mutual customer. Use only if real and relevant. ### 3. Rank the hooks Score each hook on two questions: is it specific to this person, and does it connect to the problem you solve? Keep only hooks that pass both. Read [references/hook-ranking.md](references/hook-ranking.md) for the ranking grid and examples of strong and weak hooks. ### 4. Write the openers One for email, one for LinkedIn. One or two sentences each, built from the strongest hook, ending in a natural bridge to the problem, not to your product. ## Output format ``` Person: - at <company> - <tenure in role> Confirmed current: yes/no (source) Measured on: <likely metrics for the role> What they talk about: <2-3 themes with links> Hooks (ranked): 1. <hook> - <source> - <why it connects> 2. ... Email opener: <1-2 sentences> LinkedIn opener: <1-2 sentences, more conversational> Avoid: <topics or claims to stay away from> ``` ## What good looks like - The opener could not be sent to anyone else. Swap the name and it breaks. - It references their thinking, not their resume. "Loved your post" is weak; "your point that SDR ramp is a data problem, not a training problem" is strong. - When nothing specific exists, the brief says so and falls back to a role-and-trigger opener instead of inventing intimacy. - The common mistake is personalising on trivia (alma mater, hometown, a sports team) that has nothing to do with the reason for the message. ## Rules - MUST confirm the person's current role before writing. - MUST attach a source to every hook. - NEVER use personal life details: family, health, location history, photos. - NEVER claim to have read or watched something you did not. - NEVER mention tracking data such as profile views or website visits in the opener. ## Example prompts - "Research Priya Shah, VP Revenue at Lumen. Write an email and a LinkedIn opener." - "I meet Tom Becker tomorrow. Give me a 60-second brief." - "Find a real hook for each of these 15 prospects, or tell me when there isn't one." --- <!-- references/hook-ranking.md --> # Hook ranking ## The grid | | Connects to your problem | Does not connect | | --- | --- | --- | | **Specific to the person** | Use it. Lead with it. | Use only as a light aside, never as the opener. | | **Generic (role or company level)** | Use when nothing better exists. | Drop it. | ## Hook strength, strongest first 1. **Their stated opinion on the problem you solve.** A post, a talk, a quote in an article. 2. **A change in their remit.** New role, new team, new region, new target. 3. **A project they are visibly running.** Hiring for it, posting about it, speaking about it. 4. **A company trigger that lands on their desk.** Funding with growth targets for a VP Sales. 5. **A peer comparison.** A similar company solved this; name it only if the claim is approved. 6. **Role-level insight.** What people in their role usually wrestle with at their company's stage. ## Strong and weak versions | Weak | Strong | | --- | --- | | "Loved your recent post!" | "Your post on cutting ramp time to 45 days made a point I rarely see: that most of it is list quality, not coaching." | | "Congrats on the new role!" | "Three months into running RevOps at Lumen is usually when the tool audit starts." | | "I see you went to Michigan." | (Drop it unless the message is about Michigan.) | | "Saw you're hiring." | "Four SDR listings in two weeks, all mentioning outbound from scratch, suggests the team is being rebuilt." | ## When there is nothing About a third of prospects have no public activity. Do not fake it. Use the role-and-trigger fallback: "Most heads of operations at multi-site groups your size tell us payroll closes take two to three days. Is that true at Northwind too?" It is honest, it is relevant and it invites a correction, which is still a reply.