Five minutes of research before a call changes the conversation from "let me tell you about us" to "I see what you're dealing with." Research is the difference between a generic pitch and a relevant question — and relevance is what earns attention. The BDR researches before cold opening an account; the SDR researches before working an inbound or existing-account conversation. Same craft, same checklist.
The 5-minute checklist
Here is the asset — do these in this order, and stop:
- Company (60s). Their one-line 'what we do,' industry, and size. You can't sound relevant without it.
- Person (60s). Role, tenure at the company, and what they post about. Tenure tells you their priorities; recent posts tell you what they care about now.
- Trigger (90s). Any recent change — funding, a hire, a launch, a job posting. A current trigger is the strongest opener you own.
- Problem (90s). The ONE likely problem they have, based on size and industry. Write it as a hypothesis.
- Angle (30s). Your one-line reason to be there, tied to the trigger and the problem. That's your opening question.
The point of research is a better question
Research isn't fact-collection; it produces exactly one thing — a sharp, specific opening question. "What are you focused on this quarter?" is a fine fallback, but "I saw you're scaling the sales team — how are you handling onboarding of new reps?" is research. Ask the sharp question and you've already separated yourself from the rep who read a script. Pair it with a tight ICP and every minute of prep goes into accounts worth it.
The discipline: stop at five minutes
The trap is over-researching to delay the call. A full-site read and five years of press releases feel productive and change nothing. Five minutes buys the opening question; the rest of the discovery call answers it. Build the checklist habit and you'll walk into every conversation prepared without burning your morning.
Start here
You know what to research. Next, you need a way to actually reach the person you researched — how to find someone's email address legitimately, and which methods are compliant. And when your pipeline needs new names to research, Sales Navigator turns a filter combo into an ICP-fit list in minutes.