prospectResearch can expand to fill any amount of time you give it. A checklist helps you stop collecting interesting facts and start answering the questions that make a business worth pursuing.
Check company identity, customer fit, territory, and a relevant contact route. Record the evidence and the question that remains. Finish with a decision and next action so another person can continue the research.
Use the first pass to decide whether the company belongs, and the second to prepare the next action.
Define the decision before opening the website
Write a short statement describing the intended customer and why your service might fit. For example, an illustrative supplier might target commercial repair companies within its delivery area that handle equipment it supports.
That statement determines what you need to find. If the location is outside your service territory, a lengthy review of its leadership team will not make it a better prospect. If the company serves only residential customers and you sell exclusively to industrial sites, record the mismatch early.
Keep assumptions out of the fit statement. A company being large, successful, or visible in search does not establish that it needs what you sell.
Pass one checks whether the business belongs
Use this short screen before deeper research:
| Check | Evidence to record | Decision if unresolved |
|---|---|---|
| Correct business | Name, domain, relevant address | Resolve identity first |
| Relevant customer type | Service or product page | Needs research |
| Relevant territory | Location or service-area page | Confirm coverage |
| Basic operational fit | Observable activity related to your offer | Retain only with a clear reason |
| Obvious exclusion | Outside scope or a known restriction | Exclude or suppress appropriately |
A company does not need to pass every possible sales criterion at this stage. It needs enough evidence to justify the next research step. Record why that step is worthwhile.
Pass two prepares the next action
Once the business passes the first screen, gather the details needed to act intelligently. Identify the relevant branch, public contact route, and any indication of who handles the type of decision you need to discuss.
Separate observations from questions. Lists three warehouses is an observation if the website supports it. Needs more storage is a hypothesis. Who manages overflow capacity is a question you might ask later.
Your notes should help another person see those differences immediately. A claim about an unconfirmed problem can damage the first conversation if it is repeated as fact.
Copyable research checklist
- Confirm the business name and public website.
- Identify whether the record represents a company or a branch.
- Record the relevant territory or service area.
- Capture the page that supports the fit reason.
- Note the public contact route and its purpose.
- Record the source checked date.
- Separate confirmed facts from open questions.
- Review existing ownership and contact restrictions.
- Choose Retain, Needs research, Deferred, or Exclude.
- Assign a specific next action and owner when work continues.
Keep this checklist beside the working list. If the same item is repeatedly impossible to answer from public sources, convert it into a conversation question rather than spending unlimited time searching.
Complete a brief another person can use
Here is a fictional completed research brief:
| Question | Research note |
|---|---|
| Which business? | Example Equipment, north branch |
| Why retain it? | Its services page lists commercial refrigeration repair |
| What is the evidence? | Save the specific service-page URL and actual checked date |
| What route is available? | General local office number on the branch page |
| What remains unknown? | Whether this branch selects parts suppliers |
| What happens next? | Assigned rep asks which role handles supplier inquiries |
| What would stop the work? | Branch outside the delivery area or an existing contact restriction |
A handoff is complete when a colleague can locate the source and explain the next task without asking what “good lead” meant. The researcher does not need to establish a budget or buyer from public pages to hand over a sensible first question.
If the colleague cannot tell which branch is involved, return the record for identity research. If the branch is clear but purchasing is unknown, the next task can address purchasing. Those gaps should not receive the same generic “needs more research” note.
Give research a stopping rule
Stop when you have enough information to make the current decision. For an early candidate, that may be a clear fit reason and a public contact route. For an important account, you may need a deeper understanding of branches and purchasing structure.
Do not make every small business receive the same research depth as a strategic account. Instead, define what additional evidence would change your decision. If another ten minutes would only add background, move to the next record.
Track recurring gaps. If many retained companies lack the same information, improve your checklist or create a standard question for the first conversation.
Check the handoff before adding more research
Keep the source beside the qualification note so a colleague can inspect the evidence without repeating the search. Ask them to review one completed record and state the reason for inclusion, the unresolved question, and the next task.
If their interpretation differs from yours, repair the note or the qualification rule. More captured fields will not resolve an unclear decision. Once the handoff is understandable, use the same checklist for the next batch.
Related Questions
How much company research is enough?
Enough to make the current decision and prepare the next useful action. Start with identity, fit, source evidence, and contact route. Go deeper when a specific unresolved question could change whether or how you pursue the account.
Should I record everything I find?
Keep facts that support qualification, preparation, or a later decision. Long company histories and unrelated news make working notes harder to use. Save the source URL when background may be useful later.
Use the qualification worksheet to decide which companies advance, then the pre-call research guide for deeper preparation.
Published by Stephen Modliszewski, publisher of Prospect — Sales Bookmarks. ProspectClip is the extension’s website. Fictional examples and illustrative calculations are teaching aids, not customer results.