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Updated October 8, 2026
Account research, and what a good brief holds
Account research is what a seller learns about a company before reaching out: what it does, what changed recently, why it might need you now and who you already know there. The output is a short brief a rep can read in a minute before writing the first email or making the first call.
Done by hand, it is the same routine for every account: the website, a news search, the LinkedIn page, then your CRM. At fifteen minutes an account, twenty new target accounts take five hours a week.
- What they do: one line in plain words, plus the products and how they position them.
- What changed: recent news, funding and hiring, each with a date and a link.
- Why now: the one change that makes this a good week to reach out.
- Who you know: contacts already in your CRM, and the titles to find next.
- Sources: where each fact came from, so a rep can check a claim before using it.
In Cleanlist AI the Account briefs agent writes this brief on every account that becomes a target and sends it to the account's owner. You describe the job to Clu once; the agent runs every Monday.
The account research template
Use one template for every account, so briefs read the same way and gaps show at a glance. Seven parts cover most B2B sales: the company, what they do, recent news, funding and hiring, why now, who you know there and the sources. Keep it under a page: the brief is there to make the first call sound informed.
- Company: name, website, industry, size and headquarters.
- What they do: one sentence, then their main products and how they position them.
- Recent news: up to five items from the last six months, each with a date and a link.
- Funding and hiring: the latest round, and the teams they are hiring for.
- Why now: one line tying a recent change to the problem you solve.
- Who you know there: contacts in your CRM and the last time anyone spoke to them.
- Sources: the link behind every fact above.
| Part of the brief | What goes in it | Where the agent gets it |
|---|---|---|
| Company and what they do | The business, its products, positioning and competitors | Research skill, from the company's own pages and the web |
| Recent news | Up to five items, each with a link and a date when known | Research skill |
| Funding and hiring | Funding rounds and hiring signals | Research skill |
| Who you know there | Up to 10 contacts, newest activity first | CRM Look up on the account |
| Who to contact next | People with the titles you sell to, with verified work emails | Find People, then Enrich (optional steps) |
| Talking points | Up to five angles for the first email or call | Write skill, set to Account brief |
| Why now | The change worth opening with | The rep, with the talking points as a start |
What should I include in a pre-call checklist?
A pre-call checklist covers the account, the person, your history with both, and the call itself: the goal, the next step you will ask for and the questions you need answered. Five minutes on it before a call lets the call start on the buyer's problems, with the background already known.
- The account: what they do, what changed recently, their size and market.
- The person: role, time in the role, and anything they have posted or said in public.
- Your history: past deals, open opportunities and the last conversation, from your CRM.
- The goal: what a good outcome looks like for this call, in one line.
- The next step: the meeting, trial or introduction you will ask for.
- Questions: three you need answered to qualify the deal.
- Objections: the one or two you expect, and your answer.
The agent covers the account and who you know there for every new target account. The goal, the next step and the questions stay with the rep, which is where the judgement is.
Can an AI agent do research?
Yes, for the public part of it. An AI agent can search the web, read the pages it finds and write down what it learned with a link to each source, for every account on your list. What it can't know is what nobody wrote down: a conversation your rep had last week that never reached the CRM, or a buyer's private plans.
Cleanlist AI's Research skill works in three moves. It runs up to six web searches, reads the pages that come back, then fills a fixed set of fields from what it read and leaves out what it couldn't find. It looks a company up by its domain as well as its name, and it leaves out anything it can't tie to that company.
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| One-liner | What the company does, in one sentence |
| Industry, size, founding year, headquarters | The basics, where a source states them |
| Products and positioning | What they sell and how they set themselves apart |
| Recent news | Up to five items, each with a headline, a link and a date when known |
| Hiring signals | The roles and teams they are hiring for |
| Funding | Rounds with amount, date and lead investors where public |
| Competitors | Up to ten named competitors |
It reads the public web, so private plans and paywalled sources stay out of reach, and it can be wrong, which is why the searches and pages it read stay with the research in Cleanlist AI. Cleanlist AI does not sell or use intent data.
The Write step that follows uses only these facts, your company profile and the record. Give it too little to go on and it leaves the brief empty.
How to automate prospect research at scale
Automate the parts that repeat and keep the judgement with the rep. A trigger decides which accounts get researched, an agent does the research and writes the brief with sources, and the brief lands where the account's owner already works. Limits on records per run and credits per week keep a big batch of new targets from spending your month.
- Pick the trigger: a target flag or tier field on the account, or new companies that match your ICP.
- Research with sources: the same fields for every account, each backed by a search or a page read.
- Add what your CRM knows: contacts, open deals and recent activity on the account.
- Write one short brief: a few lines and talking points, written from the facts found.
- Deliver it to the owner: a Slack DM or an email, or a note on the CRM account.
- Cap the spend: records per run and credits per week, so a bulk update can't spend your month.
To research leads rather than accounts, the lead qualification agent researches each inbound lead and scores it against your ICP. For the who-to-contact step by hand, see finding decision makers at a list of companies.
What are some effective account intelligence tools?
Account intelligence tools fall into four kinds. Sales intelligence platforms summarize a company from their own data. Intent and ABM platforms estimate which accounts are researching a topic and where they are in a buying journey. Research agents answer the questions you write from the live web. Brief agents research each new target account and send its owner the result.
| Kind of tool | What it does | Examples | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales intelligence platforms | Summarize a company on its account page from the vendor's own data and public information | LinkedIn Sales Navigator (Account IQ) | Reps who prospect inside LinkedIn |
| Intent and ABM platforms | Tie topic research and anonymous website visits to accounts, and estimate where each one is in its buying journey | 6sense, Demandbase | Marketing and sales teams running account-based programs on intent signals |
| Research agents you prompt | Answer a question you write about each company from the web and return structured results | Clay (Claygent) | A RevOps or GTM engineer building custom research columns |
| Account brief agents | Research each new target account with sources, add who you know from the CRM and send its owner a brief | Cleanlist AI | Teams that want a brief on every new target account, every week, without building it by hand |
Account research and intent data answer different questions. Intent platforms estimate which accounts might be in market; account research tells a rep what is true about one account and who to talk to there. Cleanlist AI does not sell or use intent data: the agent researches the public web and reads your CRM, with sources. For the wider categories, see the intent data providers we compared, sales intelligence tools by job and our Claygent review.
What is a pre-call?
A pre-call is the preparation a seller does before a sales call: reading up on the account and the person, checking the history in the CRM and deciding what the call should achieve. Pre-call planning, also called call planning, turns that into a habit, with the same steps before every call so nothing important is left to memory.
- Read the account brief: what they do, what changed and who you know there.
- Check the person: their role, how long they have held it and what they have said in public.
- Check your history: open deals, past conversations and who on your team knows them.
- Set one goal and one next step: what this call must achieve and what you will ask for at the end.
- Write three questions: the ones that would qualify or disqualify the deal fastest.
The agent handles step one for every new target account. For meetings, an agent can start from Google Calendar instead: A Google Calendar meeting is starting picks up each outside attendee a set number of hours before the meeting, so a brief can reach the rep before the call.
What it costs, and which plan runs it
Research and the brief are charged in credits per account; the pricing page lists the current rates. The trigger, the CRM look up, the Slack DM or email and a CRM note cost nothing. If you add Find People and Enrich, the search is free, a verified work email costs 1 credit and a phone number 10, and nothing is charged when none is found.
Running the agent needs Pro (from $89 a seat a month, $67 billed annually), which includes 5 active agents across the workspace, or Enterprise for unlimited agents. The 14-day Pro trial lets you build the agent and review its play; testing it and turning it on need a paid plan.
Every agent Clu builds carries two limits you set: records per run, and a credit limit counted across all its runs per week on a weekly schedule like this one (a rolling 24 hours with no schedule). When it is reached, runs stop until the window resets, so marking two hundred accounts as targets in one afternoon can't spend your month.
