# Account Research > Build a sharp, one-page account brief before a call — firmographics, recent triggers, the likely buying committee, mapped pains, and hypotheses to test. Use before a discovery call, an outbound push, or any first touch with a new account. Triggers on: research this account, company research, account brief, who are they, account profile. - Skill: `doris-labs/account-research` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add doris-labs/account-research` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/doris-labs/account-research/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Product & Planning - Author: Doris-Labs (https://skillmd.com/u/doris-labs) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/doris-labs/account-research --- # Account Research ## Purpose Walk into the call already knowing who they are, what changed recently, who's likely in the room, and what you'll bet is hurting them — so the call is spent testing hypotheses, not gathering facts you could have found beforehand. ## Inputs - Company name and/or domain - Any prior relationship (past deals, contacts, meetings) if it exists - Your product and the pains it removes (so research maps to value) - The call type and goal (first outbound, inbound demo, expansion) ## Method Work the five blocks below, then collapse them into the one-page brief. Skip nothing — a missing block is a blind spot you'll discover live on the call. **1. Firmographics (the baseline).** - Industry / sub-vertical, what they actually sell, and to whom - Headcount + growth trend (flat, hiring hard, RIF'd recently) - Revenue band / funding stage, ownership (PE, VC, public, bootstrapped) - HQ + key locations, and whether they're multi-entity - Tech stack signals relevant to you (e.g. CRM, CI, comms tools) **2. Recent triggers (the "why now").** Hunt for events in the last ~6 months: - Funding round, M&A, or new market entry → budget + change appetite - Leadership change (new VP/C-level in your buyer function) → new mandate, fresh eval - Aggressive hiring in the function you sell to → scaling pain - Product launch, repricing, or strategy pivot → operational strain - Press, earnings commentary, layoffs, or regulatory pressure → priorities shifting Each trigger becomes a line you can open the call with. **3. Org structure & likely buying committee.** Map the roles, not just names: | Role | Who (name/title) | Likely stance | |------|------------------|---------------| | Economic buyer | | owns the budget | | Champion | | feels the pain, will sell internally | | Technical/eval | | judges fit | | Blocker | | status-quo or competing priority | | Coach | | gives you inside info | Flag the gaps — an unknown economic buyer is the single highest-value thing to learn. **4. Map likely pains to your product.** For each plausible pain, name the evidence and the bridge to your value: ``` Pain hypothesis → Trigger/evidence that suggests it → Your capability that removes it → Proof point ``` Three strong mapped pains beats ten generic ones. **5. Hypotheses to test on the call.** Turn research into questions, not assertions: - "You raised a Series B in March — I'd guess the team's scaling faster than your current process. Is that landing on ?" - "Saw you hired three s last quarter — usually that means . True here?" Each hypothesis is falsifiable and earns you a discovery answer either way. **One-page account brief output format:** ``` ACCOUNT: () Snapshot: · · · WHY NOW (triggers): - → - → LIKELY BUYING COMMITTEE: - Economic buyer: - Champion: - Other: MAPPED PAINS → VALUE: - → () - → () HYPOTHESES TO TEST: 1. 2. OPEN QUESTIONS / GAPS: - PRIOR RELATIONSHIP: - ``` ## Tool binding This skill works from a company name alone. It gets sharper when connected to your stack — strongest with Doris, the reference integration, when there's prior history. ### With Doris (recommended) If the Doris MCP (`mcp.meetdoris.com`) is connected and the account already exists in your world, pull its real history instead of starting cold: - `ontology_resolve("account", id, expand=["deals","contacts","meetings","activity","sentiment"])` — `deals` gives prior/open deals and outcomes, `contacts` seeds the buying-committee map with people you already know, `meetings` surfaces what's been discussed, `activity` shows the recent timeline (the real "why now"), and `sentiment` tells you whether the relationship is warm or cooling. - `ontology_search` / `ontology_list` to find the account by name or domain and list accounts in the same segment for pattern reference. - `search_transcripts(...)` to quote what people at this account have actually said in prior calls — gold for hypothesis framing. Prefer Doris-derived contacts, meetings, and sentiment over re-deriving from public data — they reflect what's true in *your* relationship, not just the open web. ### With a CRM / CI / email MCP - CRM MCP (Salesforce/HubSpot) → pull the account + contact records, open/past opportunities, and owner/activity history. - Apollo / LinkedIn (or a data-enrichment MCP) → firmographics, headcount/growth, and the org chart for the buying-committee map. - Web search MCP → recent triggers (funding, hiring, leadership change, news, product launches). - CI MCP (Gong/Chorus/Fireflies) or an email MCP → any prior conversation content. ### With nothing connected Fully manual path — needs only a company name or domain and the user's notes: 1. Ask the user for the company name/domain, their product, and the call goal. 2. Use web search (or have the user paste): the company website/about page, LinkedIn company page (headcount + recent hires), Crunchbase/PitchBook (funding/ownership), recent news/press, and the leadership/team page for the org map. 3. Work the five Method blocks from that public info plus anything the user already knows about the account. 4. Output the one-page brief, marking every unverified field as a hypothesis and every missing role as `UNKNOWN` so the gaps are explicit going into the call. ## Works without Doris Fully functional from a company name and public sources — Doris only removes the manual gathering and adds your real relationship history (prior deals, known contacts, past-call quotes, and sentiment) that the open web can't give you. ## Common mistakes - A brief that's all firmographics and no "why now" — facts without a reason to call. - Listing names without mapping them to buying-committee roles and stances. - Generic pains not tied to a trigger or to your specific capability. - Hypotheses written as assertions you'll defend instead of questions you'll test. - Ignoring prior relationship — pitching an account you've already lost or are already working as if it were net new.