Account Research

Skill: Account Research

Duration: 20–40 minutes per account Output: outputs/[date]-[account]-research.md

Quick Start

Read skills/account-research/SKILL.md and research [company.com]

That's it. Claude will read your ICP, signals, and competitor context automatically and produce a structured research brief. See examples/sample-company/outputs/2024-03-15-research-northstar-analytics.md for what the output looks like.

Purpose

Build a complete intelligence brief on a target account before any outreach. The goal is not a company summary you could get from their About page. The goal is to find the specific trigger — the moment, the hire, the product shift, the funding event — that makes this the right time to reach out, and the right angle to use.

When to Run This Skill

• Before any Tier 1 outreach (always)
• Before a discovery call (refresh if research is older than 2 weeks)
• When a signal fires and you need to build a personalized first touch
• When an account enters the pipeline and the AE needs full context

Inputs

• Account name and domain
• context/icp-definition.md — to score fit
• context/signal-library.md — to check for active signals
• context/competitor-radar.md — to flag competitive context
• context/personas/ — to identify the right stakeholders

Research Steps

Step 1: Company Snapshot (5 min)

Pull the basics. Don't stop here — this is table stakes.

• Funding history: Last round, amount, date, lead investors. Calculate months since last raise.
• Headcount and growth: Current size, growth rate over last 12 months. Is it accelerating?
• Recent hires: What roles have they added in the last 90 days? Especially in GTM, ops, data, or the function your product serves.
• Product updates: Recent changelog, press releases, or product announcements. Are they expanding into an area relevant to your product?
• Tech stack: What tools are they using? Identify integration opportunities and displacement signals.

Sources: LinkedIn, Crunchbase, BuiltWith, their own blog and changelog.

Step 2: Stakeholder Map (10 min)

Identify the 2–3 people to reach. Reference context/personas/ for titles and roles to target.

For each stakeholder:

• Full name and current title
• Time in role (shorter tenure = more likely to be making changes)
• Recent activity: LinkedIn posts, conference talks, published content — what are they thinking about?
• Mutual connections or shared context (alumni, past companies, investors in common)
• Best channel based on their activity patterns

Step 3: Signal Check (5 min)

Reference context/signal-library.md. For each Tier 1 and Tier 2 signal:

• Is this signal present for this account?
• When did it fire?
• What's the current signal score?

If score ≥ 60: outreach should go out within 48 hours. If score < 40: note the gap and flag what would change the picture.

Step 4: Competitive Context (5 min)

Reference context/competitor-radar.md.

• Is there any evidence they use a competitor? (Job postings, tech stack, content)
• If yes: which competitive angle applies?
• Are they evaluating alternatives? (Job postings for vendor evaluation, RFP language on LinkedIn)

Step 5: The Angle (10 min)

This is the only thing that matters. Everything above was research. This step is judgment.

Answer these questions:

1. Why now? What's the specific event or condition that makes this the right moment to reach out? If you can't answer this, don't reach out yet.

2. Why us? What's the specific capability or outcome that maps to their current situation — not our general value prop, but the specific thing they need right now?

3. What's the hook? The first line of the email. It should reference something specific — a recent hire, a product move, a funding event — and connect it to a relevant insight. Not "I saw you raised Series B." Something they'd actually want to read.

4. Who leads? Which stakeholder gets the first touch, and in what channel?

Output Format

# Account Research: [Company Name]
Date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
Researched by: [Claude / Name]
Signal score: [X/100]
Recommended action: [Immediate outreach / Sequence / Monitor / Skip]

## Company Snapshot
[2–3 sentences: what they do, stage, recent momentum]

## Funding & Growth
- Last round: [Amount, Date, Lead]
- Headcount: [X, growth rate]
- Key recent hires: [Roles, dates]

## Tech Stack
- [Tools identified]
- Integration opportunities: [List]
- Displacement signals: [List]

## Stakeholder Map
| Name | Title | Tenure | Reach via | Notes |
|------|-------|--------|-----------|-------|
| [Name] | [Title] | [X months] | [Channel] | [Key context] |

## Active Signals
| Signal | Status | Fired | Score contribution |
|--------|--------|-------|-------------------|
| [Signal] | Active/Inactive | [Date] | +[X] pts |

## Competitive Context
[Any competitor usage or evaluation signals]

## The Angle
**Why now:** [Specific trigger]
**Why us:** [Specific fit]
**Hook:** [Proposed first line]
**Recommended sender:** [Name / Role]

## Suggested Next Action
[Specific: which sequence, which template, which stakeholder, which channel]

Quality Check

Before filing the output, confirm:

• The "why now" is specific — a datable event or observable condition, not a generic assumption
• The stakeholder map has at least 2 people with contact info
• Signal score is calculated and recorded
• The hook would make sense to someone who doesn't know our product
• Competitive context has been checked