5 Things to Research Before Every Sales Call (Most Reps Skip #3)
Top-performing sales reps don't wing it. They walk in knowing exactly who they're talking to, what that company needs, and how to close them. Here's the five-part framework they use.
Prepared reps close more deals. Full stop.
Study after study confirms it: sales reps who research before a call book more second meetings, handle objections more confidently, and close at a significantly higher rate than reps who wing it. The difference isn't talent. It's preparation.
But here's the problem most sales managers face — there's no standard for what "prepared" actually means. Some reps spend 45 minutes going deep. Others spend 90 seconds skimming a LinkedIn page. Most do something random in between.
This guide gives you and your team a repeatable framework: five specific things to research before every call, and why each one matters.
"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." The same logic applies to sales calls.
What the company actually does — and how they make money
This sounds obvious. It isn't. Too many reps walk into calls with a vague sense of what a company does without understanding how they generate revenue. Are they B2B or B2C? Do they sell a product, a service, or a platform? Are they transactional or subscription-based?
Why it matters: your pitch needs to connect to how they make money. If you sell marketing services to a company that grows entirely through referrals, you need to know that going in. If you sell software to a company that's still running manual processes, that's your opening. Understanding the business model lets you speak their language — revenue, margin, growth — instead of features and functions.
What to look for: their website homepage, About page, and any investor or press materials. LinkedIn company page. Their pricing page if they have one. How they describe themselves in job listings.
Recent news and what's changed in the last 90 days
A company that just raised a Series B is in a very different headspace than one that just laid off 15% of its workforce. A company that just hired a new VP of Sales has a completely different set of priorities than one that's been flat for two years. News is context — and context changes everything about how you sell.
Why it matters: recent news gives you conversation starters that feel natural, not rehearsed. "I saw you just opened your second location — congrats. How are you thinking about [problem you solve] as you scale?" That's not a cold pitch. That's a warm conversation. It also tells you whether the timing is right, whether there's urgency, and whether there's a budget cycle in play.
What to look for: Google News search for the company name. Their press releases and blog. LinkedIn company posts. Any mentions in trade publications. Funding announcements on Crunchbase.
What their customers are saying — the good and the bad
This is the one most reps skip entirely. And it's arguably the most powerful research you can do.
Customer reviews — on G2, Capterra, Google, Glassdoor, Yelp, or Trustpilot depending on the industry — tell you what this company is actually struggling with. Not what they say in their marketing. Not what they told you on the phone. What real customers are complaining about publicly.
Why it matters: pain points are your entry point. If you're selling CRM software and their reviews are full of complaints about slow follow-up and lost leads, you already know what to say. If you're selling staffing services and their Glassdoor reviews show high turnover and management issues, you know they have a people problem. Reviews give you intel that the prospect will never volunteer themselves — and that you can use to show you understand their world.
What to look for: G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, Google Reviews, Glassdoor employee reviews, Yelp for local businesses. Look for patterns in the negative reviews especially. One complaint is noise. Five complaints about the same thing is a sales opportunity.
Who you're actually talking to — and who else matters
Before any call, you need to know two things about the person you're meeting: their role and their likely priorities, and who else in the organization will influence or block the deal.
A VP of Sales cares about pipeline, quota, and whether her team is hitting numbers. A CFO cares about ROI, cost reduction, and risk. An IT Director cares about implementation complexity and security. Same product, completely different pitch. If you walk in talking about the wrong thing to the wrong person, you've lost before you've started.
Why it matters: multi-threaded deals close faster and at higher rates. If you can walk into the call already knowing who the economic buyer is, who the technical evaluator is, and who the champion might be, you can start mapping the deal from day one instead of scrambling to figure it out in month two.
What to look for: LinkedIn profiles for your contact and their team. Org charts if publicly available. Job postings often reveal who the decision-makers are and what they care about. Press releases and news articles often quote the people who matter most.
Their competition and how they position themselves
Understanding who your prospect competes with tells you how they think about their market, where they feel pressure, and what they're trying to prove. A scrappy startup trying to disrupt an incumbent has completely different buying behavior than a market leader trying to protect its position.
Why it matters: when you understand their competitive landscape, you can connect your solution to their strategic goals — not just their operational pain. "I know you're going up against [Competitor X] for enterprise accounts right now — a lot of companies in your position are using [your solution] to [specific advantage]. Here's how that might work for you." That's a conversation worth having.
What to look for: Google "[Company] vs [Competitor]". Their own website messaging — how do they describe what makes them different? G2 and Capterra comparison pages. LinkedIn posts from their leadership about industry trends. Their job postings often reveal competitive priorities too.
How long should this take?
If you're doing it manually — jumping between LinkedIn, Google News, review sites, Crunchbase, and the company website — you can spend hours on a single prospect. For a high-value deal, that's worth it. For a full day of calls, it's not sustainable.
That's the core problem with pre-call research as it's traditionally done: the reps who need it most — the ones carrying a high volume of outreach — are the ones least likely to have time for it.
The solution isn't to do less research. It's to do it faster.
All 5 in 60 seconds — automatically.
PrepWork pulls company intel, recent news, customer reviews, key contacts, competitor intel, and more — then builds your pitch, cold call opener, LinkedIn DM, and email template. One report. Everything you need to walk in ready to close.
Generate Your First Report →The bottom line for sales managers
If you're running a team, the five-point framework above is worth turning into a standard. Not a suggestion — a process. Before every call, every rep should be able to answer: What does this company do and how do they make money? What's changed for them recently? What are their customers complaining about? Who am I talking to and who else matters? Who are they competing against?
When your whole team answers those five questions before every call, the quality of your conversations goes up, your conversion rates go up, and your average deal size goes up. Preparation isn't a soft skill. It's a competitive advantage.