Sales Engine · Lesson 1Free~12 min readNo code requiredThree prospects researched by the end

Research a prospect in two minutes flat.

Generic outreach gets ignored; relevant outreach gets a reply. The bottleneck has always been research time — and that’s exactly what AI removes. This lesson shows what to find out before you reach out, the prompt that produces it, and how to turn it into a real reason to make contact now.

The mental model

The best outreach starts with knowing who you’re talking to. AI collapses 30 minutes of research into two.

A generic “I’d love to connect” gets ignored. A message that shows you understand their world gets a reply. The bottleneck has always been research time — and that’s exactly what AI removes. Two minutes of focused research is the difference between spam and a conversation.

The Reframe

Research earns the reply. You’re not looking for everything about a prospect — you’re looking for the one relevant thing that gives you a real reason to reach out right now.

Step 01 What to actually find out

Three things, no more:

The company — what they do, who they serve, how big.
The person — their role, what they likely own and worry about.
The trigger — a reason to reach out now: news, a hire, a launch, a change.

Step 02 The research prompt

Feed AI what you know and ask for a brief built for outreach:

Research promptResearch [person] at [company] ([website]). Give me a short brief: what the company does and who it serves, this person’s likely role and priorities, any recent news or changes worth knowing, and one likely pain point my product ([what you offer]) could address. Flag anything you’re unsure about so I can verify it.

Step 03 Turn research into a reason to reach out

Convert the brief into a single relevant hook — the specific opening line that proves you did your homework. “Saw you just opened a second location” beats “I help businesses grow.”

AI gets facts wrong and works from stale information. Never send a claim you haven’t verified — a confidently wrong “congrats on the funding round” that didn’t happen ends the conversation instantly. Treat the brief as leads to confirm, not facts to cite.

Your challenge: research three real prospects

Pick three real people you’d like to reach. For each:

Run the research prompt with their name, company, and site.
Pull out the one relevant trigger or pain point.
Write a single-line hook that proves you did your homework.
Verify any specific fact before you’d ever send it.

That’s outreach-ready research in minutes, not hours. Next, turn those hooks into messages that actually get replies — and follow-up that works — that’s Lesson 2.

Next: outreach that gets replies →Back to Sales Engine

What you can do now

Identify the three things worth researching before outreach
Use AI to produce an outreach brief in minutes
Find a real, timely reason to reach out
Turn research into a specific opening hook
Verify AI-surfaced facts before using them

Pro

Up next in Sales Engine

Lesson 2 · Outreach that gets replies

Personalize at scale with a strong template plus a real hook, and build follow-up sequences that add value instead of just bumping the thread. Go to Lesson 2 →