> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://relevanceai.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Prospect research

> Automate company and contact research so reps walk into every call already prepared.

Reps spend hours digging through LinkedIn, company websites, and news to prep for a single call. Relevance can produce the same brief in seconds — at whatever level of automation you're ready for.

## When this pays off

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="High call volume" icon="phone">
    Reps run more than five discovery calls a week and prep is eating their selling time.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Uneven prep" icon="scale-unbalanced">
    Some calls get deeply prepped, others get a quick scan — output quality is inconsistent.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Inbound triage" icon="filter">
    Inbound leads need quick context before a rep is assigned.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Baseline context" icon="layer-group">
    Every meeting starts with the same baseline brief, not whatever the rep happens to find.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## The shape of this use case

A prospect research workflow takes a company name or contact and returns a structured brief.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Inputs" icon="arrow-right-to-bracket">
    Company domain, contact email, or CRM record.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Sources" icon="globe">
    Web search, [LinkedIn](/integrations/popular-integrations/linkedin), news, your CRM, and any internal knowledge — ICP, personas, battle cards.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Output" icon="file-lines">
    A brief covering company overview, recent news, key contacts, likely pain points, and conversation hooks.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Delivery" icon="paper-plane">
    Returned inline, posted to [Slack](/integrations/popular-integrations/slack), written back to the CRM, or attached to a calendar event.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Where to start

Two ways in, depending on whether you want something running today or built to your exact spec.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Clone a pre-built Agent" icon="copy">
    Open the **[Sales Researcher](https://marketplace.relevanceai.com/listing/4b454347-0656-4fee-9c15-8fb2f2713424)** — or **[Lia](https://marketplace.relevanceai.com/listing/ba230945-e61a-4fb0-8c47-7e240f18456d)** for LinkedIn-first. More in the [Marketplace](/get-started/marketplace/introduction).
  </Card>

  <Card title="Build your own" icon="hammer">
    Start from scratch in the [builder](/build/introduction), or by describing it in Claude Code or Cursor with [MCP & Plugins](/get-started/core-concepts/mcp-plugins).
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

Either way, these are prompts your reps can use on day one:

* *"Research Acme Corp ahead of my 2pm call. Pull recent news, the buyer's LinkedIn, and any open deals in HubSpot."*
* *"Summarize the last three meetings with Globex and what's still open."*
* *"Who at Initech should I be talking to if we're selling into RevOps?"*

## Where to take it

Once it's running, deepen it in three moves:

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Give it a playbook" icon="book">
    Shape it with a [prompt](/build/agents/build-your-agent/prompt), [Knowledge](/build/knowledge/create-knowledge), and [Bulk Schedule](/build/agents/give-your-agent-tasks/bulk-schedule).
  </Card>

  <Card title="Automate it on signals" icon="bolt">
    Wrap it in a [workflow](/build/workforces/create-a-workforce) that fires on a [trigger](/build/agents/build-your-agent/triggers).
  </Card>

  <Card title="Let it improve" icon="arrows-rotate">
    Feed won-deal signals back into the Agent's [evals](/build/agents/build-your-agent/evals) so it tracks what closes.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Frame caption="Walkthrough — build an AI sales research agent that preps call-ready briefs from a name.">
  <iframe className="w-full aspect-video rounded-xl" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7X8Co6G7oo0" title="Build an AI sales research agent" allowFullScreen />
</Frame>

## Common pitfalls

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Researching accounts you already own" icon="user-check">
    Gate the trigger on lifecycle stage so you don't burn credits re-researching closed-won customers.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Generic briefs" icon="copy">
    Without an ICP or persona in knowledge, the output reads like a Wikipedia summary. Add the lens.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Stale data" icon="hourglass-half">
    Set a freshness window — e.g. re-research only if the last brief is more than 30 days old — instead of regenerating on every interaction.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Over-trusting recency" icon="magnifying-glass">
    Web search returns whatever ranks, not what's true. Cite sources in the brief so reps can spot-check.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>