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Prep a discovery call brief in 10 minutes

Walk into every first call knowing the company, the people and the three questions that matter.

AEFounderSales manager⏱ 10 minDifficulty: EasyUpdated 2026-11-09
What you'll have at the end

A one-page brief with a company snapshot, a short read on each attendee, your top hypotheses and the questions to ask, saved to the deal in your CRM.

Tools you need

Research the company and turn it into a brief.
Check attendees' roles, tenure and recent posts.
Pull past notes and save the brief to the deal. Any CRM works.

Step-by-step workflow

1

Gather the inputs

HubSpot Sales Hub

Copy the company website URL, the attendees' names and titles from the invite, and any notes already in your CRM. Two minutes, no more.

2

Get a company snapshot

ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity (web search on)

Use an assistant with web search turned on. Ask for sources so you can check anything surprising.

Prompt · Step 2
Research [COMPANY] ([WEBSITE]) for a sales discovery call.
Give me, in short bullets:
- what they sell and to whom
- approximate size and stage, if public
- anything that changed in the last 6 months: funding, launches, leadership changes, expansion, layoffs
- their likely priorities for the next 12 months, based only on what you found
Add the source link after each fact. If you can't find something, write "unknown". Do not guess.
Free Companion Spreadsheet (.xlsx)

One-page discovery brief kit

A spreadsheet with the brief layout, a bank of 30 discovery questions grouped by topic, and every prompt from this workflow.

3

Read the people on the call

LinkedIn or Sales Navigator

Check each attendee's LinkedIn profile and recent activity. Paste what you find into the assistant.

Prompt · Step 3
Here are the people joining my discovery call, with notes from their LinkedIn profiles:
[NAME, TITLE, TENURE, ANYTHING THEY POSTED OR SHARED RECENTLY]

For each person, give me:
- what they are probably measured on
- what they'll likely care about in this call
- one safe, relevant opener (not about their personal life)
4

Turn it into hypotheses and questions

ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity (web search on)

The point of discovery is to test your guesses, not to pitch. Ask for questions that open up the conversation, not ones that lead.

Prompt · Step 4
I sell [PRODUCT], which helps [CUSTOMER TYPE] to [OUTCOME].
Based on this company snapshot and attendee read:
[PASTE STEP 2 AND STEP 3 OUTPUT]

Give me:
1. my top 3 hypotheses about their problem, each with what would prove it wrong
2. 6 open discovery questions, ordered from broad to specific
3. 2 risks that could stop this deal (budget, timing, competitor, internal owner)
Keep it to one page.
5

Save the brief and set your call goal

HubSpot Sales Hub

Paste the brief into the deal in your CRM. Add one line at the top saying what a good outcome for this call looks like, e.g. "agree on a second call with the budget owner".

Turn this into a system

Once this workflow is working manually, connect it into an automated GTM playbook or stack.

Playbook · Agentic Operations
Autonomous B2B Account Research & Pre-Call Intelligence Briefs

Gather public company information, recent announcements, and tech stack details to deliver a concise pre-call summary to sales reps.

Open playbook →

Want this running for you?

GPTify builds it on your tools, with a fixed scope and price.

Free AI audit →

Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to paste CRM notes into ChatGPT or Claude?

Check your company's AI policy first. Use a business or team plan where your data isn't used for training, and leave out anything confidential you don't need.

What if the AI gets a fact wrong?

That's why the prompt asks for a source after each fact. Check anything you plan to mention on the call.

Can this run automatically before every meeting?

Yes. A research agent can build the brief when a meeting is booked and attach it to the deal. See the related playbook.

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