12 signals every AE should check before a discovery call, most teams skip 8
The Pre-Call Research Checklist names the 12 categories of signal an account executive should read before a discovery call, from funding and hiring to ad activity and who actually holds the budget. Cover all 12 and a rep walks in already knowing the account instead of asking questions the answers are public to.
What to check before the call
Each category below is a decision the rep has to make in the room. Cover it in prep and the call is about fit, not fact-finding.
- 01
Company fundamentals
What the business actually does, how it makes money, its size and how it is structured. The base layer every other signal reads against.
- 02
Funding and financial signals
Recent rounds, revenue signals and public financials that hint at budget headroom and how much appetite there is to spend.
- 03
Hiring activity
Open roles reveal where a company is investing right now and which functions are under strain, often before anyone says so on a call.
- 04
Technology stack
The tools they run, what those tools integrate with and where the obvious gaps sit. A read on how a new system would slot in.
- 05
Ad and marketing activity
What they are running, on which channels and for how long. Longevity is a signal of what is working and what is being tested.
- 06
Competitor landscape
Who they benchmark against, where a rival is beating them and which comparisons will land in the room.
- 07
Decision makers
Who holds the budget, who influences the choice and who can quietly block it. The map of who actually needs convincing.
- 08
Recent news and triggers
Announcements, launches, funding, leadership changes: the events that create a reason to act now rather than next quarter.
- 09
Website and funnel signals
What their own conversion path reveals about how they sell, where friction lives and what they already know is broken.
- 10
Social and content footprint
What leadership publishes and repeats. It tells you what they care about and gives you the language they already use.
- 11
Reviews and reputation
What customers and staff say in public. The complaints and the praise both point at where the real pressure sits.
- 12
Prior touchpoints
History with your agency: past enquiries, warm threads, earlier proposals. Context that stops a rep repeating a conversation.
Have it sent to your inbox
Leave your name and work email and the full checklist arrives in your inbox, ready to run before your next discovery call.
Running all 12 by hand on every prospect is the part that never survives a full calendar. A pre-call brief agent gathers and summarises the same signals for each account automatically, so every rep gets the same depth of prep, not just the meetings they had time for.
Common questions
What is the Pre-Call Research Checklist?
- It is a list of 12 signal categories an account executive should check before a discovery call, covering company fundamentals, funding, hiring, the tech stack, ad activity, competitors, decision makers, recent triggers, website signals, content footprint, reputation and prior touchpoints. Together they let a rep walk in already knowing the account rather than asking questions the answers are public to.
Why do most teams only cover a few of these?
- Because doing all 12 properly by hand takes real time, and a rep with a full calendar does deep prep on the meetings that feel important and skims the rest. The signals are not hard to find, they are just tedious to gather consistently across every prospect.
How is this different from a generic sales research template?
- It is organised around what changes a discovery call, not what fills a CRM field. Each category maps to a decision the rep has to make in the room: who to convince, what trigger to lead with, which competitor comparison will land. It is a prep map, not a data-entry form.
Can this research be automated?
- Most of it can. Every one of these categories is drawn from sources a system can gather and summarise, which is exactly what a pre-call brief agent does: the same depth of prep on every prospect, not just the ones a rep had time for. The checklist is the manual version of that system.
How do I get the checklist?
- Leave your name and work email and it is sent straight to your inbox. There is no call required to receive it.
A 15-minute call is usually enough to know if there is a fit.
No slides, no pitch.