Open-source playbook · 09 of 20 · For sales

Account Research & Outreach

Reps spend more time researching accounts than talking to them.

The systemProfiles each target account, finds the right people and drafts a first email worth replying to.

// The problem

A morning of open tabs. Then the template anyway.

For one account, a rep opens the website, the news, the careers page, a few LinkedIn profiles and the CRM. The notes rarely make it into the email, because there’s a long list still to get through.

Corvane Freight | About uscorvane freight newsCareers at CorvaneDana Whitlock | LinkedInMarcus Oyelaran | LinkedInCorvane Freight · HubSpotRe: pricing (Mar 2025)+6+10

The rep’s notes

2nd warehouse?? Indy? check
hiring pricing people (2 ads?)
Dana still VP Sales, or left?
talked last year. why did it die?
who actually owns quoting??

What got sent

Subject: Quick question

Hi {{first_name}},

I hope this finds you well. I noticed {{company}} is growing and thought you might like to hear how we help companies like yours save time.

Do you have 15 minutes this week?

The same email as everyone else on the list

Sample, fictional company.

// How it works

Five sources in,
one page a rep can trust.

The system reads what’s public about the account and what your CRM already knows, writes it up as a one-page dossier, then drafts the first email from it. Every line points back to where it came from.

1Where it looks

ACompany siteWhat they sell, who they sell to and where they operate
BNews and pressNew sites, funding, launches and leadership changes
CJob postsWhat they’re hiring for, and the problems the ads describe
DPeople dataWho owns the problem, their role and how long they’ve held it
EYour CRM historyPast calls, old deals, who said what and why it stalled

2The dossier

Account dossier

Corvane Freight

Freight broker · Columbus, Ohio A

Sample · fictional company

Why now

Opened a second cross-dock in Indianapolis in September
BLocal business news, 12 Sep
Hiring two pricing analysts. The ad asks for spot quotes “in under 15 minutes”
CCareers page
Spoke with us in March 2025: good fit, stopped at budget. New budget year starts in January
ECall notes, 18 Mar 2025

Profile

What they do: Freight broker for food and beverage shippers, Midwest lanesA
Size: About 380 people, two cross-docksA
Quoting today: Spreadsheets and email, by handC

Buying committee

DWDana WhitlockVP SalesDecidesDE

ERElena RuizCFOSigns off budgetE

MOMarcus OyelaranDirector of PricingChampionCDWrite to first

TBTom BeckerSenior BrokerUses it dailyD

Solid lines: who reports to whom. Dashed: who signs off the budget.

Why Marcus first: he owns quoting and posted the analyst roles. Dana decides, so she comes in once he’s interested.

3The first email

ToMarcus Oyelaran, Director of Pricing

SubjectPricing the Indianapolis lanes

Hi Marcus,

Congrats on the new Indianapolis cross-dock. That’s a lot of new lanes to price at once.BNews, 12 Sep

Your pricing analyst ad asks for spot quotes in under 15 minutes. That’s the job Laneway does: it reads the shipper’s email and drafts the priced quote.CCareers page

Dana and I spoke in March 2025, when the timing wasn’t right. With your new budget year starting in January, is it worth a fresh look?ECRM call notes

Happy to show you on one of your own lanes. 20 minutes next week?

Sam

Personal lines carry their source. The rest comes from your own templates and voice.

4The rep edits and sends

Checks each personal line against its source
Rewrites anything that doesn’t sound like them
Sends from their own inbox, or skips the account

Sample edit

Happy to show you on one of your own lanes. 20 minutes next week?

Could I run a live quote on your Columbus to Indianapolis lane? 20 minutes next week?

Nothing goes out on its own. What’s sent is saved to the CRM, so the next dossier starts from it.

// What the rep sees

A queue of accounts, each with a reason to write.

Sample queue, fictional companies. The strongest reason comes first. When the system finds no real reason to write, it says so instead of inventing one.

AccountStrongest reason to writeWrite toStatus

Corvane FreightColumbus, OH BNew cross-dock in Indianapolis+2 more signals Marcus OyelaranDirector of Pricing Draft ready

Tillman Cold ChainAtlanta, GA DNew VP Operations started in August+1 more signal Renee AchebeVP Operations Draft ready

Oakhurst Produce LinesFresno, CA CFour dispatcher roles open, ads mention “manual quoting”+1 more signal Luis MorenoHead of Brokerage Draft ready

Pell & Grant DistributionNewark, NJ EAsked for a demo in 2024, but that contact has left Find the new owner first Needs a look

Sundry Lane TransportDallas, TX Nothing new since last quarter No one yet No reason yet

// Where it stops

It does the homework. The rep does the talking.

What it does

Reads public business information and your own CRM
Writes a one-page dossier for each account, with sources
Drafts a first email from the dossier, in your voice
Saves the dossier and the sent email to the account record
Says so when there’s no real reason to write yet

What it never does

Send an email on its own
Make up a fact, a quote or a shared connection
Use anything personal: family, health, home life, politics
Scrape behind a login or ignore a site’s terms
Write to opted-out contacts or another rep’s accounts

// For your tech lead

Can we build it? Here’s what it takes.

The connections are standard. Most of the work is deciding which signals count as a real reason to write, and teaching the draft to sound like your reps.

Tools you’ll use

Job	Use	Or
Accounts, contacts and history	HubSpot or Salesforce	Pipedrive, Attio
Company and people data	Apollo	Clay, ZoomInfo
News, job posts and the web	Perplexity API	Exa, Tavily
Writing the dossier and the draft	Claude	ChatGPT, Gemini
Running the steps	n8n	Make, Zapier
Where the rep edits and sends	Drafts in Gmail or Outlook	Outreach, Salesloft, HubSpot sequences

Access it needs

Read access to accounts, contacts, deals and activity in the CRM
Permission to add notes to accounts and create drafts in each rep’s inbox, never to send
API keys for the data provider and the research tool

Three ways to build it

Start simple1–2 days
A Claude or ChatGPT project with web search and your offer. The rep pastes in the account and the CRM notes, then copies the draft.
Production1–2 weeks
n8n takes target accounts from the CRM, researches each one, saves the dossier to the record and drafts the email in the rep’s inbox.
Custom3–4 weeks
Scores signals across the whole target list so the strongest reasons come first, and learns from which drafts got replies.

Guardrails

Drafts only: the rep sends, edits or skips every email
Every personal line cites a source. No source, no line
Public business facts and your own CRM only. Nothing about family, health or home
Skips opted-out contacts, open deals and accounts another rep owns

What to measure

Research time per account, before and after
Reply rate on researched emails against your template
Share of drafts sent with light edits, not rewritten
Meetings booked per rep per week

Who builds and runs it

A sales or RevOps lead who knows what a good reason to write looks like, plus someone comfortable with n8n and APIs for the first one to two weeks. After that, RevOps tunes the signals monthly and reps review their own drafts.

Needs

01Company Brain

Next to build

10CRM Autopilot 08Speed-to-Lead Responder

// Want help building it?

We’ll build your Account Research & Outreach with your team.

In 30 minutes with our founder, we’ll look at your tools and your week, and work out what your first AI systems should be and how long they’ll take.

Book a Strategy Call

Free 30-minute call with our founder · No commitmentPallav Kaushish Co-Founder, AIxGrowth