research-prospect

name	research-prospect
description	Research a prospect company and contact before outreach or a meeting. Use when the user needs to understand a company, look up a contact on LinkedIn, or find personalization hooks before reaching out. Produces a structured research brief.
license	MIT
compatibility	Requires internet access for website and LinkedIn research.
metadata	{"author":"toughtongueai","version":"1.0"}

Prospect Research

Research a prospect company and contact to produce a structured intelligence brief. This skill gathers information from the company's website and the contact's LinkedIn profile, then cross-references with your company-profile.md to find personalization hooks.

When to Use

• Before writing any outreach (cold email, LinkedIn message)
• Before a demo or meeting (this skill is called automatically by demo-prep)
• When the user says "research [name] at [company]"
• When you need to understand a prospect before generating any output

Required Inputs

Ask the user for:

Company: [Name or website URL]
Contact: [Name and title — optional for company-only research]

If they only provide a name and company, that's enough. Research the rest.

Process

1. Load Company Profile

Read company-profile.md from the workspace root. You need this to:

• Identify shared connections between the user and the prospect
• Match the prospect's pain points to the user's product
• Determine if this company fits the user's ICP

If company-profile.md doesn't exist, tell the user: "Run the setup-company skill first to set up your profile. This makes research much more useful."

2. Research the Company

Navigate to the company's website and gather:

What to Find	Where to Look
What they do	Homepage hero section, About page
Who they sell to	Pricing page, case studies, customer logos
Company size	About page, LinkedIn company page, job postings
Sales model	Pricing page structure, "Book a Demo" vs "Start Free Trial"
Recent news	Blog, press page, recent funding announcements
Tech stack signals	Job postings, integrations page
Demo / trial motion	CTA buttons, pricing page, "how it works"

Also check for (see research checklist):

• Whether they have a "Book a Demo" button (relevant for demo automation)
• Whether they're hiring for roles related to the user's product
• Recent product launches or pivots
• Customer testimonials that reveal their value prop

3. Research the Contact

Look up the contact on LinkedIn (use browser tools) and gather:

What to Find	Why It Matters
Current role and tenure	How long they've been there — new hires are more open to change
Department	Maps to which angle to use in outreach
Previous companies	Shared connection opportunities
Education	Shared school connections
Recent posts or activity	Conversation hooks, what they care about publicly
Responsibilities	What they likely own and what metrics they're measured on

4. Find Personalization Hooks

Cross-reference the contact's background with the user's company-profile.md:

If You Find...	Hook to Use
Same school (any level)	"Fellow [school] alum"
Same previous company	"Ex-[company] here too" / "My co-founder is ex-[company]"
Same city or region	Geographic connection
Mutual LinkedIn connections	"We both know [name]"
They posted about a relevant topic	Reference the post directly
They recently changed roles	"Congrats on the new role"
Their company just raised funding	"Congrats on the raise"

Priority order: Shared school > shared company > shared connection > recent event > geographic.

5. Assess ICP Fit

Based on research, assess how well this prospect matches the user's ICP from company-profile.md:

Signal	What It Means
Role matches target roles	Strong fit
Company size matches ICP	Strong fit
Industry matches ICP	Strong fit
They have signals from ICP (e.g., "hiring SDRs")	Strong fit
None of the above	Weak fit — note this in the output

Output Format

# Prospect Research: [Contact Name] @ [Company Name]
**Researched:** [Date]

## Company Intel
| Field | Details |
|-------|---------|
| **Company** | [Name] |
| **Website** | [URL] |
| **Industry** | [Industry] |
| **Size** | [Estimate — employees, stage, funding] |
| **What They Do** | [2-3 sentences] |
| **Who They Sell To** | [Their customers] |
| **Sales Model** | [Inbound / outbound / PLG / enterprise] |
| **Recent News** | [Funding, launches, hires — if any] |

## Contact Intel
| Field | Details |
|-------|---------|
| **Name** | [Full name] |
| **Title** | [Job title] |
| **Department** | [Sales, Engineering, L&D, Product, etc.] |
| **Tenure** | [How long in current role] |
| **Background** | [Previous companies, education] |
| **Recent Activity** | [Posts, articles, comments — if any] |
| **Likely Priorities** | [What they probably care about based on role] |

## Personalization Hooks
- **Strongest hook:** [The best connection point]
- **Additional hooks:** [Other connection points]

## ICP Fit
[Strong / Medium / Weak] — [1 sentence explaining why]

## Relevant Pain Points
Based on their business and role, they likely care about:
1. [Pain point 1 — mapped to user's product]
2. [Pain point 2 — mapped to user's product]
3. [Pain point 3 — mapped to user's product]

Instructions

1. Always research before generating. Never fabricate company details or contact background. If you can't find something, say so.
2. Use browser tools for LinkedIn. Navigate to LinkedIn and search for the person. Don't guess at their background.
3. Be specific about hooks. "Fellow IIT Delhi alum" is useful. "You both work in tech" is not.
4. Flag weak ICP fit. If the prospect doesn't match the user's ICP, say so clearly. Don't force a fit.
5. Keep it scannable. Tables and bullet points, not paragraphs. The user will skim this in 30 seconds.