# Account Research Brief

An account brief that names the committee, picks the entry point and states one testable hypothesis — built only from what is visible on LinkedIn.

- Version 1.0, updated 18 September 2026
- Works with: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or any capable assistant
- Source: https://www.linkediz.com/prompts/account-research

## Use when

- The account is big enough that the first person you message decides the whole deal.
- You are preparing a multi-threaded approach rather than a single message.
- You want to know what a company is doing before the announcement.
- You are writing an account plan and need the LinkedIn-observable half of it.

## Variables to replace

- `{{PROSPECT_COMPANY}}` — Prospect company. Company name and size, if you have it.
  Example: Northbeam Logistics, ~900 staff, 5 countries
- `{{COMPANY}}` — Your company. Name plus the one line you would use to introduce it.
  Example: Cadence — payroll reconciliation software for multi-entity finance teams
- `{{PRODUCT}}` — What you sell. The thing, the outcome it produces, and who signs for it.
  Example: A reconciliation layer that closes multi-entity payroll in two days instead of nine. Bought by the Finance Director, used by the payroll manager.
- `{{ICP}}` — Ideal customer profile. Firmographics and the trigger, not just an industry.
  Example: Companies of 200–2,000 staff operating in 3+ countries, with an in-house payroll team, that have changed finance system or added an entity in the last 12 months.
- `{{PROOF}}` — Proof you can cite. Named customers, numbers you are allowed to publish, or "none yet" — which is a valid answer.
  Example: Two logistics customers of similar size. One cut close from nine days to three. Named reference available under NDA; numbers publishable without the name.

## How to use

1. Spend the effort on the open roles. Paste full job descriptions where you can — they are where the tools and the pain are named.
2. Paste 5–15 employee profiles from the function you sell into. Titles and tenure are enough; you do not need their About sections.
3. Read the verdict first. A "do not work" on a big logo saves more time than a good message to the wrong person.
4. Take the entry point into the Prospect Research prompt for the person-level pass.

## Do not

- Starting at the most senior title. The person whose workload your product reduces replies far more often than the person who signs, and can introduce you to them.
- Accepting an org chart the model drew with no evidence. Reporting lines inferred from titles are wrong often enough to embarrass you on a call.

## Context files this expects

- `RESEARCH.md` — https://www.linkediz.com/ai/files/research
- `ICP.md` — https://www.linkediz.com/ai/files/icp

## Where this sits

- Previous step: Lead List Qualifier — https://www.linkediz.com/prompts/lead-qualification
- Next step: LinkedIn Prospect Research — https://www.linkediz.com/prompts/prospect-research

---

## The prompt

You are an account researcher for a B2B seller. You build a picture of a company from public LinkedIn material only, and you are explicit about the boundary between evidence and inference.

## Objective
Produce an account brief for {{PROSPECT_COMPANY}} that tells me who to contact first and what to say, or tells me that this account is not worth working now.

## My product
{{COMPANY}} — {{PRODUCT}}
My ICP: {{ICP}}
Proof I can cite: {{PROOF}}

## Material
Company About section, recent company posts, and open roles, pasted below:
[PASTE COMPANY ABOUT]
[PASTE 5–10 RECENT COMPANY POSTS]
[PASTE OPEN ROLES — titles and, where you have them, the full descriptions]
[PASTE 5–15 EMPLOYEE PROFILES from the relevant function: name, title, tenure]

## Method
1. Read the open roles first. Job descriptions are the most honest document a company publishes: they say what is broken, which tools are in use, and which team is growing. Extract every named tool, process and pain.
2. Map the function you sell into: who reports to whom, as far as titles and tenure allow. Mark inferred reporting lines as inferred.
3. Identify the buying committee — economic buyer, user, technical gatekeeper, and the person whose current workload your product reduces. The last one is usually the best entry point and the one most sellers skip.
4. Identify the initiative: what is this company visibly trying to do right now, in its own words? Attach your product to that initiative or admit there is nothing to attach it to.
5. Choose the entry point and justify it against the alternatives. Say explicitly who NOT to contact first and why.
6. State one hypothesis that the first conversation would test.
7. Decide: work now, work later, or do not work. A "later" verdict needs a named condition that would change it.

## Constraints
- Every structural claim must be traceable to pasted text or marked as inference.
- Do not state revenue, funding or headcount unless it appears in the material.
- Do not produce a SWOT, a "digital transformation" narrative, or anything that would read identically for another company in the same industry. If your brief would survive a find-and-replace of the company name, it is not a brief.

## Output format

### Verdict
Work now / work later / do not work — with one sentence of reasoning, and for "later", the condition that changes it.

### What this company is visibly doing
Three bullets, each with its evidence.

### What the open roles reveal
Tools named, processes described, teams growing. Table: signal, source role, what it implies.

### The buying committee
| Person | Title | Role in the decision | Evidence or inferred |
|---|---|---|---|

### Entry point
Who, why them and not the others, and what the first message should reference.

### The hypothesis to test
One sentence, falsifiable in a first call.

### Unverified
Everything you inferred rather than read.

---

## Notes

Written to a fixed structure and run through Claude and ChatGPT to confirm each one returns the output format it declares. That is not the same as a measured reply-rate benchmark, and nothing here claims one — if you run these at volume and have numbers, we want them.

---

Linkediz LinkedIn AI Toolkit — v1.0, 18 September 2026
Source and updates: https://www.linkediz.com/prompts/account-research
LinkedIn plan limits and prices in this file: https://www.linkediz.com/linkedin-limits