Seven reps, each losing something close to a day and a half a week to the work before the work: who is this company, who owns the budget, what did they announce last quarter, and have we spoken to them before. None of it is hard. All of it is slow, and it is done again from scratch by whoever picks up the account next.
The part nobody wanted to admit
The research was inconsistent. A rep with time did it properly and a rep with a full calendar guessed, and the difference showed up on the call rather than in a report anyone could act on.
What we put on the board
An Account Researcher reads the public sources for each new account and writes a short, sourced brief onto the record: what the company does, recent announcements, likely owner of the problem, and every link it used. A Competitor Watcher flags when a target names a competitor publicly. A Record Cleaner keeps the CRM from drifting underneath both of them.
The brief carries its sources. A rep who does not trust a line can click through to where it came from, which is the difference between a research assistant and a rumour.
How a call starts now
The rep opens the account and the brief is already there, in the same shape every time, whether the account arrived on a Monday or during a busy quarter close.
The brief every rep would write if every rep had a free afternoon.