PDF + Excel workbook
Which deals have you forgotten to follow up?
A seven-day CRM cleanup plan and Excel follow-up tracker for deals with missing owners, vague actions or overdue dates.
Get the free guide ↗PDF + reusable task brief · Pipeline & AI
How do you brief an AI agent to research a prospect?
A practical guide to a sales-research harness: the task, evidence, tools, review points and stop rules. Includes a reusable text brief.
The short answer
What does an AI sales agent need besides a prompt?
Give it a defined research job, permitted sources and tools, a place to keep evidence and an output you can inspect. Specify what it may prepare and what needs approval. For sales research, require a source for each factual claim and preserve unknowns instead of filling them with plausible text.
Before you begin
What you will take away
An assistant produces a fluent account summary, but nobody can tell which claims came from current sources or what the next action should be.
- A reusable account-research brief with acceptance checks and a simple pilot plan.
- PDF + reusable task brief. Four-page PDF with a reusable worksheet.
- Examples are illustrative and can be adapted to your sector.
- Use it with your current tools, then keep the next step on the company record.
01
Work through the problem
Unsupported research passes into outreach and the CRM, creating work for the seller and an awkward first conversation for the buyer.
1. Define one job
Start with “research these named accounts and prepare a sourced note” rather than “run sales”. Specify the offer, target sector and exact output. A fixed research workflow may be sufficient when the steps are known.
2. Supply the context
Give the assistant the campaign brief, existing account record and approved product facts. Keep customer data and credentials within the tools and permissions your organisation has approved. State what is missing.
3. Choose sources and tools
List the sources it can read and the checks each supports. A register supports a filing fact; the company website supports its own stated services. Require the source URL, date checked and relevant evidence for each factual row.
4. Make the harness explicit
The harness is the surrounding system that supplies tools, task state, stored evidence and review controls. It can keep a completed note, show a failed lookup and stop for a missing permission. It does not make weak evidence true.
5. Set review and stop rules
Separate preparing a draft from sending it or changing the CRM. Specify allowed actions, approval points and what to do when sources disagree. Set a time or cost limit for a pilot and require unresolved questions in the output.
6. Check a small pilot
Review each factual claim against its source and compare the proposed next step with the account brief. Count missing citations, wrong-company matches and unsupported inferences separately. Expand the workflow only after the specific errors are addressed.
02
Reusable task-brief opening
“Research the named company for our client-onboarding offer to independent accountancy practices. Return company identity, current services, likely process owner, verified facts with URLs and dates, unknowns, and one question to investigate. Separate facts from hypotheses. Prepare a draft note for review. Do not send a message or alter a record.” The downloadable text file includes the full fields to adapt.
Task
What exact output should the assistant produce?
Evidence
Which source supports each factual claim?
Action
What can it prepare, and what needs review?
Completion
Which checks establish that this particular job is finished?
03
Your working sheet
Use these fields to keep the facts, decisions and next actions together.
- Offer, sector and named account identifiers
- Research question and output columns
- Approved context and sources
- Available tools and allowed actions
- Evidence format and unknowns
- Approval and stop rules
- Pilot reviewer and error categories
- Time or cost limit and review date
Before you use it
- Each factual claim has a relevant source.
- Disagreement and unknowns are retained.
- The output stays within the specified task.
- The reviewer can identify what to do next.
Common questions
Before you download
What files do I receive?
PDF + reusable task brief. The kit contains a four-page PDF and an editable text worksheet.
Do I need an Adapt account?
No. Use the worksheet with your existing tools. No account, payment or trial is required to download it.
Are these real customer examples?
No. Examples are illustrative. Adapt them to your own sector and check the facts before using them in a conversation.
Will I be added to a mailing list?
The request is saved so the team can understand which guide you requested. You can separately opt in to guides and product updates using the unchecked box on the form.
Sources
Where this comes from
The references support the underlying methods and checks. Examples and worksheets were written by Adapt Leads.
- Anthropic: building effective agents ↗Distinguishes predefined workflows from agents that choose their next steps and tools.
- Companies House company search ↗Check company identity, status, officers and filings against the original record.
Free download
Keep the guide to hand.
A reusable account-research brief with acceptance checks and a simple pilot plan.
- Four-page PDF guide
- Reusable worksheet with practical checks
- Original examples to adapt to your sector
Free to use. No card or trial. See how the same work continues in Adapt.
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