Prospect Research Documentation Template

Overview

Before reaching out to any prospect, create a dedicated Google Doc capturing all research findings. This doc becomes the single source of truth for all outreach — emails, calls, LinkedIn messages — and ensures that insights gathered once are never lost or repeated from scratch. The goal is to sound like you've done your homework, because you have.

A well-built research doc lets you lead with value: specific, data-backed observations about the prospect's business that demonstrate expertise before you ask for anything.

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Naming Convention

[Company Name] Insights - [MMDD]

Example: Twisted Alchemy Insights - 1125

The date suffix prevents confusion when docs are revisited or refreshed in future quarters.

Research Workflow (Step-by-Step)

Complete these steps in order. The full process takes 10–15 minutes per prospect.

1. Website Spot Check

Visit the prospect's website directly before opening any tools. Note:

• Does the site load cleanly and look professional?
• Does the naked domain (e.g., company.com) redirect to www.company.com? If not, flag it — this is a common, high-impact SEO error and an immediate talking point.
• What do they sell? Who is the apparent customer (B2B vs. B2C)?

Example: Twisted Alchemy's naked domain (twistedalchemy.com) did not redirect to www.twistedalchemy.com — a critical technical SEO flaw that was immediately visible and highly credible as an outreach hook.

2. AI Company Summary (Claude)

Open Claude (not a saved Project — use a fresh chat). Paste the URL and prompt:

Tell me about this company: [URL]

Claude will summarize the business model, products, distribution channels, and any notable recent news (e.g., retail expansions, partnerships). This saves you from reading every page on the site.

Example output for Twisted Alchemy: Chicago-based cold-pressed juice company, B2B cocktail mixer focus, recently expanded into Whole Foods across the Midwest and Southwest, distributes via Sysco and WebstaurantStore.

Paste this summary directly into the Google Doc under a Company Overview heading.

3. Ahrefs Site Explorer

Log in with the team Ahrefs account. Enter the prospect's domain in Site Explorer and capture:

Export the keyword data as a Google Sheet or PDF and paste the relevant rows into the doc. PDFs tend to parse better when fed to AI tools in the next step.

Key framing examples:
- "You rank for 898 keywords but only generate traffic from 42% of them — like having 898 fishing lines in the water with bait on only 380."
- "Your average position is 16, bottom of page 2 — just outside the money zone."
- "Your average keyword difficulty is 5.96, which means these are winnable battles."

Opportunity sizing: Identify 3–5 keywords in positions 11–20. Estimate the revenue impact of moving them to page 1 using a standard formula:

Additional monthly visitors × 2% conversion rate × average order value × 12 = annual revenue opportunity

Example: 5 keywords pushed to page 1 → 5,500 additional visitors/month → $330,000 in estimated annual revenue (at 2% CVR and $250 AOV).

Also flag any massive misses: high-volume keywords where the prospect ranks very low (e.g., position 91 for a 60,000/month search term).

4. Competitor Analysis (SpyFu)

Log in with the team SpyFu account (credentials from Mark). Search the prospect's domain and navigate to the competitor view.

Capture:
- Top 5 organic competitors by name and domain
- Traffic trend comparison across competitors
- Whether the entire market segment is declining (often attributable to AI search influence post-mid-2024)

Paste the competitor list and trend summary into the doc.

Strategic framing options:
- If the prospect is growing while competitors decline: "There's an opportunity to capture market share from [Competitor] as their traffic falls."
- If the prospect is also declining: "We're seeing this across the [industry] category — [Competitor A] and [Competitor B] are both down since mid-2024. We'd like to help you recover the growth you had before."

Naming a specific competitor in outreach signals that you've done real research, not generic prospecting.

5. AI Analysis of Ahrefs Screenshot (ChatGPT)

Use the Awesome Screenshot Chrome extension to capture a full-page screenshot of the Ahrefs Site Explorer overview. Drag and drop the image into ChatGPT.

Prompt:

I'm a marketing agency doing prospect research. Analyze this Ahrefs overview and give me an agency-focused verdict on this prospect.

ChatGPT will return a structured assessment covering domain authority, traffic trends, keyword gaps, paid search absence, and a client fit verdict. Paste this output into the doc.

Tip: Configure ChatGPT's Custom Instructions (Settings → Personalization) with your agency context so it always responds from an agency perspective without needing to re-prompt each time.

Use Claude for interactive analysis (conversational follow-up, rewriting insights to speak directly to the prospect). Use ChatGPT for screenshot/image analysis (it handles visual data well).

Google Doc Structure

Paste everything in without heavy formatting. Speed matters more than polish — the doc is a working reference, not a deliverable.

[Company Name] Insights - [MMDD]

COMPANY OVERVIEW
[Claude summary]

WEBSITE OBSERVATIONS
- Naked domain redirect: YES / NO
- Site health notes

AHREFS SUMMARY
- Traffic trend: [flat / growing / declining]
- Total keywords: X
- Traffic capture rate: X%
- Avg position: X
- Avg keyword difficulty: X
- Key opportunity: [e.g., $330k revenue opportunity from 5 keywords]
- Massive miss: [e.g., Position 91 for "pomegranate juice" — 60k/mo]
[Paste exported keyword data]

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
- Top competitors: [list]
- Market trend: [growing / declining since when]
- Strategic angle: [gain share / recovery]
[Paste SpyFu export]

AI VERDICT (ChatGPT)
[Paste full ChatGPT output]

OUTREACH ANGLES
- Hook 1: [e.g., naked domain redirect issue]
- Hook 2: [e.g., $330k keyword opportunity]
- Hook 3: [e.g., competitor X is declining — chance to take share]

Connecting the Doc to Outreach

Once the doc is complete:

1. Attach it to the HubSpot contact record for the prospect.
2. Use it to populate HubSpot email templates — leave a placeholder for one insight per email, then drop in a specific finding from the doc before sending.
3. Drip insights across the sequence: Email 1 covers one finding, Email 2 covers another, Email 3 covers a third. Each email delivers value before asking for anything.
4. Hand it to Mark before the follow-up call so he can present findings and move the deal forward.

The doc is a reusable asset. Every email, voicemail, LinkedIn message, and sales call for this prospect draws from the same source.

Tools Required

Related Articles

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