Most good sales and account management professionals believe in doing their homework to better understand their prospect’s or customer’s business direction, current situation, solution needs and desired future state. Happily, there are many different tactics and tools we can use to do this homework.

Many of us leverage both data and information. 

• Data is publicly available facts that come from sources such as company reports, social media, industry/trade journals, web sites, subscriptions…
• Information is the “inside story”. You can only get this information from someone who knows the customer (they do not always have to work there). Usually, we gain this information by conducting research meetings, or interviews, where the focus is on learning more about the customer.

Most of us see the value in leveraging both of these sources in order to truly understand our customer’s direction. However, we are working harder than ever, with higher quotas, more internal calls and greater compliance issues to deal with. As a result, it is getting harder to get face time with the customer and we are under pressure to be efficient and move quickly. When that happens, it can be easy to cut corners.

One common shortcut is to use and trust AI as a single source of customer knowledge. Yes, there are great AI research tools out there that can give you some impressive search results, especially if you are good at prompting. AI makes gathering data easier. However, no AI tool is perfect, and it should never replace human efforts in selling. There is simply no substitute for the insight that can be gained by connecting with people who have first-hand experience.