Account Research

Account Research

Produce a high-signal intelligence brief on a target company. Lead with a synthesized executive summary, suppress sections where data is thin, and tie next steps to specific people and concrete topics surfaced during research.

Input

The user will provide via $ARGUMENTS an account identifier (required) plus optional context:

• Account identifier (required) — one of:
  • Preferred: a ZoomInfo account/company ID (numeric, e.g. 136118787). Use directly as companyId; skip the search step.
  • Fallback: a company name, domain, or ticker. Resolve to a companyId via search_companies as a first step (see Workflow step 2).
• Research context (strongly recommended) — a sentence or two on why this brief is being pulled and what decision it supports. Examples: "preparing for a QBR — focus on renewal risk and expansion levers", "competitive analysis vs. Acme — looking for displacement angles", "cold outbound — find the warmest entry point and a credible reason to reach out". This shapes the account_research query, intent seeding, news/scoops triage, and the TL;DR framing.

Workflow

1. Anchor on purpose. Read the research context from $ARGUMENTS.

   • If supplied, restate it in one sentence as the brief purpose and keep it in mind as the framing lens for every downstream step.
   • If missing, ask the user once for the purpose. If they decline or say "just general intel", default to general account intelligence and state that assumption at the top of the brief so the reader knows the framing wasn't tailored.
   • Use the purpose to derive 2-4 priority GTM themes (e.g., QBR-renewal-risk → engagement health, exec stability, competing vendors, expansion signals). These themes drive seeding and triage in later steps.

2. Get GTM context. Call get_gtm_context to retrieve your organization's offerings, ICP, personas, competitors, and strategic priorities. Use this to frame findings throughout. If empty, proceed without — and omit the GTM Fit section.

3. Resolve the company.

   • If the user supplied a ZoomInfo account/company ID, use it directly as companyId — do not call search_companies.
   • Otherwise, call search_companies with the appropriate field (companyWebsite for a domain, companyTicker for a ticker, companyName for a name) and extract companyId from the top match. If no confident match, surface the ambiguity to the user before continuing rather than guessing.

4. Fetch in parallel (retrieval, not filtering). Treat each tool call as a context-retrieval step. Pull broadly now; decide what's relevant during synthesis. Steps that only need the companyId can run in parallel — enrich_companies, account_research, enrich_company_signals (intent, news, and scoops in one call — see below), and find_similar_companies.

   • Tailor the account_research query to the brief purpose. Don't pass a generic "tell me about this account" string. Instead, name the purpose and the priority themes — e.g., "Preparing for a QBR. Surface renewal status, contract dates, recent engagement, open expansion conversations, named champions and detractors, and any signs of competitive evaluation." The more context the better.
   • Signals retrieval. Call enrich_company_signals with the companyId and signalTypes: ["INTENT", "NEWS", "SCOOP"] (or omit signalTypes to get all three). It returns the company's recent intent topics, news, and scoops in a single call; score thresholds, topic resolution, and recency are handled server-side, so do not pre-filter — triage in step 5.

5. Synthesize. Each retrieval is raw context — now decide what makes the brief, framed by the user's stated purpose. Apply these principles:

   • Intent triage: review every intent topic returned by enrich_company_signals. Keep topics that map to the brief purpose, the priority themes, your GTM offerings, or that suggest a non-obvious signal worth flagging (e.g., a competitor's category, an adjacent buying motion). Drop topics that are noise or irrelevant to the purpose. If nothing meaningful remains, replace the table with a one-line note.
   • Purpose-weighted news/scoops relevance: the brief purpose is the primary tiebreaker. Start from the base news priority (PERSON / FUNDING / M&A / PRODUCT > GENERAL_PRESS_RELEASE > GENERAL_NEWS), then promote items that map to the priority themes (e.g., for a competitive brief, a product launch can outrank a routine leadership move; for a renewal QBR, a layoff or budget-cut signal outranks a generic product release). Dedupe items covering the same theme; trim to 5-7.
   • Cross-reference: a new CTO scoop + cloud migration intent → connect the dots, and connect them to the user's stated goal.
   • Past-date flag: if account_research surfaces dates in the past (renewal, contract end, last activity, scheduled meeting), flag them as needing verification — could be active negotiation, stale CRM sync, or a missed milestone.
   • Cohort consistency: if the find_similar_companies cohort spans inconsistent industries vs. the target, flag that the peer set is directional rather than exact.
   • Section suppression: skip the funding table for public mega-caps (just reference the ticker); skip GTM Fit if no GTM context; flatten scoops if only 1-3 returned.

6. Write the exec summary last. Re-read the body, then write the TL;DR at the top. The Situation line must explicitly answer "why this brief, now" against the user's stated purpose — not just "who they are."

Output Format

TL;DR — [Company Name]

Brief purpose: [restate the user's research context in one line, or "general account intelligence (no purpose supplied)" if defaulted].

Situation. [2-4 sentences answering why this brief, now against the stated purpose: who they are, the dominant story now, where the relationship stands, and the specific signal(s) that make this purpose timely.]

Top 3 facts. Three most consequential data points across all sources.

Highest-leverage actions. 1-3 concrete actions, each pointing at a specific person, pilot, topic, or moment.

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Company Snapshot

GTM Fit

Omit if no GTM context was returned.

• ICP Match: industry, size, geography fit
• Offering Relevance: which products map to this account's signals
• Competitive Presence: any defined competitors in their news/scoops/stack
• Persona Alignment: do their org charts include your target personas

Account Context

Summarize account_research: relationship status, engagement, deal context, named contacts. If any surfaced dates are in the past, note them with a verification prompt (could be active negotiation, stale CRM sync, missed milestone, or closed-deal lag — recommend confirming with the account team). If dates fall within the next 30 days, surface them in the TL;DR instead.

Intent Signals

Show only the topics retained after triage in step 5 — topics the company is actively expressing intent on that map to the brief purpose, priority themes, your offerings, or a non-obvious signal worth flagging.

Highlight the top 3 and tie them to your offerings or the user's stated context. Replace the table with a one-line note if nothing meaningful survived triage.

Recent News & Scoops

Group news by Financial / People / Product / General if 5+ items span categories; otherwise list flat. For each: headline, date, one-line summary, source URL. Then list scoops — group by Leadership Moves / Growth Signals / Strategic Moves / Risk Signals only if 4+ returned, otherwise flat. Call out timing opportunities (e.g., new CTO → vendor evaluation likely).

Competitive Landscape

If the cohort's industries are inconsistent with the target, lead with a one-line caveat that peers are directional. Then show the top 10:

Note patterns: direct competitors vs. adjacent players vs. peers; how the target compares on size and market position.

Corporate Structure

• Ultimate Parent / Parent: if applicable
• Funding: total raised, most recent round + date + amount. For public mega-caps (revenue > $5B), replace with "Public — see ticker for capital structure."

Key Takeaways & Next Steps

3-5 bullets connecting the dots across sources, framed by the user's stated purpose. Then suggest concrete next actions — each must reference a specific person, pilot, deal, topic, or moment surfaced above, with a clear rationale tied to the brief purpose. No generic skill mentions or boilerplate. Omit any line that doesn't have a concrete target.