The pre-call research checklist every B2B SaaS AE should follow

There are dozens of pre-call planning templates out there. Most of them include 15-20 items, everything from "review their mission statement" to "analyze their organizational chart." By the time you're done, your call block is over.

This checklist is different. It's built for B2B SaaS account executives who make 15-30 calls a day and need to prepare quickly without missing anything that actually matters. I've trimmed it to the 8 items that consistently make a difference on calls, based on what I've seen working in SaaS sales.

Print it, bookmark it, or just memorize it. The whole thing takes under 5 minutes per prospect.

The checklist

1. Company: what they do and who they sell to

Where to find it: Company website homepage, LinkedIn company page.

You need one sentence: "[Company] sells [product/service] to [buyer type]." That's it. If you can't describe what they do in one sentence after 60 seconds on their site, their messaging is bad — which is actually useful information on its own.

Why it matters: Knowing their business model tells you how to frame your product's value. If they sell to enterprise, they care about different things than if they sell to SMBs. If they're a services business, their buying process is different from a product company.

2. Company size and stage

Where to find it: LinkedIn (headcount), Crunchbase (funding stage), website footer (sometimes lists office locations as a size proxy).

Classify them roughly: early stage (under 50 people), growth stage (50-500), or scale-up (500+). And note their last funding round if public.

Why it matters: Company size determines who's involved in buying decisions, how long the sales cycle will be, and what budget range is realistic. A 20-person startup with seed funding evaluates tools differently than a 300-person Series C company.

3. Your contact's title and tenure

Where to find it: LinkedIn profile.

Note their exact title and how long they've been in the role. Under 6 months is a strong signal — new hires are often mandated to evaluate or change tools.

Why it matters: Tenure tells you whether they're in "fix things" mode (new to role) or "maintain things" mode (established). New hires are 3x more likely to be actively evaluating vendors because they were brought in to improve something.

4. One recent company signal

Where to find it: Google "[company name]" and check the News tab. Or check their LinkedIn company page for recent posts.

You're looking for one of these: a funding round, a product launch, a leadership hire, an expansion announcement, a partnership, or a layoff. Anything that changed in the last 90 days.

Why it matters: Signals give you a reason to call beyond "I'm working through my list." Referencing a real event shows you did your homework. It also gives you a hypothesis about what might be top of mind for them right now.

5. Their likely pain point (your hypothesis)

Where to find it: Inferred from items 1-4 above.

Write one sentence: "Based on [signal/context], they're probably dealing with [pain point]."

Examples:

• "They just hired 3 SDRs, so they're probably scaling outbound and need better prospecting tools."
• "New VP of Sales, 2 months in. Probably evaluating the current tech stack."
• "Series B, 80 people. Growing fast but likely don't have a formal sales enablement function yet."

Why it matters: Walking into a call with a hypothesis lets you ask targeted questions instead of generic ones. Even if you're wrong, a specific wrong guess ("Are you finding it hard to onboard new reps quickly?") generates better conversation than "What are your biggest challenges?"

6. Who else is likely involved in the decision

Where to find it: LinkedIn — search the company for titles in the buying committee. Your CRM if there's prior engagement history.

For a typical B2B SaaS purchase, identify at least: the economic buyer (who controls budget), the champion (who wants the product), and any potential blocker (IT, procurement, legal). You don't need names for all of them — even knowing "there's probably a VP of Ops involved" is helpful.

Why it matters: Deals stall when you sell to one person and the decision involves three. Knowing the likely committee early means you can ask multi-threaded questions: "Beyond yourself, who else would need to weigh in on a decision like this?"

7. Their current solution (or lack thereof)

Where to find it: G2 reviews, BuiltWith, job postings (often mention tools), or your CRM if a previous rep already logged competitive intel.

If you know they're using a competitor, your call is about displacement — why switch. If they're using nothing, your call is about education — why start.

Why it matters: These are fundamentally different conversations. A prospect on a competitor has context and comparisons. A prospect without a tool needs to be convinced the problem is worth solving at all.

8. Your opening sentence

Where to find it: You write it based on everything above.

One sentence. Not a script. Something like:

• "I saw [company] just expanded into APAC — I work with a few teams going through that same transition and the prospecting challenges that come with new markets."
• "Noticed you started as [title] about 3 months ago. When I talk to people early in that role, they're usually rethinking how the team does [relevant process]. Curious if that resonates."
• "Your team posted a few roles for [position]. Usually when I see that, there's a push to formalize [relevant function]. Am I reading that right?"

Why it matters: The first 15 seconds of a cold call determine whether the prospect stays on the line. A relevant, specific opening earns you the next 2 minutes. A generic one gets you a quick "not interested."

How to use this checklist

Don't try to fill in every item with perfect detail. Some prospects won't have recent signals. Some won't have enough LinkedIn presence to tell you about their decision-making committee. That's fine.

The goal is to go through the 8 items quickly and capture what's available. Even 5 out of 8 is better than walking in cold. The reps who consistently outperform quota aren't necessarily better closers — they're better prepared.

One more thing: save your research. If the prospect doesn't pick up today, you've already done the work for the follow-up attempt. Log your checklist notes in your CRM so you're not repeating this exercise next week.

Automating the checklist

If you're running through this 20+ times a day, the manual version works but it's slow. Tools like Emiko can generate the equivalent of this checklist — company context, contact intel, signals, pain point hypothesis, and opening angle — in about a minute per prospect. Worth considering if call volume is high and prep time is your bottleneck.

Regardless of method, the checklist stays the same. Eight items. Five minutes. Every call.