Sales & PartnershipsFree tool
Account Research Brief for a First Meeting
A brief on the company you're meeting: what changed this year, three openers with their sources, and a sheet of who you may meet.
Free to start · Opens in your River workspace, ready to edit and share
How to do account research before a sales meeting
Account research is the reading you do on a company before a first sales meeting. Start with what the company publishes about itself, then look for what changed this year and who is likely to be involved in buying. Finish with a one-page brief that ends in three openers, each tied to the document it came from.
Above all, look for what changed. An About page reads the same every year, but a new risk, a new executive or a burst of hiring often marks a problem someone now owns. Those are worth raising in a first conversation.
What goes in an account research brief
Keep the brief to one page you can reread two minutes before the call. Each part answers one question, and most answers live in a predictable place.
If you are still deciding which accounts deserve this work, settle your ideal customer profile first.
The parts of an account research brief
| Part | What it answers | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Snapshot | What they sell and to whom, in their own words | Their homepage and product pages, Item 1 of a 10-K |
| What changed | New leaders, deals, products, layoffs or funding in the past year | 8-K filings, press releases, news |
| What worries them | Risks the company has named itself | Item 1A of a 10-K, earnings calls |
| What they're building | Teams they are growing and the tools they name | Their careers page and job posts |
| People | Who is likely involved, by role, and how you know | Team page, announcements, job posts, LinkedIn |
| Openers | Three observations or questions, each with its source | Everything above |
Start with what the company publishes
Read the company's own documents before anyone's opinion of them. They show how the company sees itself, and they give you words you can quote back.
Read their site
Note how they describe what they sell and to whom, which customers they name, and what their newsroom announced this year.
Read three parts of the 10-K
Item 1 describes the business. Item 1A covers risks, which the SEC says are generally listed in order of importance2. Item 7 is where management tells its story in its own words.
Scan the news last
Search the past year of news and press releases, and write the date beside every fact you keep.
Read the filings for what changed
Don't summarize a 10-K; compare it with last year's, because the changes are where the news is. Economists Lauren Cohen, Christopher Malloy and Quoc Nguyen showed that changes to a company's 10-K predict its future earnings and news4. In their study, published in The Journal of Finance, edits to the risk factor section were especially informative about future stock returns.
Start with the short version. When a company's risk factors run past 15 pages, SEC rules require a summary of no more than two pages5 near the front of the report. Generic risks that could apply to any company go last, under "General Risk Factors," so you can skim those.
Then paste each year's Item 1A into its own document, compare the two with a tool such as Word's Compare, and read only what's new. Here is what that turns up in a real filing.
2024: "On a more limited basis, we compete with Box... as well as in the e-signature market along with Adobe and DocuSign."
2025: "On a more limited basis, we compete with Box... as well as in the e-signature market along with Adobe and DocuSign and in the AI content search market along with Glean, Guru and Notion."
- Compare, don't summarize. By our count, about three in four sentences in Dropbox's 2025 risk factors repeat the 2024 text word for word. A summary would bury a clause like this one.
- Search with matching case. Checking that Glean is new? The 2024 report uses "glean" as an ordinary verb, so a search that ignores case turns up a false match.
- Turn it into a question. "Your latest annual report names Glean, Guru and Notion as competitors in AI search. How is that changing what your team builds?"
Between annual reports, read the 8-Ks. They cover major events, such as a restructuring or layoff, a completed acquisition, or a new or departing chief executive or CFO. Companies must file most of them within four business days6 of the event. EDGAR lists each 8-K's item numbers, so you can spot 2.05 (restructuring) or 5.02 (officer changes) at a glance.
Read their job posts
For a private company, job posts are often the richest public record of what it's building. A first security hire, a new data team or a sales office in a new region hints at where this year's money is going. In each post, note:
- The team the role joins and what it will own
- The tools it names, as leads to check rather than proof they use them
- Who the role reports to, which sketches the org chart
- The date it was posted, so you don't quote a stale opening
Map the people before you meet them
Expect more than one decision maker. The research firm Forrester found in 2024 that an average of 13 people are involved in a buying decision7. In 89% of purchases, two or more departments take part.
List the roles you expect to meet. Then add names from sources you can cite: their team page, announcements, a job post naming the hiring manager, or a filing. LinkedIn helps fill gaps; just confirm each person still holds the role. A role with no name, such as "head of security, hiring now," is more useful than a name you guessed.
After the first call, a stakeholder and champion map built from the transcript shows everyone the buyer named.
Stay on the work side
Use what people published in their work roles. Bringing up someone's family, home or personal posts in a first meeting feels like surveillance, not preparation.
Turn the research into three openers
Openers are the point of the brief. Give each the same shape: what you noticed, where you read it, and a question that lets them correct you. Lead with the one closest to the person you're meeting, and add one honest line on where your offer fits.
Generic openers against sourced ones
| Signal | Generic | Specific and sourced |
|---|---|---|
| Hiring | "Looks like you're growing fast." | "You've posted four data engineering roles since June. What are they building?" |
| Filings | "Security must be a big focus." | "This year's 10-K adds a risk factor on vendor breaches. What prompted that?" |
| Leadership | "Congrats on the new role!" | "Your May 8-K named a new CFO. Has that changed how you buy software?" |
Illustrative examples written for this guide.
Before the meeting
- It fits on one page
- Every fact has a source and a date
- What changed is quoted, not summarized
- Gaps say "not found" instead of a guess
- Three openers, each ending in a question
- Nothing personal from outside work
Plan the rest of the conversation with the discovery call questions template. To start from a draft, use the tool at the top of this page. It reads the filings, job posts and news, then writes the brief with a source for every fact.
How it works
Start with the company's name, plus what you'd sell them if you want the brief to connect the two. River does the reading for you. It checks whether the company files annual reports, compares the latest one with last year's, and reads its job posts, site and recent news. Then it writes a short brief in your workspace, naming the source of every fact.
The people you might meet go in a separate sheet, built only from what the company published, with a date on every row. Where the public record is silent, the brief says so instead of guessing.
Name the company
Type the company you're meeting. Add what you sell, their website or your notes if you have them.
River reads the record
It checks for annual reports, compares this year's with last year's, and reads job posts, their site and news.
Get your brief
Three sourced openers, what changed, what worries them and what they're hiring for, plus a stakeholder sheet.
Check and follow up
Check any line against its source, then ask River for an opening email or a brief built around another person.
What you get
- Three openers for the meeting, each an observation or question with the document it came from
- What changed since the prior filing or quarter, quoted with its source
- The risks the company says worry it, in its own words, with the filing item they came from
- What they're building or buying: open roles and the tools their job posts name
- A stakeholder sheet of people and open roles, each row with its source and date
- One honest line on where your offer fits, and a plain note wherever the record is silent
Common questions
What is account research in sales?
Account research is the homework a seller does on a company before reaching out or meeting. You learn what the business does, what changed recently, what it says worries it, and who is involved in buying. Good account research ends in a short brief with a few sourced openers, not a long company profile.
How long should account research take?
For a first meeting, aim for under an hour. Spend it on what changed and on your three openers rather than a full company profile. A small account may need 20 minutes, while a large enterprise deal earns deeper reading as it moves along. Stop when more reading wouldn't change what you'd say.
How do I write an account research brief with River?
Type the company's name in the box at the top of this page. Adding what you sell lets the brief connect the two. River reads the company's public record, then writes the brief and a stakeholder sheet into your free River workspace, where you can check every source and edit.
Where does River's research come from?
River works from public sources it reads during the run, plus anything you attach. For a public company, that means its two latest annual reports and recent 8-Ks. For any company, it reads their own job board, website and recent news. It doesn't read LinkedIn, and it doesn't add email addresses or phone numbers.
What if the company is private?
River still writes the brief from what any employer publishes: open roles, the tools its job posts name, recent news and its own site. Sections that depend on annual reports stay empty, with a note saying why, since most private companies don't file them. A short brief you can trust beats a long one padded with guesses.
How is this different from a sales battlecard?
They cover different companies. A battlecard is about a competitor and helps you answer what a buyer says about them. An account research brief is about the customer you're meeting and gives you something worth saying first. If your research turns up a rival in the deal, build a battlecard next.
Is the account research brief free?
Yes, it is free to start. Your brief and stakeholder sheet open in a River workspace, where you can edit them, share them or ask River to change them. Paid plans add more AI use and access to the most advanced models.
Sources
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “Search Filings.” sec.gov (opens in a new tab)
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “How to Read a 10-K.” investor.gov (opens in a new tab)
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “Form D.” investor.gov (opens in a new tab)
National Bureau of Economic Research. “Lazy Prices.” nber.org (opens in a new tab)
eCFR. “17 CFR 229.105 (Item 105) Risk factors.” ecfr.gov (opens in a new tab)
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “How to Read an 8-K.” investor.gov (opens in a new tab)
Forrester. “The State Of Business Buying, 2024.” forrester.com (opens in a new tab)
Built by
Chandler Supple
Co-founder & CEO, River
Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.