Top 15 Questions and Topics for B2B Sales Executives for Customer Research
Becoming a trusted advisor in B2B sales starts well before your first customer interaction. Pre-call research transforms generic sales conversations into strategic consultations that demonstrate genuine understanding and credibility. Studies show that structured pre-call research can improve lead qualification accuracy by 43% and help sales professionals position themselves as strategic partners rather than vendors.
Here are the 15 essential research areas that every B2B sales executive must investigate before customer meetings:
Company-Level Research
1. Company Strategic Priorities and Business Goals
Understanding what keeps executives up at night is fundamental. Research the company's stated strategic objectives for the current year, including growth targets, digital transformation initiatives, market expansion plans, or operational efficiency goals. Review annual reports, investor presentations, and executive interviews to identify their top three strategic priorities. This allows you to position your solution within the context of what matters most to decision-makers.
2. Recent Company News and Developments
Monitor recent announcements including mergers and acquisitions, leadership changes, funding rounds, new product launches, office expansions, or restructuring initiatives. These events often signal changing priorities, increased budgets, or new pain points. A recent acquisition might indicate integration challenges; a new funding round suggests growth mode and willingness to invest in solutions.
3. Financial Performance and Health
Examine the company's financial position through revenue trends, profitability, growth trajectory, and recent financial results. Understanding whether they're in growth mode, cost-cutting phase, or maintaining stability helps you tailor your value proposition appropriately. Publicly traded companies provide quarterly earnings reports; private companies may share financial indicators in press releases or industry databases.
4. Organizational Structure and Size
Research the company's organizational hierarchy, number of employees, geographic footprint, and departmental structure. Understanding whether you're dealing with a centralized or decentralized decision-making structure helps you navigate the buying committee and identify all relevant stakeholders.
Industry and Market Context
5. Industry Trends and Challenges
Identify the macro trends, regulatory changes, technological disruptions, and competitive pressures affecting their industry. What headwinds are they facing? What tailwinds can they leverage? This demonstrates that you understand their business environment beyond just their company. For example, if selling to healthcare, understand value-based care trends; if targeting manufacturing, know about supply chain disruptions and automation trends.
6. Competitive Landscape
Research their main competitors, market positioning, and competitive advantages or vulnerabilities. Understanding where they stand relative to competitors helps you position your solution as a way to gain or maintain competitive advantage. Use tools like industry reports, competitor websites, and market analysis to map the competitive dynamics.
7. Regulatory and Compliance Environment
Identify industry-specific regulations, compliance requirements, and upcoming legislative changes that impact their business. In regulated industries like financial services, healthcare, or manufacturing, compliance concerns often drive purchasing decisions and create urgency.
Decision-Maker Research
8. Key Decision-Makers and Buying Committee Members
Identify all stakeholders involved in the purchase decision including economic buyers, technical evaluators, end users, and influencers. Research each person's role, responsibilities, tenure with the company, and their specific concerns. In B2B purchases, an average of 6-10 people are involved in the decision.
9. Decision-Making Process and Criteria
Understand their typical buying process, decision timeframe, budget cycles, and evaluation criteria. Research whether they use RFPs, how they've made similar purchases in the past, and what factors they prioritize (ROI, ease of implementation, vendor reputation, etc.). B2B buyers increasingly conduct extensive research before engaging with sales representatives.
10. Individual Priorities and Pain Points
Research what matters most to each key stakeholder personally. A CFO cares about ROI and risk mitigation; a CIO focuses on integration and security; an operations manager prioritizes ease of use and productivity gains. Review their LinkedIn profiles, published articles, conference presentations, or interviews to understand their perspective.
Current State and Pain Points
11. Existing Solutions and Technology Stack
Identify what tools, vendors, and solutions they currently use to address the problem you solve. Understanding their current approach—including what's working and what's not—allows you to position your solution as the natural evolution. Research their technology stack using tools like BuiltWith, LinkedIn, or company job postings.
12. Known Business Problems and Challenges
Investigate specific challenges they're facing including operational inefficiencies, customer complaints, growth bottlenecks, or cost pressures. Look for indicators in company reviews, social media, industry forums, news articles, and customer testimonials. Your existing customers in the same industry can provide insights into common pain points.
13. Previous Vendor Relationships and Experiences
Research their history with similar vendors including past partnerships, why they switched providers, and what went wrong or right. Understanding their past experiences helps you avoid triggering negative associations and emphasize what will be different. Look for mentions in case studies, testimonials, or industry publications.
Relationship and Engagement Context
14. Existing Relationships and Touchpoints
Identify any existing connections between your companies including mutual customers, partners, colleagues, or previous interactions. Map relationship connections through LinkedIn, review your CRM for any previous contact history, and identify potential internal champions or advocates. Warm introductions dramatically increase meeting success rates.
15. Intent Signals and Buying Readiness
Look for behavioral indicators that suggest active interest or readiness to buy including recent website visits, content downloads, job postings for related roles, mentions of the problem area on social media, or attendance at relevant industry events. These intent signals help you prioritize accounts and tailor your timing. Changes like new leadership often create windows of opportunity for new vendor relationships.
Implementing Effective Pre-Call Customer Research
The most successful B2B sales professionals dedicate 10-15 minutes of focused research before each call, using a structured approach. Start with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to focus on relevant accounts, leverage dedicated research tools like intellisell.ai, or LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, or your CRM, and centralize insights so your entire team stays aligned.
Research should inform specific, high-value questions rather than generic inquiries. Instead of asking "What does your company do?"—information readily available online—ask "I noticed your recent expansion into the European market; how is that impacting your current operational structure?" This approach demonstrates preparation, respect for their time, and genuine interest in their success.
By systematically researching these 15 areas, you transform from a vendor pushing products into a trusted advisor offering strategic solutions tailored to their specific business context. This level of preparation not only improves qualification accuracy and conversion rates but also builds the credibility and trust essential for long-term B2B relationships.