I used to start client prep in Google. Ten tabs, a dozen half-read articles, and a set of notes I could never find again on the day of the call.
Now I start in Perplexity. It answers the question and shows the sources next to the answer, so I can check the claim before I repeat it to someone who is paying me. That one habit has changed how I walk into a first conversation.
Below are the four prompts I run before almost every call, the order I run them in, and the one check I never skip.
Walk into the call knowing what they said last week, not what they said three years ago.
Answers with receipts
My four research prompts
Fill in the brackets, run them in this order, and paste the answers into one document for the client. The first prompt is the one I use most.
Give me a one-page brief on [PERSON, ROLE] at [COMPANY]. Cover: what the company announced in the last 6 months, what [PERSON] has said or posted publicly, and the problem their team is most likely working on this quarter. Cite every claim with a link. If you can't verify something, label it "unverified" instead of guessing.
What changed at [COMPANY] in the last 90 days? Cover leadership changes, funding, product launches, layoffs and hiring. Show the date and the source for each item. If two sources disagree, show me both.
What are the three objections [ROLE] in [INDUSTRY] most often raise when they consider [KIND OF SERVICE]? For each objection, give me one source where it shows up in practice.
Based on what you found about [COMPANY], give me five questions a smart outsider would ask on a first call. Keep each question under 20 words and tie it to one of the sources you cited.
How I run it the night before
1. Run the client brief
Use the first prompt on the person, then on the company. Two separate runs give you two clean briefs.
2. Open the two sources behind the biggest claim
Pick the claim that would change your opening line if it's wrong. Open both links and read the paragraph around the claim, not just the headline.
3. Write three questions in your own words
Take the outputs of prompt four and rewrite the questions the way you would say them out loud. If a question sounds like a search result, cut it.
The one rule I don't break
I don't quote a number I haven't opened. Perplexity will sometimes give you a figure with a confident sentence around it and a source that says something slightly different. The link is there so you can check, and I check every time, even when I'm in a hurry and the answer looks right.
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