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A company website can tell you what a product does and who it is designed for. It usually cannot tell you which problem the buyer is handling this week. Use public research to make the first conversation specific, then let the buyer correct it.
Read the source without adding a buying story
Consider this fictional product-documentation excerpt:
“The CRM connector imports company names, contacts and contact roles. Order-status events are not included in this connector.”
| Account note | What belongs in it |
|---|---|
| Supported fact | The documented connector handles contact data and excludes order-status events. |
| Possible relevance | A buyer who needs order status in the CRM may require another method. |
| Still unknown | Whether the team needs that data, how it moves today and whether changing it matters. |
| First question | “Does your team need order status in the CRM, or are contact records enough?” |
Do not turn “not included” into “their integration is broken.” The documented limit may have no effect on this buyer’s work.
A short conversation that changes the next task
You: Does your team need order status in the CRM, or are contact records enough?
Buyer: We already import order status every night. The problem is when an order is cancelled after the import.
You: What happens when that occurs?
Buyer: Support checks the order system before promising a delivery date.
You: Who handles that check, and can you walk me through the most recent example?
The public documentation supplied a useful opening. The buyer’s answer changes the assignment from “build an order-status sync” to “understand how cancellations reach support.” No budget, urgency or purchasing authority has been established.
The follow-up assignment
Research question: How are cancellations handled between nightly imports?
Known: The buyer reports an existing nightly import.
Check next: The cancellation path, support owner and last real example.
Public material to inspect: Event/API documentation for cancellations.
Do not assume: The CRM connector is the only integration in use.
Deliverable: A diagram of the current cancellation handoff, with unknown
steps marked for the buyer to confirm.If two people describe the process differently, keep both accounts with their roles and dates. A support agent may describe daily practice while an administrator describes the intended setup. Ask them to resolve the specific conflicting step.
When using Afield for the preparation, request a source URL and a short supporting passage for each public fact. Put interview answers in a separate dated note. That lets the next person see which claims came from documentation and which came from the customer.