account-research

What this skill does

# Account Research

Produce a high-signal intelligence brief on a target company. Lead with a synthesized executive summary, suppress sections where data is thin, and tie next steps to specific people and concrete topics surfaced during research.

## Input

The user will provide via `$ARGUMENTS` an account identifier (required) plus optional context:

- **Account identifier (required)** — one of:
  - **Preferred**: a ZoomInfo account/company ID (numeric, e.g. `136118787`). Use directly as `companyId`; skip the search step.
  - **Fallback**: a company name, domain, or ticker. Resolve to a `companyId` via `search_companies` as a first step (see Workflow step 2).
- **Research context (strongly recommended)** — a sentence or two on *why* this brief is being pulled and what decision it supports. Examples: "preparing for a QBR — focus on renewal risk and expansion levers", "competitive analysis vs. Acme — looking for displacement angles", "cold outbound — find the warmest entry point and a credible reason to reach out". This shapes the `account_research` query, intent seeding, news/scoops triage, and the TL;DR framing.

## Workflow

1. **Anchor on purpose.** Read the research context from `$ARGUMENTS`.
   - If supplied, restate it in one sentence as the *brief purpose* and keep it in mind as the framing lens for every downstream step.
   - If missing, ask the user once for the purpose. If they decline or say "just general intel", default to **general account intelligence** and state that assumption at the top of the brief so the reader knows the framing wasn't tailored.
   - Use the purpose to derive 2-4 *priority GTM themes* (e.g., QBR-renewal-risk → engagement health, exec stability, competing vendors, expansion signals). These themes drive seeding and triage in later steps.

2. **Get GTM context.** Call `get_gtm_context` to retrieve your organization's offerings, ICP, personas, competitors, and strategic priorities. Use this to frame findings throughout. If empty, proceed without — and omit the GTM Fit section.

3. **Resolve the company.**
   - If the user supplied a ZoomInfo account/company ID, use it directly as `companyId` — do not call `search_companies`.
   - Otherwise, call `search_companies` with the appropriate field (`companyWebsite` for a domain, `companyTicker` for a ticker, `companyName` for a name) and extract `companyId` from the top match. If no confident match, surface the ambiguity to the user before continuing rather than guessing.

4. **Fetch in parallel (retrieval, not filtering).** Treat each tool call as a context-retrieval step. Pull broadly now; decide what's relevant during synthesis. Steps that only need the `companyId` can run in parallel — `enrich_companies`, `account_research`, `enrich_news` (last 90 days, `pageSize: 20`), `enrich_scoops` (last 90 days, `pageSize: 15`), `enrich_intent` (see below), and `find_similar_companies`.
   - **Tailor the `account_research` query to the brief purpose.** Don't pass a generic "tell me about this account" string. Instead, name the purpose and the priority themes — e.g., *"Preparing for a QBR. Surface renewal status, contract dates, recent engagement, open expansion conversations, named champions and detractors, and any signs of competitive evaluation."* The more context the better.
   - **Intent retrieval.** Call `enrich_intent` with the `companyId` only — do **not** pre-filter by topic. The goal is to see *what topics this company is actually expressing intent on*, not to confirm hypotheses. Use `signalScoreMin: 60` and `sort: "-signalScore"` so the response is ranked but unconstrained on subject matter. Filtering happens in step 5.

5. **Synthesize.** Each retrieval is raw context — now decide what makes the brief, framed by the user's stated purpose. Apply these principles:
   - **Intent triage**: review every topic returned by `enrich_intent`. Keep topics that map to the brief purpose, the priority themes, your GTM offerings, or that suggest a non-obvious signal worth flagging (e.g., a competitor's category, an adjacent buying motion). Drop topics that are noise or irrelevant to the purpose. If nothing meaningful remains, replace the table with a one-line note.
   - **Purpose-weighted news/scoops relevance**: the brief purpose is the primary tiebreaker. Start from the base news priority (PERSON / FUNDING / M&A / PRODUCT > GENERAL_PRESS_RELEASE > GENERAL_NEWS), then promote items that map to the priority themes (e.g., for a competitive brief, a product launch can outrank a routine leadership move; for a renewal QBR, a layoff or budget-cut signal outranks a generic product release). Dedupe items covering the same theme; trim to 5-7.
   - **Cross-reference**: a new CTO scoop + cloud migration intent → connect the dots, and connect them *to the user's stated goal*.
   - **Past-date flag**: if `account_research` surfaces dates in the past (renewal, contract end, last activity, scheduled meeting), flag them as needing verification — could be active negotiation, stale CRM sync, or a missed milestone.
   - **Cohort consistency**: if the `find_similar_companies` cohort spans inconsistent industries vs. the target, flag that the peer set is directional rather than exact.
   - **Section suppression**: skip the funding table for public mega-caps (just reference the ticker); skip GTM Fit if no GTM context; flatten scoops if only 1-3 returned.

6. **Write the exec summary last.** Re-read the body, then write the TL;DR at the top. The Situation line must explicitly answer *"why this brief, now"* against the user's stated purpose — not just "who they are."

## Output Format

### TL;DR — [Company Name]

*Brief purpose: [restate the user's research context in one line, or "general account intelligence (no purpose supplied)" if defaulted].*

**Situation.** [2-4 sentences answering *why this brief, now* against the stated purpose: who they are, the dominant story now, where the relationship stands, and the specific signal(s) that make this purpose timely.]

**Top 3 facts.** Three most consequential data points across all sources.

**Highest-leverage actions.** 1-3 concrete actions, each pointing at a specific person, pilot, topic, or moment.

---

### Company Snapshot

| Field | Value |
|-------|-------|
| Website | |
| Industry | |
| Employees | |
| Revenue | |
| HQ | |
| Type | (Public/Private) |
| Ticker | |
| Founded | |
| ZoomInfo ID | |

### GTM Fit

*Omit if no GTM context was returned.*

- **ICP Match**: industry, size, geography fit
- **Offering Relevance**: which products map to this account's signals
- **Competitive Presence**: any defined competitors in their news/scoops/stack
- **Persona Alignment**: do their org charts include your target personas

### Account Context

Summarize `account_research`: relationship status, engagement, deal context, named contacts. If any surfaced dates are in the past, note them with a verification prompt (could be active negotiation, stale CRM sync, missed milestone, or closed-deal lag — recommend confirming with the account team). If dates fall within the next 30 days, surface them in the TL;DR instead.

### Intent Signals

Show only the topics retained after triage in step 5 — topics the company is actively expressing intent on that map to the brief purpose, priority themes, your offerings, or a non-obvious signal worth flagging.

| Topic | Signal Score | Audience Strength | Category | Signal Date |
|-------|-------------|-------------------|----------|-------------|

Highlight the top 3 and tie them to your offerings or the user's stated context. Replace the table with a one-line note if nothing meaningful survived triage.

### Recent News & Scoops

Group news by Financial / People / Product / General if 5+ items span categories; otherwise list flat. For each: headline, date, one-line summary, source URL. Then list scoops — group by Leadership Moves / Growth Signals / Strategic Moves / Risk Signals only if 4+ returned, otherwise flat. Call out timing op