How to Research a BD Target Before You Call

Most recruiters go into a BD call knowing the company name and the job title of the person they're calling. That's it. Claude can change that in under two minutes.

Before any BD call, you want two things:

1. What's happening at the company right now: growth signals, recent hires, leadership changes, funding, expansion
2. What matters to the person you're calling: how long they've been there, what they've done before, what they're likely focused on

Both are findable. Most recruiters don't bother because it takes too long manually. With Claude connected, it takes seconds.

Step 1: Connect Claude to the Web

Claude needs to be connected to search to pull live company and person data.

Where to find it: Settings → Customize → Connectors → Enable Web Search

Step 2: Research the Company

Open a new chat or a Project for this client. Ask Claude:

"Search for [Company Name]. Tell me: how many employees they have, whether they've hired in my sector recently, any funding rounds or acquisitions in the last 12 months, any news about growth or expansion, and anything that suggests they might need to hire right now."

Claude will pull live results and summarise what matters. You're not reading ten tabs. You're reading one paragraph.

Step 3: Research the Person

Now do the same for the individual:

"Search for [Name] at [Company]. Tell me how long they've been in their current role, what they did before, whether they've hired for roles like mine previously, and anything worth referencing on a cold call."

If they've just joined, they're likely rebuilding a team. If they've been there five years, they have a process and you need to challenge it. Claude will surface which one you're dealing with.

Step 4: Get the Angle

Now ask Claude to put it together:

"Based on what you've found, what's the strongest angle for a cold call from a recruiter who places [sector] professionals? What's the one thing most likely to make them want to keep talking?"

This is where Extended Thinking earns its keep. Turn it on for this step.

Where to find it: Model selector → Extended Thinking ON → Select Opus

Step 5: Save It to the Client Project

If you're going to call this company more than once, and you should be, save everything Claude found to their Project. Next time you call, the context is already there.

Where to find it: Claude Desktop app → Projects → Open client Project → Paste research as a note

You're not doing more research. You're doing better research, faster. The consultants who win BD calls in 2026 aren't the ones who talk the most. They're the ones who walk in knowing something the client didn't expect them to know.