In short
In B2B sales, a company you want to win as a customer is called an account. Account research means finding out enough about it before the first contact to say something relevant: what the company does, what is changing there, and why your offer might matter now. Ten minutes of research turn "Dear Sir or Madam, we offer software" into a message that shows you looked.
Learners practise this in a 20-minute sprint, with a fictional research pack on this page or with a real company the teacher picks. They write down three facts and one reason to get in touch, each fact with its source and date. Along the way they judge how reliable each source is, and learn the most important rule: research the company and the work role, never the private person.
Level: upper secondary, vocational school, bachelor, continuing education. Time: 45 minutes. Groups: pairs.
Running the lesson
45 min- 5 min
Hook: show the two first sentences below. Which one would the class answer, and why?
- 5 min
Sources and rules: go through the source table and the rule "company, not private person".
- 20 min
Research sprint in pairs: the fictional pack (option B) or a real company (option A). Fill in the note sheet. Set a visible timer.
- 10 min
Three pairs present one fact and their reason to get in touch. The class asks: which source, which date, how reliable?
- 5 min
"Use it or leave it" sorting exercise, then explain the homework.
Materials
This page on a projector, or the research pack printed for each pair.
One note sheet per pair (the table below, copied or printed).
For option A: devices with internet access and a list of companies chosen by the teacher. Pick companies with a good website and recent news, for example local employers, firms from the region's chamber of commerce, or the training companies of your learners.
A timer everyone can see.
The hook
First sentence A: "Dear Sir or Madam, we are a leading provider of innovative route planning solutions."
First sentence B: "I read that you are opening a second warehouse in Hanover next spring and are looking for a transport planner for 50 trucks: planning routes for two sites in spreadsheets gets hard quickly."
Ask: what does B know that A does not? Where could the writer have found it? (Answer: in a press release and a job ad, both public.)
Sources and what they are good for
Source | What it tells you | How reliable | Watch out |
|---|---|---|---|
Company website ("About us", products, customers) | What they do, for whom, how they describe themselves | The company's own view, written to impress | Often undated or outdated |
Imprint (in German: Impressum) | Legal name, address, managing directors, register number | Reliable: German law requires it (§ 5 DDG) | Names are personal data: use them only for the business purpose |
Commercial register | Legal form, founding date, directors, changes such as a move or new management | Official | Shows facts, not plans |
Annual report or published accounts | Employees, figures, sometimes strategy and risks | Official; larger companies are audited | Often more than a year old |
Press releases and news | New sites, products, partners, people | Dated; press releases are the company's own view | Check the date; prefer a second, independent source |
Job ads | Growth, new roles, tools they use, problems to solve | Dated and specific | The contact person is there for applicants, not for sales offers |
The German imprint duty is in § 5 of the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz, and the commercial register can be searched for free at handelsregister.de. Other countries have their own registers.
The rule: research the company, and the work role of the person you want to reach. Private social media accounts, family, holidays, home addresses and hobbies are off limits, even if you can find them. Under the GDPR, information about a person is personal data, and you may only collect what you need for a clear purpose (Article 5(1)(c), data minimisation). It is also simply bad manners: nobody wants a sales message that mentions their children.
The note sheet
Field | Your notes |
|---|---|
Company, legal form, location | |
What it does, for whom | |
Size (employees, sites, vehicles, customers) | |
Fact 1, with source and date | |
Fact 2, with source and date | |
Fact 3, with source and date | |
Reason to get in touch now | |
Role you would contact (not a private person's details) | |
What you still do not know |
Option B: the research pack
You work for Contoso, a fictional company that sells route planning software to companies with their own delivery fleets. Your target account is Wide World Importers GmbH. Everything below is invented, including all people, numbers and register entries. Today is 1 November 2026.
Source 1: website, "About us" (undated). "Since 1998, Wide World Importers has brought household goods from 14 countries to more than 2,300 retailers in northern Germany. Our own fleet of 35 trucks delivers within 48 hours."
Source 2: imprint on the website. Wide World Importers GmbH, Musterstrasse 1, 28000 Bremen (fictional address). Managing directors: Katrin Vogel, Daniel Okafor. Register court: Bremen, commercial register number HRB 00000 (fictional).
Source 3: press release, 3 September 2026. "Wide World Importers will open a second warehouse in Hanover in spring 2027. The fleet will grow by 15 vehicles. 'Hanover lets us reach retailers in the south of Lower Saxony on the next day,' says managing director Daniel Okafor."
Source 4: job ad, 14 October 2026. "Transport planner (m/f/d). You plan the daily routes of our 50 trucks from two sites. Today we plan with spreadsheets; you will help us choose and introduce planning software."
Source 5: published annual accounts for 2024. On average 182 employees in 2024.
Source 6: press release, 12 May 2021. "Wide World Importers wins a regional logistics award for its new loading dock."
Source 7: anonymous logistics blog, October 2026. "Rumour has it that Wide World Importers could be sold soon. Nobody would confirm."
Source 8: a dispatcher's private social media account. Holiday photos, and a post from last week: "Another night fixing routes in Excel. My kids barely see me."
Model answer for the research pack
Field | Model notes |
|---|---|
Company, legal form, location | Wide World Importers GmbH, Bremen (imprint) |
What it does, for whom | Imports household goods from 14 countries and delivers to more than 2,300 retailers in northern Germany (website, undated) |
Size | About 182 employees in 2024 (annual accounts); 35 trucks today (website), 50 planned from two sites (job ad) |
Fact 1 | Second warehouse in Hanover from spring 2027, fleet grows by 15 vehicles (press release, 3 Sep 2026) |
Fact 2 | Looking for a transport planner for 50 trucks at two sites; routes are planned in spreadsheets; new planning software is planned (job ad, 14 Oct 2026) |
Fact 3 | Promises delivery within 48 hours with its own fleet (website, undated, so check whether it is still true) |
Reason to get in touch now | A second site and 15 more trucks before spring 2027, planned in spreadsheets, and the company already says it wants planning software. The decision is likely to fall in the next few months. |
Role you would contact | Head of logistics, or managing director Daniel Okafor, who is quoted on the expansion. Use only the business details from the imprint and the press release. |
What you still do not know | Who decides on software, the budget, which tools they already looked at, whether the new transport planner has started |
What to leave out, and why
Source 6 is five years old and says nothing about today's needs.
Source 7 is an anonymous rumour. Do not repeat it, and do not base anything on it.
Source 8 is a private account. Even though the post fits your product perfectly, it is off limits: using it would be intrusive, it is about someone's private life, and it could cause trouble for the employee. The job ad says the same thing about spreadsheets in a public, professional way.
How you may contact them depends on the channel and the country. In Germany, for example, advertising emails need the recipient's prior consent, also between businesses. See where B2B leads come from for an overview.
Use it or leave it?
Use it or leave it?
Use it (with source and date)
Leave it
Differentiation
Easier
Use option B only, and give guiding questions for each source: "What changes at this company?" "Is there a date?"
Ask for two facts instead of three.
Give the fields of the note sheet as sentence starters: "The company is opening..."
Harder
Option A with a real company. Add the published accounts from the company register and compare them with what the website claims.
Rate every source from 1 (unreliable) to 3 (official and dated) and justify each rating.
Write the first two sentences of a message to the account, using only facts from the note sheet.
Find out which channel you would be allowed to use for a first contact in your country, and name your source.
Homework
Research a company where you would like to do an internship or work, using the note sheet. Three facts with sources and dates, and one reason why you would like to work there now. Then use it for a real request with the internship request lesson.
Notes for the teacher
The most common mistake is collecting facts without dates. A fact without a date cannot be judged: the 48-hour promise may be from 2015.
Learners often take the website at its word. Ask: who wrote this, and why?
Many pairs will want to use Source 8 because it fits so well. That is the point of the exercise: discuss why "useful" and "allowed" are not the same.
With option A, check the chosen companies in advance. Avoid very small firms whose owner is the company: research there quickly turns into research about a private person.
Follow-up: turn the reason to get in touch into an outreach angle with the buying signals exercise.