Sales reps spend about 72% of their day on non-selling tasks. Research. Admin. Data entry. Prep work that eats into the hours you could be closing deals, according to Salesforce research.

The math is brutal. You have four calls today. Each one needs 30 to 45 minutes of prep if you want to walk in knowing who you’re talking to, what they care about, and why they should care about you. That’s two to three hours just getting ready.

Or you can wing it. Show up cold, ask questions you could have googled, and sound like every other vendor who didn’t bother.

Neither option is good.

The Preparation Gap

Here’s what the data shows. 76% of top-performing sales reps “always” research their prospects before reaching out. Top sellers spend an average of six hours per week on research alone. That’s not a coincidence. Preparation separates closers from callers.

But most reps don’t have six hours. They have six minutes between meetings.

One Hacker News commenter put it bluntly when discussing cold calling: “It is one thing to dial a random phone number…it is another thing to do enough research to know it is plausible that a certain person might be receptive.” That’s PaulHoule, and the distinction matters.

You’re not just dialing. You’re showing up to a conversation that could mean quota or missed target, and the person on the other end can tell within 30 seconds whether you did your homework.

What Good Prep Actually Means

Preparation isn’t knowing the company name. It’s walking into a conversation with five things clear in your head: who this company is and what’s happening to them right now, who this specific person is and what they probably care about, why they might be interested in what you’re selling, what questions will tell you if there’s actually a fit, and what objections are coming and how you’ll handle them.

Without these, you’re improvising. That works for some people sometimes. But it doesn’t scale, and it doesn’t convert at the rate prepared calls do.

Research from Outreach found that customized emails achieve 2x higher reply rates than standard templates. The same principle applies to calls. Personalized, prepared conversations convert. Generic ones don’t.

How AI Changes the Equation

The old way took 30 to 45 minutes per call. Tab switching between LinkedIn, company websites, news searches, CRM notes. Pulling together a mental picture of who you’re about to talk to.

With AI, that compresses to 5 to 10 minutes. Sometimes less.

Outreach’s own data shows sellers using AI tools complete research and personalization in about 2 minutes. That’s a 10x efficiency gain. And 100% of respondents in their prospecting report saved more than one hour per week with AI assistance. 38% saved four to seven hours weekly.

This isn’t theoretical. LinkedIn’s 2025 research found that 56% of sales professionals now use AI daily. Those users are twice as likely to exceed their sales targets compared to non-users.

The pattern is consistent across studies. Sellers partnering with AI are 3.7 times more likely to meet quota, according to Gartner.

The Quick Research Prompt

Start here. This takes about two minutes and gives you the landscape.

Give me a call prep summary for [Company]:

1. What they do in plain language
2. Company size, stage, funding situation
3. Any recent news from the last 6 months
4. Their market position and main competitors
5. Challenges or opportunities visible from the outside

I'm selling [your product/service]. Flag anything relevant.

This surfaces the basics without you opening ten tabs. You’ll know if they just raised money, just laid people off, just launched a new product. Context that shapes how you approach the conversation.

The Person Research Prompt

Now zoom in on who you’re actually talking to.

Research [Name] at [Company]:

1. Current role and how long they've been there
2. Career history and where they came from
3. Any recent LinkedIn posts or public statements
4. What someone in their role typically cares about
5. Content they've created or spoken about

What angles or connection points do you see?

This is where you find the hooks. They posted about a problem you can solve. They came from a company that uses your competitor. They just got promoted and are looking for quick wins.

An_aparallel, another Hacker News commenter, noted the importance of understanding context before calling: “The most effective cold calling is done once your product, its market fit, its ideal customer and general understanding of the competition…are well understood.”

Discovery Questions That Qualify

Most discovery questions are obvious. How many people on your team? What tools do you use? These don’t differentiate you.

Better discovery uncovers whether there’s actually a fit and what would make them buy.

Based on [Company] and [Person], generate discovery questions:

1. Questions about their current situation
2. Questions about pain points related to [what I sell]
3. Questions that reveal budget, authority, timeline
4. Questions about their decision process
5. One question about what success would look like

Make them conversational. Not interrogative.

The goal isn’t reading these word for word. It’s having thoughtful questions ready so you’re not scrambling mid-call trying to think of what to ask next.

Objection Mapping

Every call hits resistance somewhere. The question is whether you’re ready for it.

What objections might come up in my call with [Person] at [Company]?

Consider:
- Common objections to [your product category]
- This company's likely concerns given their stage and industry
- Role-specific concerns for someone in their position
- Timing or budget objections given current market

For each, suggest a brief response approach.

You won’t need all of these. But having them means you won’t freeze when someone says “we already have something for that” or “this isn’t a priority right now.”

Sopchi, commenting on a Hacker News thread about cold calling, emphasized this: “Handling objections is a key part of selling, so having notes of all the objections and devising ways to handle them is crucial.”

The One-Pager

Synthesize everything into something you can glance at during the call.

Create a call brief for my conversation with [Person] at [Company]:

- 3 key facts about the company
- 3 things I know about this person
- My opening angle (why I'm relevant to them specifically)
- 3 must-ask questions
- 2 likely objections and how I'll handle them
- What success looks like for this call

Keep it scannable. I'll look at it while talking.

Print it or keep it on a second screen. This is your cheat sheet.

Adjusting by Call Type

Not every call needs full prep. Discovery calls need the most, because you’re qualifying and establishing credibility at the same time. Follow-up calls need less, since you already know the basics. Focus on what changed since last time and questions you didn’t get to ask.

Demo calls are different again. They’ve qualified and want to see the product. Focus on their specific use case and the features that matter to them.

Closing calls are about decision criteria and stakeholders. What do they need to say yes? Who else needs to sign off?

Scale your preparation to match the moment.

The Pre-Call Ritual

Here’s what works in practice.

The night before, run the AI prep workflow for tomorrow’s calls. 30 to 45 minutes handles three or four calls. Morning of, review your call briefs with coffee. Refresh your memory. Five minutes before, quick scan of the one-pager. Check if anything new posted on LinkedIn or company news.

Right after the call, use AI to generate a summary and update your CRM while it’s fresh. This takes five minutes and ensures nothing falls through cracks.

Framework, Not Script

Don’t script entire calls. It sounds robotic. And conversations go sideways, which breaks scripts.

Build frameworks instead. For opening: thank them, reference something specific about them, state purpose, confirm agenda and time. For discovery: current state questions, then pain questions, then impact questions, then vision questions. For closing: summarize what you learned, propose next steps, confirm their commitment, set specific date and time.

The AI-generated questions slot into these frameworks. You’re not reading a script. You’re following a structure with prepared material.

Lebowa, commenting on Hacker News, stressed fundamentals: “A cold call is a pitch, and a pitch is a story…this takes REPETITION.” The framework gives you the structure. Repetition makes it natural.

When It Goes Sideways

No amount of preparation prevents every surprise. Someone raises an issue you didn’t anticipate. They want to talk about something you didn’t research.

When you don’t know something, say so directly. “That’s a great question. I want to give you an accurate answer rather than guess. Can I follow up by end of day?”

When they go off topic, acknowledge briefly and redirect. “That’s an interesting point about [topic]. Let me note that. Can I ask about [your question] to make sure I understand your situation?”

When they’re not who you expected, roll with it. “I prepared to discuss [topic] with [role], but I’m happy to adjust. What would be most useful for you?”

Preparation isn’t about having every answer. It’s about being grounded enough to improvise when you need to.

After the Call

Post-call matters as much as pre-call.

I just finished a call with [Person] at [Company]. Here's what we discussed:
[Quick bullets]

Generate:
1. CRM notes summary
2. My action items
3. Their action items
4. Suggested next steps
5. Follow-up email draft

Do this immediately. Details fade fast. Five minutes right after beats 20 minutes trying to reconstruct it later.

The Real Difference

Bain’s research found that early AI deployments in sales improved win rates by 30% or more. That’s not magic. It’s prepared reps consistently outperforming unprepared ones.

48% of salespeople admit to being afraid to pick up the phone, according to Pipedrive. Some of that fear comes from not knowing what to say. Preparation fixes that.

The question isn’t whether AI helps with call prep. The data is clear. The question is whether you’ll build it into your routine or keep competing against reps who have.

What’s your current prep process? Five minutes of LinkedIn scanning? Forty-five minutes of research across a dozen tabs? Something you tell yourself you’ll do but skip when busy? The answer determines whether AI would actually change your outcomes or just be another tool you don’t use consistently.

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DatBot gives you access to multiple AI models for different prep tasks. Claude for nuanced research. GPT for quick summaries. Switch mid-workflow depending on what you need. Try it before your next big call.