Research an inbound lead before calling back

<context>
I have an inbound lead: someone filled out a form, booked a demo, or came in through a campaign. Before I call or email back, I want to know who they actually are, whether they're the right person to talk to, and what's happening at their company that might explain why they came in now.

My lead:
- Name: [NAME]
- Company: [COMPANY NAME]
- Title (as submitted): [TITLE FROM FORM. May be inaccurate.]
- What they expressed interest in: [PRODUCT / CONTENT / DEMO REQUEST]
- How they came in: [FORM / DEMO BOOKING / CONTENT DOWNLOAD / REFERRAL]
- Any notes from the form: [WHAT THEY WROTE, or "none"]
</context>

<task>
1. Use Lusha to validate and enrich the contact:
   - Confirm their actual current title. Form-submitted titles are often vague or outdated.
   - Confirm they're still at the company
   - Pull verified work email and direct phone
   - Tenure in current role
   - Seniority read: decision-maker / economic buyer / technical evaluator / end user / researcher

2. Use Lusha to enrich the company:
   - Current headcount and growth trend
   - Industry and sub-industry
   - HQ location
   - Headcount in the function most relevant to what they expressed interest in
   - Annual revenue range if available

3. Use Lusha's signals layer to check what's happening at the company right now:
   - Recent funding event
   - New exec hire in the relevant function
   - Headcount growth
   - M&A activity
   - Any signal that might explain why they came in now

4. Return a pre-call brief:

   LEAD QUALITY READ
   - Is this the right person to call, or is there someone more senior to loop in?
   - Decision-maker / influencer / end user / researcher, with reasoning
   - If there's a more relevant contact at the company, name them

   COMPANY SNAPSHOT
   - Size, industry, relevant function headcount
   - One sentence on what they do and why they'd need what we sell

   SIGNAL
   - What's happening at this company that might explain the inbound
   - Or: "no live signal: likely organic interest"

   CALL BRIEF
   - First question to ask: not "how can I help you?" but something that surfaces real intent
   - The one thing most likely to be the real reason they came in, based on the signals
   - What to avoid saying on the first call

5. If the form-submitted title doesn't match what Lusha returns, flag the gap. It tells you something about who actually filled out the form vs who you should be talking to.
</task>

<constraints>
- Validate via Lusha before forming any opinion about this lead. Form data is unreliable.
- The seniority read must include reasoning, not just a label.
- The first question must be specific to this person and this signal. "What brought you in today?" is not acceptable.
- If the contact can't be verified, flag it. Don't assume the form data is accurate.
</constraints>

The situation: An SDR gets an inbound lead — demo booking from J.K. at Halcyon Ventures. Form title submitted: “Sales Operations.” Company has 310 employees. No notes left on the form.

Output: The form title is wrong, the real person is more senior than expected, there’s a live signal that explains the timing, and the first question is written for that signal — not a generic opener.

Pre-call brief — J.K., Halcyon Ventures

LEAD QUALITY READ

• Lusha returns: Chief Revenue Officer, Halcyon Ventures — 18 days in role
• Form submitted: “Sales Operations” — significant mismatch. Either someone in the CRO’s office filled out the form on their behalf, or the new CRO used a generic title. Either way, you’re talking to a C-suite buyer, not an ops analyst.
• Seniority: Decision-maker. CRO at a 310-person company owns the full sales tech stack. This is not a researcher lead.
• No more senior contact needed — this is the right person.

COMPANY SNAPSHOT

• Halcyon Ventures · 310 employees · SaaS · Austin, TX
• Sales team: ~42 reps, RevOps team of 4
• Series B company scaling a mid-market sales motion — the size and stage where data and tooling decisions get made properly for the first time

SIGNAL

New CRO hired 18 days ago — external hire from a larger enterprise SaaS company. This is a high-probability explanation for the inbound: a new CRO auditing the existing stack in the first 60 days is one of the most common reasons for an inbound demo request from a company that wasn’t previously in pipeline.

CALL BRIEF

First question: “You just stepped into the role — are you doing a full stack audit or is there a specific gap that prompted the demo request?”

That question does two things: acknowledges the tenure without making it awkward, and surfaces whether this is a proactive audit (longer sales cycle, more stakeholders) or a reactive fix (shorter cycle, clearer problem).

The one thing most likely to be the real reason they came in: the new CRO wants to understand what the team is working with before they decide what to change. This is an evaluation, not an immediate buy.

What to avoid on the first call: don’t open with pricing, don’t reference the team size as if you know their quota structure, and don’t assume the previous CRO’s setup is what they want to keep.

Title mismatch flag

Form submitted “Sales Operations.” Lusha returns “Chief Revenue Officer.” This is worth noting on the call — ask early whether the right people are in the room or whether someone from their ops team should join a follow-up session.

Contact and company data validated via Lusha connector, May 21. Details masked for privacy.