How to research and uncover insights that actually matter in sales

Key Points:

• The difference between information and insight in sales research

• Four types of valuable insights that get you in and through successful sales conversations

• Practical steps to extract insights efficiently. Transform generic with targeted intelligence.

Introduction

There's a huge difference between having information on a prospect and having insight into their situation. Information tells you what they say they do. Insight tells you what keeps them awake.

Information recites their press releases. Insight reveals their unspoken challenges. Information gets you through small talk. Insight gets you to signed contracts.

Yet most sales research processes are designed to gather information, not generate insight.

We want to change that.

Four Insights that actually matter

After decades spent helping B2B sales teams and growth leads, Adjacency found four types of insights that consistently lead to productive conversations and closed deals:

• Provocative Angles: Unexpected perspectives that challenge a prospect's thinking and position you as a thought partner rather than a vendor. They tend to connect their situation to a broader industry trend or highlight blind spots in their current approach.

• Solvable Problems: Specific challenges the prospect is facing that your solution can directly address. The key here is to identify problems they've publicly acknowledged so you can create immediate relevance for your outreach.

• Acceleration Opportunities: Strategic initiatives or goals your solution can help the prospect achieve faster, with less risk, or more completely. They position your offering to already-funded priorities.

• Cries for Help: These are explicit statements in earnings calls, annual reports, or interviews where executives express frustration or concern about specific challenges. These are golden opportunities that most salespeople miss.

The difference between average and exceptional sales performance often comes down to having these insights before your conversations begin.

Where most research falls short

There is often a lot of confusion between what is helpful for Marketers, Designers, Product Managers, Service Leads, and Sales.

We see this in the guidance available. For many sales professionals, traditional company research will focus on gathering irrelevant or basic company information:

• Company size and location

• Recent news

• Basic product/service offerings

• Leadership team names and backgrounds

While useful as context, this information rarely provides the insights that drive meaningful sales conversations. It creates the illusion of preparation without the substance.

As one sales leader put it: "Most sales research is like reading a restaurant's menu instead of talking to the chef. You know what they serve, but not what they're struggling to cook."

A better research approach

Effective B2B sales research requires looking beyond the obvious sources and asking better questions. Here's how to transform your approach:

Step 1: Focus on documentary evidence

Rather than relying solely on company websites and LinkedIn profiles, prioritise sources containing the unvarnished truth about challenges and priorities, often directly stated by executives themselves:

• Annual reports and 10K filings

• Earnings call transcripts

• Investor presentations

• Companies House filings

• Industry analyst reports

Step 2: Look for Specific Signals

When reviewing these documents, search for signals that reveal true priorities. These will resonate in your conversations e.g.,

• Explicit mentions of challenges or disappointments

• Areas of increased or decreased investment

• Changes in strategic direction

• Regulatory pressures or compliance issues

• Competitive threats or market shifts

• Missed targets or revised forecasts

Step 3: Connect Insights to Your Value Proposition

The most powerful research connects what you've learned directly to what you offer. This transforms generic broadcasts of features and capabilities, into targeted insights:

• How does your solution address their stated challenges?

• Which of their strategic priorities can you accelerate?

• How can you help mitigate the risks they've identified?

• What metrics can you impact that they've highlighted as important?

How to do this when time is limited

This approach is powerful, but it's also time-consuming—unless you have the right tools. A modern company intelligence platform such as Discy's Sales Insights can:

• Automatically process key documents like 10Ks, Annual Reports, and earnings calls

• Identify relevant challenges and opportunities using AI (trained on B2B sales)

• Connect insights directly to your specific solutions

• Prepare personalised outreach and account plans

• Monitor for new signals and changing priorities

These tools don't replace the need for sales expertise; they amplify it by ensuring you enter every conversation with genuine insight.

Conclusion

For complex, B2B sales situations, the difference between information and insight is the difference between being prepared and being compelling.

Today's sales environment is competitive with numerous same-sounding solutions. Having the same basic information as every other salesperson is just about the price of entry. The real advantage comes from uncovering the insights that connect your solution to your prospect's most pressing challenges and opportunities.

Before your next important prospect meeting, try this test - ask your current AI tool: "What strategic tensions does [prospect] face that create urgency for solutions like ours?"

If it gives you a generic corporate overview instead of specific strategic intelligence, you're using the wrong tool for sales research.

And that's what separates the sales professionals who merely participate in conversations from those who close deals.