Productivity
Brief yourself before a call
A one-pager on the account: what they do, what they are dealing with, what to ask.
Fill it in
Who you are meeting.
Name and role, if you have them.
So the questions point somewhere.
Your prompt
Brief me before this call. Company: [the company] Person: [the person] We sell: [your what you sell] One page, read in three minutes standing up. Anything longer does not get read before the call, which is the only time it is useful. What they do, how they make money, what has changed recently, and what is probably keeping this person busy. Recent is what matters: a funding round, a new executive, a bad quarter or a launch tells you more than the About page. Say what you are UNSURE of, separately. A briefing that presents inference as fact leads someone into a meeting confidently wrong, which is worse than unprepared. End with three questions worth asking, that could not be answered by reading their website.
Use Brief yourself before a callOpens with everything above already filled in.
Why this works
A briefing longer than a page does not get read before the call, which is the only time it is useful. This is three minutes standing up: what they do, what changed recently, what is probably keeping this person busy, and three questions their website cannot answer.
Questions
- Does it separate fact from guess?
- Yes. Presenting inference as fact walks someone into a meeting confidently wrong, which is worse than unprepared.