I cannot imagine how difficult (or expensive) it was to gain valuable knowledge before expansion of the internet and social media. Newspapers, interviews, calls – all to create basic knowledge about organization you plan to contact with. Now you can do it with few clicks.

Many people do make a science out of it – and I do not tell is not but… It is extremely easy to overdo it. I am a fan of going out beyond „check the website” stuff. I usually go only to corporate code of conduct and news about the company. Usually stuff which can be used for small talk and partially for discovery.

The financial report, especially the “Risk Management” chapter is something different though. Most of the companies recognizes cyber-risk as serious threat to their financial posture and describe how they are protecting themselves from cyberattacks. This can include:

• Cybersecurity frameworks like ISO 27001 or NIST Cybersecurity Framework that organization is following
• Roles and responsibilities regarding managing the cyber-risk 
• Processess in place to identify the crucial assets and potentially harmful cyber activities as well as processes to mitigate those
• Less often – the areas of cybersecurity investments (gold!)

Though if you do not have time to dig into risk management in the report… as usual LinkedIn comes for rescue! You can learn a ton going through account’s employee profiles on LinkedIn, as usual humans will give you the most information. For example:

• Based on their technical skills you can assess what tech is used in their company
• Based on their latest certificates you can see what technologies are prioritized 
• Based on recent hiring positions you know what either they want to strengthen or expand

It is good to have 3-5 points regarding what departments they develop, who are the people they look for and what people who work for them prioritize. Though in my point it maybe too much if you spend 2 out of 5 working days building those „bits and bites” – because you can simply not hit the right time and you will not make it past the first meeting. Or not even past call to book this meeting. Be realistic.

I find this particularly helpful when you are working on Strategic 10-15 accounts – then you have to know. And this knowledge will always be valuable for your work.