How to research someone before a business meeting or sales call (a 15-minute routine)

Quick answer

Spend 15 minutes before the meeting: confirm the person's role and tenure on LinkedIn and the company website, check the company in an official registry (SEC EDGAR or your state's business search in the US, Companies House in the UK), read the last 90 days of company news and the person's recent posts, and note shared connections. Write three talking points and one question. If the title, company or registration doesn't line up, verify before you share anything sensitive.

Key numbers

• $3.05 billionreported lost to business email compromise in the US in 2025, often by impersonating a known contactFBI IC3 2025 Internet Crime Report
• nearly $1 billionreported lost to business impersonators by US consumers in 2025FTC, June 2026
• 140+government registries feed OpenCorporates, so one search covers companies in many countriesOpenCorporates

You have a call with someone you've never met: a prospect, a potential partner, an investor, a new supplier. You want to walk in knowing what they do, what their company is going through and what you have in common. You also want to know they are who they say they are, because impersonation is now a routine business risk.

In 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged $3.05 billion in reported losses to business email compromise, a fraud that works by pretending to be a contact you trust. Fifteen minutes of research before a meeting makes you sharper in the room and much harder to fool.

How do I research someone before a meeting?

Research someone before a meeting by checking four things in order: who they are (role and tenure), what their company is (registration and recent news), what they care about right now (recent posts and announcements), and what connects you (shared contacts, schools, past employers). Then turn that into a few talking points. Here is the routine, timed.

1. Minutes 0 to 3: confirm the person. Open their LinkedIn profile from the company's own website or a search, not from a link in an email. Note their current title, start date in the role, and the two previous jobs. Check the company's "Team" or "Leadership" page lists them with the same title.
2. Minutes 3 to 6: confirm the company. Look it up in an official registry (see the list below). Note the legal name, when it was formed, whether it's active, and who the officers or directors are.
3. Minutes 6 to 10: read what's new. Search the company name in a news search for the last 90 days: funding, layoffs, acquisitions, new products, leadership changes, lawsuits. Skim their press page.
4. Minutes 10 to 13: read the person. Scroll their last 5 to 10 LinkedIn posts or comments, any podcast or conference talk, and articles they wrote. Look for what they are proud of and what they complain about.
5. Minutes 13 to 15: write it down. Fill in the prep template at the end of this guide: three talking points, one smart question, one thing to avoid, and any open doubts.

If you have less time, do steps 1, 2 and 5. Knowing their role and that the company is real covers most of the risk and most of the small talk.

What should you look for when researching a business contact?

Look for facts that change how the conversation goes: their decision power, how long they've been in the seat, what their company is dealing with, and anything you share. Skip trivia that only proves you looked.

• Role and scope. Do they own the budget or influence it? A "Head of" at a 40-person startup and a "Head of" at a global bank are very different meetings.
• Tenure. Someone three months into a role is usually looking for quick wins and new vendors. Someone five years in has history and opinions.
• Career path. Past employers tell you what tools, processes and competitors they know.
• Company news. A funding round, a merger, a product launch or a cost-cutting year changes what they will say yes to.
• Shared connections. A mutual contact, school, city or past employer is the most natural opener there is.
• Their own words. Recent posts show priorities in their language. Reuse their framing, not your pitch deck's.

Where can I find reliable information about a person and their company?

The most reliable sources are the ones the person and company don't fully control: official company registries, regulators' databases and independent news. Use self-published profiles for color, and registries for facts.

Tips for each registry

• EDGAR: full-text search covers more than 20 years of filings and lets you filter by person, so you can search an executive's name directly.
• Companies House: click a director's name to see every company they've been appointed to, including dissolved ones. That's often the fastest way to understand someone's track record. Since November 2025, new directors must verify their identity with Companies House, with existing directors being phased in over 12 months.
• US states: most states don't list owners of an LLC, and federal beneficial ownership reporting no longer applies to US companies after FinCEN's 2025 rule change. So a state record proves the company exists, not who is behind it.

What are the red flags when researching a business contact?

The biggest red flags are mismatches: the title, company, dates or contact details don't line up across independent sources. One mismatch can be innocent. Two or more means slow down and verify.

• The company was registered in the last few months, but the website claims "15 years of experience."
• The registry shows the company as dissolved, struck off, or "proposal to strike off."
• Their LinkedIn title doesn't match the company website, or the website's team page doesn't list them at all.
• The email domain is slightly off from the real company (an extra letter, a different ending, a free webmail address for a "director").
• The profile is new, has few connections, no activity history, and a polished headshot that looks too perfect.
• The registered address is a mail drop or formation agent shared by hundreds of companies, and nothing else confirms a real office.
• They push to move the call to a new platform, skip video, or rush to talk about payments or bank details.

If you see these, read our guides on how to spot a fake LinkedIn profile and how to check if a company is legit before you go further.

How does a Search A-Z business search help before a meeting?

A Search A-Z business search pulls steps 1 to 4 into one report, so you can do the 15-minute routine in about two. Search by full name and country, choose "Business contact," and add anything you know, such as the company, email, phone or city, to sharpen the match.

The report shows how sure we are it's the right person, then their current job and company, work history, education, public professional and social profiles, and news and web mentions from a live web search. For business searches it also shows their work email and company registration details, including UK Companies House roles and the worldwide LEI register. Phone and email checks tell you whether a number or address is real, what type of line it is, and whether it carries fraud risk. If there are public scam or fraud warnings, they're listed. The person is never told you searched, and if we can't find the right person, the report says so.

US searches can include public records. UK and European searches cover professional and public web information only.

How do you use what you found without being creepy?

Use research to ask better questions, not to show how much you know. The rule of thumb: mention anything they've published for a professional audience, and leave out anything personal they didn't share with you.

Lines that work:

"I saw your post about moving the team to a four-day sprint cycle. How's that going?"

"Congrats on the Series B. Does that change your priorities for this year?"

"I noticed we both worked with Dana at Acme. Small world."

Lines that don't: anything that starts with "I looked you up and..." followed by something they didn't put on a professional profile. Research is for preparation, not performance.

How do you research someone before a sales call?

For a sales call, focus your research on the buying situation: what changed at the company recently, what the person is measured on, and who else is involved in the decision. Those three answers decide whether your call is a pitch or a conversation.

• Trigger event: new funding, a new leader, a hiring spree, an acquisition or a new regulation in their industry.
• Their metrics: what does someone in their role get judged on? Revenue, cost, risk, speed?
• The buying group: who else on the team page or LinkedIn might sign off? Note two names.
• Current tools: job ads often list the software a team uses. That tells you who you're replacing.
• One tailored question: "You're hiring three people in support. Is that growth, or are tickets piling up?"

If the "prospect" asks you to pay a fee, buy a starter package to "qualify," or send bank details early, stop. Real buyers don't charge you to sell to them.

How do I check that a meeting invite or contact is real?

Check a meeting invite is real by confirming the person through a channel you find yourself, not one in the invite. Look up the company's main number or the person's profile independently, and confirm the meeting there.

1. Compare the sender's email domain with the domain on the company's real website.
2. Hover over meeting links before clicking. A Zoom, Teams or Google Meet link should go to that service's own domain.
3. If the meeting involves money, contracts or credentials, confirm by calling a number from the company's website.
4. Be extra careful with video calls that ask for urgent payments. Deepfake video is real: read how deepfake video call scams work.

UK: if the contact claims to be from a regulated financial firm, check the FCA Firm Checker and use the contact details listed there. EU: check the national company register through the e-Justice portal, and the national financial regulator for investment firms.

Pre-meeting research template

Copy this into your notes and fill it in. Most of it fits on one screen.

For bigger commitments, like taking on a co-founder, investor or key supplier, go further with our guide on how to vet a business partner. And if you want the whole profile in one place, run a business contact search.

Search A-Z is not a consumer reporting agency. Don't use it, or this routine, to decide on hiring, renting, credit or insurance. For those, use an FCRA-compliant background screening company.

The bottom line

Fifteen minutes is enough: confirm the person, confirm the company in an official registry, read the latest news and their own posts, and write three talking points and one question. Use what they've shared professionally, leave the personal stuff alone, and if the details don't line up, verify through a channel you found yourself before you share anything that matters.

Frequently asked questions

How long should I spend researching someone before a meeting?

About 15 minutes for a first meeting or sales call. Spend three minutes confirming the person, three on the company registry, four on news, three on their posts, and two writing notes. For a partnership or investment, do a full due-diligence check instead.

Is it creepy to look someone up before a meeting?

No. Checking someone's professional profile, company and public news is normal preparation. It becomes creepy when you bring up personal details they didn't share professionally, such as family, home or personal social media.

How can I check if a company is real for free?

Search the official registry: your Secretary of State's business search in the US, Companies House in the UK, or the EU e-Justice "Find a company" service. Check that it's active, when it was formed and who runs it. Our guide on how to check if a company is legit goes further.

How do I find out who owns a US company?

Start with the Secretary of State record in the state where it's registered, then search SEC EDGAR for filings that name executives. Many states don't list LLC owners, and federal beneficial ownership reports no longer apply to US companies, so you may need to ask directly.

Will the person know I searched for them?

Not on Search A-Z: the person is never told you searched. LinkedIn is different. Depending on your privacy settings, it may show them that you viewed their profile.

Can I use these checks to screen a job candidate?

Not with Search A-Z. It isn't a consumer reporting agency, so it can't be used for hiring, tenant screening, credit or insurance decisions. Use an FCRA-compliant background screening provider for that.

Sources

1. FBI IC3, 2025 Internet Crime Report
2. FTC: people reported losing $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025 (June 2026)
3. SEC: EDGAR search and access
4. Companies House: find and update company information
5. CMS: Companies House identity verification mandatory from November 2025
6. FinCEN: Beneficial ownership information reporting
7. NASS: state corporate registration pages
8. European e-Justice Portal: find a company in the EU
9. OpenCorporates
10. FCA Firm Checker (ScamSmart)

Figures are the latest published by each source when this guide was updated. Reported fraud losses are a floor: most fraud is never reported.