Define suitability in a document
Write down the roles, capabilities, experience and exclusions that matter. Give Butter a readable brief to consult, so the research has a consistent basis and reviewers can inspect the criteria.
Prospecting and relationship management
Turn a sourcing brief into a shortlist your team can act on.
Define the people or vendors you want to find, capture information while browsing and organise next steps on a dedicated board. Connect selection criteria, CRM records and follow-up tasks so your team knows who looks relevant, what needs checking and who should act next.
How can a team connect prospect research with outreach?
Keep suitability criteria in a document, use Butter's Chrome extension to research supported websites, and save useful relationship information in the CRM. Organise evidence, owners and next actions as tasks on a custom board. A person verifies the fit and contact details before deciding whether and how to approach someone.
Give each part of the process a clear job
This generic example brings together documents, the browser extension, CRM records and tasks. The same pattern can support finding potential customers, partners or specialist vendors.
Research with Butter beside the website
Use the Chrome extension to inspect accessible page information, identify relevant people and compare available evidence with the brief. Supported navigation and page actions reduce repetitive browser work.
Retain relationship context in the CRM
Save people, companies, roles, published contact channels and useful notes. Check for an existing record before adding one, and keep missing or uncertain information explicit.
Shape a board around your process
Use custom column labels for research, checking, outreach and follow-up. The board shows where the work stands, with tasks carrying the detail behind each next step.
Make the hand-off actionable
Give a task an owner and due date. Keep source references, the reason for the match and open questions in its details, then record decisions and progress in comments.
Use your context in the next conversation
Ask Butter to consult the brief, CRM information and task notes when preparing an approach or reviewing outstanding work. Verify the recipient, facts and message before sending.
Start with a brief your team can apply
Keep the selection criteria in a shared document. Describe the people or vendors you need, the evidence that would indicate a good fit and the reasons to rule someone out.
A useful brief covers:
- The role, service or capability you are looking for.
- Required experience, coverage or other practical constraints.
- Evidence needed to support a recommendation.
- Exclusions and questions that need a person's judgement.
- What makes a relevant and appropriate reason to make contact.
Publish the agreed version so Butter and your team can refer to the same criteria. Keep the research instructions explicit: distinguish stated facts from interpretation, retain source references and identify missing information. A promising page is a starting point for checking suitability.
Turn browsing into useful research records
Open a company page, directory entry or professional profile and bring up Butter's Chrome extension. Ask Butter to compare the accessible information with your brief, identify relevant roles and note published ways to make contact.
Butter can read the page's accessible text and controls, navigate supported pages and carry out supported actions while working on your request. What it can capture depends on the website and browser restrictions. An inaccessible profile or missing email address remains a gap to resolve, rather than evidence Butter has found a private contact route.
Before saving a person or company, ask Butter to search the CRM for a possible match. Update the right record where one exists, or create one with the available information. Keep ambiguous matches for review. This matching process helps organise the research but does not guarantee duplicate prevention.
Keep the relationship and the work connected
Use the CRM for who someone is and how to reach them: their role, company, available contact channels and relationship notes. Group people in a Contact Book for the sourcing effort, with tags or defined custom fields where useful.
Use a custom task board for what needs to happen. Suggested column labels are To research, Needs checking, Ready for outreach, Contacted, Follow-up and Closed. Configure them to suit your process and the board's underlying status types.
A research task can reference the relevant CRM record and contain:
- The source page and the information it established.
- Why the person or vendor may meet the brief.
- Missing facts and the next verification step.
- The proposed action, owner and due date.
Keep the criteria document attached to the task when useful. Record review decisions and follow-up outcomes in comments, and update the CRM's relationship information when it changes. Changing a board column does not, by itself, send an outreach message or update a CRM stage.
Illustrative example
From a vendor brief to a considered introduction
For example, a team needs a specialist vendor. Its brief sets out the service required, relevant experience and exclusions.
While browsing potential suppliers, a researcher asks Butter to assess the available information. A vendor appears relevant, but its coverage is unclear. Butter can save the available company and contact details in the CRM and create a Needs checking task with the source, rationale and unanswered question.
A colleague verifies coverage and decides there is a suitable reason to make contact. They move the task to Ready for outreach, assign an owner and set a due date. After the introduction, the owner records the outcome and schedules the next action.
The brief explains suitability, the CRM retains the relationship context and the task records the work. Another team member can pick up the follow-up without reconstructing the original research. This is a fictional example, with no real people, companies or deals represented.
Bring the next actions into focus
Ask Butter for a summary of the board and the relevant records: who needs contacting, which replies need attention and what is holding up the next step. Give the summary a clear scope, such as tasks due today or prospects awaiting verification.
For recurring briefings, configure a separate scheduled workflow with access to the required records and a chat delivery step. That schedule must be enabled and the workflow published before it runs. Creating a board or installing the extension does not automatically create a daily digest.
Keep decisions concrete. A reviewer checks the fit, verifies contact information and chooses whether an approach is appropriate. Butter can help prepare the next action, while the team's chosen permissions and Manual or Auto mode govern platform changes. On websites, guarded actions such as sending or submitting still require confirmation.
Questions about prospect research and outreach
Can this work for finding vendors as well as sales prospects?
Yes. Adapt the brief to the relationship you are trying to establish. The same document, browser, CRM and task-board pattern can support potential customers, partners or vendors.
What belongs in the CRM and what belongs on the board?
Keep people, companies, contact channels and relationship context in the CRM. Use tasks for research evidence, ownership, decisions, deadlines and follow-up. Reference the relevant CRM record in the task details.
Will Butter find every contact detail?
No. Butter can use accessible page information and the tools available to it. Missing details, inaccessible content and uncertain matches need further checking; a profile does not establish access to a private email address or phone number.
Does moving a task send outreach automatically?
No. A board status organises the work. Sending a message or automatically synchronising a CRM stage needs a separate action or an explicitly configured automation.
Can the criteria change as we learn?
Yes. Revise the brief using clear feedback from research and review, then publish the agreed changes. Updating the document changes the written guidance available for future work; it does not retrain the underlying AI model.
How is this different from business-update triage?
Prospect research starts with a defined need and active browsing to find suitable people or vendors. Business-update triage starts with incoming signals that may deserve review. Both can lead into a task board, but their starting point and evaluation criteria differ.
Give your next research session a clear destination.
Write the brief, research with Butter in your browser and keep useful findings connected to relationship records and next actions.
No card. Your data stays in your organisation.