3x3 research in Stage 1

A senior buyer can tell in one line whether you did the work. Most sellers either skip the research or spend two hours on it and then can't use half of what they found.

The 3x3 is the middle path. Three places to look, up to three facts from each, and a first message built on what you found.

What it does

For every account on the Board, Stage 1 sorts what it knows into three panels.

Public record is what the company itself put out. RFPs, job posts, funding and deals, the tech stack it hires around, business pressure, SEC filings, news stories and its own announcements.

Social context is what the people are doing. A new leader in a seat, a buyer's own posts, someone engaging with your posts or a connection of yours moving into a buying seat.

Market is what's around them. Engagement with a competitor's posts, voices they follow, new federal rules for their industry, and who buyers compare you with.

Each panel holds up to three facts, newest first. Each fact carries its source, like SEC filing, Job post or News, and the person it's tied to when there is one.

How it fills the panels

Signals come first. When a panel runs thin, Stage 1 fills it with what it already knows.

Public record picks up the company profile, its size, industry and region. Social context picks up the buying committee, by name and title. Market picks up the competitors you kept in your Brain, written as the rivals buyers compare you with.

So a quiet private company still gets three usable panels. A public company with fresh filings fills its public record from them.

How it becomes a message

The first message is drafted from the research. Stage 1 picks the signal to lead with for each person. An RFP or one of the heaviest signals always leads. Otherwise it's the person's own activity, the most personal hook there is. Failing that, it's the strongest company signal.

That signal becomes the research hook in the Hypothesis Opening. Say the public record shows a regional insurer named Calder Mutual put out an RFP for claims data modernization. The draft opens on that.

Priya - saw Calder Mutual put out an RFP for claims data modernization. Given your role as Head of Enterprise Data, I suspect the hardest requirement isn't written down yet. Is that accurate, or is the bigger issue something else?

Check that the research reads right before you approve. If a fact is stale or wrong, the opener built on it will be too.

Where to find it

Open any account on the Board. The 3x3 sits in the dossier under the people, three columns headed Public record, Social context and Market. When a panel has nothing, it says Nothing found yet.

On the free trial, your top 15 accounts show the full research. The rest show what happened, and the research waits for a plan. The 3x3 is on every plan.

Why it matters for services

Services buyers are pitched constantly. What gets a reply is proof you understand their situation, not a list of your capabilities. One fact from their own filing does more than three paragraphs about your firm.

The 3x3 keeps that research short and pointed. Nine facts at most, sorted by where they came from, so you see in a glance whether this is a company story, a people story or a market story. For how to read each panel by hand, see research before reach, the 3x3. For the market panel in particular, read building the market panel of a 3x3.

Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no credit card. Plans and details are on the pricing page, or you can start your trial.