1 of 39

Scaling Account Research with No-Code AI

1

ZAPIER

2 of 39

2

About Us

Blake Cohlan

Sr. Director, Growth Marketing

SupportLogic

Reid Robinson

Lead AI Product Manager

Zapier

ZAPIER

3 of 39

Live Demo: Scaling Account Research

Workflow Breakdown

Starter Workflows for Marketers

01

02

03

Templates, Tools & Community

04

Open Build & Q&A

05

AGENDA

3

ZAPIER

4 of 39

Why Now, Why This

Account research is the fuel for targeted, high-converting plays across marketing, sales, and CS

We're going to show you how to:

Automate research and save 5+ hours/week per rep
Build scalable workflows without needing a degree in coding
Replace one-off plays with repeatable, measurable programs

4

ZAPIER

5 of 39

5

1:1 Account Planning Template

SDR Resources

Marketing Resources

Pre-Sales Support

Prospect Analysis

Specific outbound actions, such as personalized email sequences, LinkedIn outreach, or direct mail campaigns.

Specific personalized requests to Marketing (eg. Send book to stakeholders, create a virtual or in person innovation day, drip series of emails around product or whitespace)

Specify requests for solution engineers or consultants to address technical objections or assist in proof-of-concept stages

Prospect Business Pains:�Expected challenges based on discovery or research.��Current Process or Solution:�Current technology or process, including gaps we fill.��Competitive Intelligence: �Using direct or adjacent solutions? Identify renewal dates or any dissatisfaction.��

Expansion Potential: What’s the long-term potential for account expansion once they’re a customer.

Revenue Forecast

Prospective Buying Committee

List other influential people in the organization.

Time to Close estimate?

Quarter forecasted to close? Sales Cycle Length

Estimated potential revenue based on deal size, contract length, and upsell potential.

Product Resources

Specific requests for the product team.

Prospect Engagement Plan

How will you engage and progress the account?

Org Pain Points and Priorities

Challenges or strategic priorities faced. How does SL Support?

Estimated Budget Allocation

Potential Revenue Opportunity

Estimate budget needed based on benchmarks or current tech investments.

What is estimated ARR?

Key Decision Makers

Include names, roles, and influence of key executives

ZAPIER

6 of 39

Demo

6

ZAPIER

7 of 39

7

ZAPIER

8 of 39

8

ZAPIER

9 of 39

9

ZAPIER

10 of 39

10

ZAPIER

11 of 39

11

ZAPIER

12 of 39

Testing

13 of 39

Testing

14 of 39

Opportunity Analysis

SFDC - Get Opps
SFDC - Query Opps
OpenAI - Summarize
Format (Rich Text)
Salesforce Writeback

14

ZAPIER

Prompt:��You are a Revenue Operations assistant helping sales and customer success teams understand the history of opportunities tied to a Salesforce account.

Below is a list of opportunities (both open and closed) including fields like name, stage, amount, type, owner, close date, and detailed buyer feedback (e.g., Sybill insights and lost reasons).

Opportunity Data:

----

Additional Formatting instructions:

- Do not use Markdown syntax (no asterisks or headings)

- Format all bold text using HTML bold tags

- Use <ul> and <li> for all lists

- Use for line breaks between paragraphs or sections

- Do not include any introductory sentence or summary before the content

- Ensure the output is readable inside a Salesforce rich text field

Start directly with the formatted summary content below:

Overall Summary

<ul>

<li>Total number of opportunities</li>

<li>Count and dollar amount of Closed Won and Closed Lost</li>

<li>Status and notes on the most recent opportunity</li>

<li>Any patterns across deals (e.g., repeated objections, timing issues, competition, missing critical events, etc.)</li>

</ul>

[start with the most recent based on closed date]Opportunity-Level Insights

Provide a concise section for each opportunity, using the following structure:

<ul>

<li>Opportunity Name: stage, amount, type, SOR, close date, total duration between open date and close date (.ie # of days, months, years)</li>

<li>Reason for outcome: summarize why the deal was lost or stalled (from Sybill, Closed Lost Reason, Disqualified Reason, Lost Reason, or next steps history fields)</li>

<li>Pain or Usecase: Was there a clear pain or usecase highlighted?</li>

<li>Execution Miss: Was there a clear miss on the execution of the deal?</li>

</ul>

If closed-lost or disqualified:

<li>Re-engagement Timeline: If timing was included, determine best time to reach out again.</li>

</ul>

15 of 39

Breakdown

Trigger & Setup
External Research (Perplexity)
AI Assistant (OpenAI)
Formatting & Personalization
Salesforce Writeback

15

ZAPIER

16 of 39

Button click kicks off a zap pulling data from Salesforce and running an analysis through Perplexity and OpenAI

ZAPIER

17 of 39

API into sec.gov for 10k and earnings call analysis

ZAPIER

18 of 39

“Trained” OpenAI assistant runs analysis and generates cross-functional summaries.

ZAPIER

19 of 39

Trigger and Setup

Zapier will provide you with a webhook URL

19

ZAPIER

20 of 39

Trigger and Setup

New Button or Link on Buttons, Links, and Actions, under Account Object settings.

20

ZAPIER

21 of 39

External Research (Perplexity)

Set up API at Perplexity and add credits

$20 to start
Don’t need pro account�

Research:

Company Overview + Market Signals
C-Suite Research
Revenue & Retention Challenges
Job Listings & Support Roles
How does the company talk internally about their products and solutions?

21

ZAPIER

How to use Perplexity in Zapier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=340cULpSpe0��Prompt:�{

"model": "llama-3.1-sonar-small-128k-online",

"messages": [

{

"role": "system",

"content": "Be precise and concise."

},

{

"role": "user",

"content": "Using the domain name {{280537065__querystring__Domain}} provide a comprehensive analysis of the following key factors about the company associated with it:\n\n1. **Company Overview**:\n - What is the company’s business model, industry, size, and primary market?\n - What are its key products or services?\n\n2. **Leadership Priorities**:\n - Identify the CEO, CCO, CPO, and CIO (or equivalent roles). Provide their names, professional backgrounds, and publicly stated priorities or key initiatives.\n - Are there any recent interviews, articles, or public statements from these leaders?\n\n3. **Market Dynamics**:\n - Who are the company’s main competitors, and how does it position itself within its industry?\n - What are its target customer segments and any notable partnerships?\n\n4. **Buying Signals**:\n - Has the company recently raised funding, announced partnerships, or launched new products?\n - Are there any observable technology adoption patterns or job postings indicating operational priorities?\n\n5. **Challenges and Opportunities**:\n - Are there any public indicators of operational inefficiencies, customer pain points, or technology gaps?\n - What opportunities exist for improving their customer experience, operational efficiency, or product innovation?\n\nProvide detailed, actionable insights where possible, including links to sources or relevant supporting information."

}

]

}

22 of 39

External Research - Lessons Learned

Basic Sonar Model ($.01 per call) is good enough - Test for your use case

OpenAI 4.0 outperformed Sonar-Pro

Relies on indexed data; If executives don’t frequently appear in external news articles, blogs, or media, they might not be indexed.�

Easy to burn $$ on testing different models or revising code with errors

Deep research cost me $0.60 for one run and couldn’t write back because of size error.�

Troubleshoot and revise code with OpenAI (screenshots and questions) ie. Why am I getting this error? How can I improve this? What does this mean in the API settings?

22

ZAPIER

23 of 39

Summarization & Synthesis (OpenAI)

Assistant Type: Custom GPT-4 Assistant

Training Source: Internal docs (persona briefs, positioning, case studies)

Function: Synthesizes all raw research into structured insight

Growth focus areas
Key pain points
Strategic alignment with your company

23

ZAPIER

24 of 39

Summarization & Synthesis (OpenAI)

24

ZAPIER

25 of 39

Salesforce Writeback

Automatically updates:

Latest Company Summary
Engagement Ideas
Persona Messaging
Campaign Concepts

25

ZAPIER

26 of 39

Can you do more with less?

26

	Manual Research	Automated Workflow
Time per Account	~45–60 min	~60–90 sec
Tech (per run)	~$12 (based on blended rate)	~$0.83 (Zapier + OpenAI + Perplexity)
Output Quality	Inconsistent, varies by rep	Structured, tailored, always-on
Scalability	5 accounts/week/rep	50+ accounts/week, repeatable
Personalization	Spray and Pray	Deeply tailored, prompt-driven
Messaging Alignment	Depends on rep skill	Auto-aligned to personas, value prop

ZAPIER

27 of 39

Summarize content

Write content

Reply to customers

Extract data

Classify data

Top AI

Uses

28 of 39

Trigger

Actions

29 of 39

So…How does all

this work on Zapier? 🧐

29

ZAPIER

30 of 39

30

ZAPIER

31 of 39

Chatbots

32 of 39

Agents

33 of 39

Start with the OpenAI API

Access the same models powering ChatGPT�
Build AI Assistants similar to GPTs�
Test your prompts in the Playground�
And of course, generate your API Key 🔑

33

ZAPIER

34 of 39

Levers to Use

34

User Message	Your message to ChatGPT
Assistant Instructions	Background details
Model	GPT-4o Mini and GPT-4o are both great
Memory Key	A unique value allows you to continue the conversation from another Zap run
Temperature	Controls randomness. Lower to consistent results similar inputs
Max Tokens	Increase for longer responses

ZAPIER

35 of 39

Get Familiar with Prompting

Things to Remember:

Use dynamic variables�
Provide relevant context�
Use Custom Fields�
Test prompts in the OpenAI Playground

35

ZAPIER

36 of 39

Exclusive for Workshop Attendees

Take Zapier’s new AI Readiness Quiz, a quick way to see where you stand and what to do next.��✅ Quick quiz

🎁 Tailored AI insights

🚀 Real recommendations for what to do next

Afterwards you will get a personalized score and resources to help move forward and some folks may also be invited to a 1:1 strategy session with Phil, Zapier’s Head of AI Innovation.�

Unlock a free session with Zapier’s AI lead, Phil.

36

ZAPIER

37 of 39

Workshop

Time! 👨‍💻

37

ZAPIER

38 of 39

Q&A

ZAPIER

39 of 39

Thank you

zapier.com/ai

linkedin.com/in/reidtrobinson

linkedin.com/in/blakecohlan

39

ZAPIER