The Lead researcher is available on Nutshell Pro and above.
What is Lead research in Nutshell?
Lead research helps you quickly understand who a lead is before you reach out. Instead of opening Google tabs and piecing things together yourself, Nutshell gathers and summarizes the most useful information for you in one place.
With one click, you can see a clear overview of the company, recent news, helpful conversation starters, and even additional people or companies you may want to add to the lead.
This research is powered by AI and trusted data sources, and it is designed to save you time while keeping everything easy to review and confirm.
Lead researcher is part of Nutshell AI outcomes. For information about AI outcomes and usage limits, see the AI assists and AI outcomes article.
Set up your lead researcher
Before your team can start researching leads, your admin will need to set up the lead researcher. This setup helps Nutshell understand your business and match leads to your ideal customers.
The first time your admin clicks +Research, a setup dialog appears right on the lead page. It’s quick and easy, and it ensures that research results are tailored to your team’s priorities.
In the setup dialog, your admin will be asked to provide a few key details:
Tell us about your business: Share a little about what your business does. This helps the researcher provide the most relevant insights and context for each lead.
Who is your ideal buyer: Describe the type of customer your team wants to sell to.
Which company data is most important for your workflow: Choose the details that matter to your workflow, like revenue, employee count, or industry. This helps focus research on the information that matters most to your team.
After filling out these fields, click Save and research, and the researcher will use these preferences to guide lead fit signals and recommendations.
Your admin can update these settings any time by clicking the settings icon in the research widget. This makes it easy to adjust as your business or priorities change.
How to research a lead
Open a lead in Nutshell
Click the +Research button
Give the research a few seconds to load
Review the results in the research widget
When the research loads, everything appears right in the research widget on the lead.
You will see a clear summary of the company along with helpful context like recent news, talking points, and small details that make outreach feel more natural. You will also see an at a glance view of how well the lead fits what you are looking for. Leads are grouped into simple fit signals so you can quickly understand where to focus your time.
Ideal fit
This lead closely matches your ideal customer profile.
Possible fit
This lead has some strong signals, with a few areas that may need a closer look.
Unlikely fit
This lead is less aligned with your ideal customer profile and may be lower priority.
This makes it easier to decide what to do next, whether that is reaching out right away, doing a bit more follow-up, or moving on with confidence.
Rate the research output
Once you have reviewed the results, you can provide feedback on the research summary using the thumbs up and thumbs down icons at the bottom of the widget:
👍 Thumbs up – Good summary
👎 Thumbs down – Poor summary
Lead research makes it easy for your team to spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right leads. With a clear company overview, helpful talking points, and insight into lead fit, you can approach every conversation with confidence.
Your admin can set up and customize the researcher to match your business priorities, and your team can run research whenever it’s needed. This means your leads are always supported by up-to-date, relevant information, helping your team focus on what matters most—building relationships and closing deals.
AI outcomes and Lead researcher
The Lead researcher feature is part of Nutshell AI outcomes. Each time you generate research for a lead, it consumes one AI outcome from your monthly allowance per user. This helps you keep track of usage and understand how it counts toward your total outcomes for the month.