Why this matters
The strongest pitch starts with what the prospect’s competitors already do online: who takes bookings on the website, who publishes prices, who is open evenings, and what each one is known for. Checking every competitor’s website by hand takes an afternoon.
The risk runs the other way too. One out-of-date price or misread page in front of a prospect undercuts everything else you say.
In this module you turn on Research in Claude. It searches the web, reads the competitors’ pages and writes a report with a source for every fact. You open a source and check it, catch something the report missed, and turn the findings into talking points for the pitch.
What you’ll build
For Lantern Street Marketing, a made-up agency pitching Alder Creek Physical Therapy next week: a cited scan of four physical therapy clinics near Riverton Heights, comparing online booking, self-pay evaluation price, evening and weekend hours, and specialty. The town, clinics, websites and every price are made up.
You open one source and find its rates are from January 2024, which the report did not mention. Then you turn Research off and get three talking points for the pitch, with no price change recommended.
What you need
- Nothing to start the practiceClaude and the clinic websites are practice copies. Nothing is searched or sent anywhere.
- A paid Claude plan, to do it for realResearch is on Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, and it uses your usage limits faster than a normal chat. On Team and Enterprise an Owner turns web search on in Organization settings > Capabilities.
- A clear question and the prospect’s own detailsThe area, the kind of business, what to find, and how the prospect compares. Research reads public pages, so do not paste anything confidential about the prospect.
Concepts
3 ideas you’ll use in the practice.
Ask for a table with a source for every fact
Name the area, what to find for each competitor and how to lay it out. Add the rule that matters most: a source link for every fact, and say when something is missing, old, or not from the company itself.
Then give the prospect’s own details so the report can compare. In the lesson that is phone booking only, a $110 self-pay evaluation, weekdays only, known for post-surgery rehab.
Open the sources before the pitch
The report flags one price that came from a patient review, not the clinic. It does not flag that another clinic’s rates page says January 2024. You only catch that by opening the source.
Tell Claude in the same chat and it marks the row as out of date. Websites change and pages get misread, so check every fact you will put in front of a client.
Research for digging, a normal chat for talking points
Research takes minutes. Once the report is done, turn Research off for quick follow-ups like “give me 3 short talking points for our pitch”.
Keep the talking points to what competitors do better online. The lesson’s follow-up says “Don’t recommend a price change.” Pricing advice is a different conversation with the client.
Practice
Do every step yourself in a practice copy of the real tool. It checks your work, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on.
Do it for real
Now repeat it in your own account. Tick each step as you go.
Downloads
- Competitor scan requests (.txt)The Research request and the follow-up from the lesson, plus a blank version to fill in.
Quick check
3 questions to check you’ve got it.
1. A clinic’s rates page says “Rates effective January 1, 2024.” The report did not mention it. What do you do?
- Use the price as is
- Tell Claude to mark that row out of date, and confirm the current price before the pitch
- Delete the report
Show the answer
Tell Claude to mark that row out of date, and confirm the current price before the pitch. Old pages look current in a tidy report. You caught it by opening the source.
2. One price came from a patient review. How should you treat it?
- As the clinic’s official price
- As a lead to check on the clinic’s own site
- Ignore all prices
Show the answer
As a lead to check on the clinic’s own site. The report itself flags it as not from the clinic. Confirm it before you use it.
3. What should you leave out of the Research request?
- The area to search
- Anything confidential about the prospect
- The columns you want
Show the answer
Anything confidential about the prospect. Research reads public pages. Give it what it needs to compare, nothing confidential.
A Presentation from Your Notes in 5 Minutes (Gamma)
You have a cited scan of the prospect’s market. Next, try the same job in Google’s tool: a Gemini Deep Research brief before a client meeting.
Start module 3 →