Use Ask Blake throughout your prospecting

Ask Blake is not just for a single briefing. It shows up throughout the prospecting workflow: when you are researching a new company, qualifying a prospect, understanding an existing company, preparing outreach, or deciding what to do next. Open the panel from anywhere with Cmd + B, tell Blake which company or contact you mean, and take the conversation from wherever the work happens to be.

Where Ask Blake fits in your prospecting

Ask Blake is designed to sit alongside the work you already do on Prospects, Companies, and Contacts. It fits five moments in particular:

• Researching a company. Get a briefing on a new company before you reach out. Ask what the business does, why it might be a fit, and what public signals surrounded the company.
• Qualifying a prospect. Use Ask Blake on the Prospects page to help you decide whether a prospect is worth approving. Ask what made Blake score it a certain way, and what similar prospects in your workspace looked like.
• Understanding a company you already know. Pull together everything the workspace has on an existing company: recent activity, open deals, past outreach, notes, and prior interactions.
• Preparing outreach. Turn the research into a draft. Ask for a first-touch email, a follow-up, or a call script based on what Blake just told you. For the full flow, see Write outreach with Ask Blake.
• Deciding the next action. When you are not sure what to do next, ask. "What would you do with this company?" or "What should my next step be on this deal?" turns Ask Blake into a second pair of eyes on the company.

Before you start

• The company exists in your workspace. If it does not, run a Discovery and approve it. See Run your first Discovery.
• Your workspace has at least one interaction, deal, or Discovery score on record for the company. Blake can still answer general questions without this, but briefings are richer with existing context.

Steps

1. Open Ask Blake. Press Cmd + B (Mac) or Ctrl + B (Windows and Linux). You can also click Ask Blake in the sidebar footer. The panel opens as a floating overlay.

2. Tell Blake which company or contact. Point it at the record explicitly so the conversation is grounded:

   • Type @ in the composer and pick the company or contact from the mention menu.
   • Type / and pick Brief and research from the Skills rail.
   • Or write the company name straight into your question.

   Opening Ask Blake while you are already on a company, contact, or prospect detail page can provide additional relevant context for the conversation, where applicable.

3. Ask your question in natural language. Some examples:

   • "Give me a briefing on this company before my call."
   • "What is the latest activity on this company?"
   • "Has this company responded to our outreach before?"
   • "What should my next step be?"

4. Review the briefing card. For a briefing question, Blake ships a card in the chat: a labelled section with key facts, signals, sources, and inline citations. Every card carries an "AI-generated research" badge.

5. Follow up in the same conversation. Blake keeps the context open. Ask for a deeper dive, a draft, or a related deal without repeating the company name.

6. Close the panel with the close button in the header when you are done. Cmd + B does not close the panel; it only toggles between sidebar and focus views.

If this does not work

• Blake does not know the company: the company is not in your workspace yet. Run a Discovery, approve it, then try again.
• The answer is too generic: mention the company name explicitly. Opening Ask Blake from the company, contact, or prospect detail page can provide additional relevant context.
• Blake says it has no data: the company has no activity, notes, or connected inbox context. Log a note or connect your mailbox first.