The problem
Before a first meeting with a prospective client, a consultant needs to know their sector: what's changing, which rules are coming in, what competitors are doing and what's been in the trade press. Done by hand, that's about 3 hours of searching and reading per prospect. At 5 pitches a month it's 15 hours, often with notes that don't say where each point came from, so nothing can safely be quoted in the proposal.
What the AI does
Perplexity Pro's Deep Research produces a longer, multi-step report on a question, with inline citations to each page it used. Before each pitch, the consultant asks for a briefing on the prospect's sector in the UK: recent changes, rules coming in, what competitors publish and recent news about the prospect, with a source for every point. The consultant opens the key sources to check them, cuts what doesn't matter and keeps the briefing in a Perplexity Project for that prospect. Points that make it into the proposal carry their source, so the client can see where they came from. Only public information goes into the questions, never anything the prospect has shared in confidence.
A worked example
An independent operations consultant in Leamington Spa pitches to about 5 prospective clients a month, mostly manufacturers and logistics firms. Before each first meeting, they run a Deep Research briefing in Perplexity Pro and check the sources.
Before
About 3 hours of desk research for each of 5 pitches: 15 hours a month
After
About 1 hour to run the research and check the sources: 5 hours a month
What it's worth
About $665£500€595A$960C$940 a month in time saved, against about $17£13€15A$25C$24 for Perplexity Pro. 2 hours saved on each of 5 pitches is 10 hours, at an assumed $67£50€60A$96C$94 an hour.
How to set it up
- Sign up for Perplexity Pro, $17 (about $17£13€15A$25C$24) a month billed annually, for one person.
- Before each pitch, run a Deep Research question on the prospect's sector in the UK: recent changes, rules coming in, competitors and recent news about the prospect, asking for a source for every point.
- Open the sources behind any point you might use, check they say what the briefing says, and note the date.
- Keep each prospect's briefing in its own Project, and add to it if the work goes ahead.
- Put only checked, sourced points in the proposal, with the source alongside.
What goes wrong
- A citation isn't proof. Sources can be out of date, a trade press summary of a rule can be wrong, and paywalled reports aren't read. Check the original before relying on a point.
- Pro is a personal plan for one person, and Deep Research on the free plan is limited. Enterprise Pro, $34 (about $35£26€31A$50C$49) per user a month billed annually, is the plan Perplexity says doesn't use customer data for training, so keep confidential material out of Pro.
- Keep anything the prospect shared in confidence, such as their figures or staff issues, out of the questions. Research only what is public.
- A briefing tells you about the sector, not the prospect's real problems. Use it to ask better questions in the meeting, not to arrive with the answer.