Follow one account through the work. This illustrative assignment follows a kitchen equipment supplier assessing growing US restaurant operators. CAVA facts come from public sources; the shortlist, assessment and outreach plan are illustrative. CAVA is not a client or a qualified sales opportunity.
01 / Map your market
Start with a market your team can sell into.
Agree what makes an account relevant to your offer. Then build a working shortlist with the reasons to include, investigate or exclude each company.
Define the fit. Customer type, territory, operating needs and exclusions.
Identify the business. Separate brands, operators, parent companies and locations.
Show the gaps. Keep an unresolved match visible until it can be checked.
What you receiveAn agreed account universe and a working shortlist.
Illustrative market shortlist
Growing restaurant operators
Assignment: assess where a kitchen equipment supplier should investigate purchasing fit.
Include
US multi-location restaurant operators with documented expansion.
Investigate
Operating entity, specification process and supplier eligibility.
Exclude
Single-site businesses for this assignment.
CAVA
Investigate first
A growing restaurant operator with a public expansion announcement.
Business / sites
CAVA Group / CAVA restaurants. Site-level purchasing needs remain unverified.
Fit assessment
Meets the illustrative expansion criterion; commercial fit needs qualification.
Public fact: 500th restaurant announced September 23, 2026. Source
Fictional account used to show an unresolved record.
Business / sites
Brand and operating company still to be matched.
Fit assessment
Hold until location count and expansion are established.
Example single-site café
Excluded
Fictional account used to make the exclusion visible.
Business / sites
One independently operated café.
Reason to exclude
Outside the multi-location scope agreed for this assignment.
The criteria and ordering are illustrative judgments. The two “Example” accounts are fictional.
02 / Prioritize accounts and buyers
Know why an account deserves attention.
A company name becomes useful when your team understands what changed, why it relates to your offer and what they still need to find out.
Connect the evidence. Bring the relevant change, source and date into one brief.
Investigate the buying team. Identify relevant functions and check who owns the decision.
Explain the priority. Give a reason to investigate, with the limits of that recommendation.
What you receiveA sourced account brief, relevant roles and questions to qualify.
CAVA / Illustrative account assessment
Expansion gives us a question to investigate.
Public company evidence checked September 29, 2026.
Observed change
CAVA announced its 500th restaurant and entry into Minnesota on September 23, 2026.
Why it may matter
New restaurant openings may create equipment specification and supply decisions. This is a research hypothesis; expansion does not establish an open supplier opportunity.
Relevant role
Jeff Gaul, Chief Development Officer, is listed in CAVA’s official leadership biography. His title does not establish equipment purchasing authority.
Still to establish
Who sets the equipment specification? Who buys it? Can this supplier enter the process, and at what stage?
Recommended priority
Investigate purchasing fit before adding CAVA to an outreach list.
CAVA’s second-quarter 2026 resultsPublished August 11, 2026 · checked September 29, 2026. Earlier growth context; its July footprint predates the milestone above.
Jeff Gaul’s official leadership biographyChecked September 29, 2026. Supports the role; equipment purchasing authority and a direct contact route remain unverified.
Independent public research. The supplier assessment and recommended priority are illustrative.
Turn the brief into a proposed approach: the function to reach, the question to ask and the material your team can use. When an essential answer is missing, the next action is to qualify it.
Choose the next step. Resolve missing authority or contact details before outreach.
Prepare the conversation. Connect a proposed message to the evidence and your offer.
Hand over the work. Deliver the brief, draft and follow-up outline to an agreed owner.
What you receiveAn outreach plan and working files for your team to review and use.
CAVA / Illustrative outreach plan
Qualify the route. Then open the conversation.
Preparation and customer handoff.
Function to investigate
Restaurant development, equipment specification and procurement. Confirm which function owns this supplier’s category.
Contact route
Unverified. No direct email or established relationship is available in this example.
Next action
Establish the purchasing process, supplier eligibility and a suitable contact route before any message is sent.
Proposed message / after qualification and customer approval
A question tied to the expansion
We saw CAVA’s announcement about its 500th restaurant and expansion into Minnesota. Our team supplies commercial kitchen equipment. Could you point us to the process for assessing new equipment suppliers, and the team responsible for specifications?
Illustrative wording for the hypothetical supplier. Revise it for the confirmed recipient, supplier offering and contact route.
Follow-up outline
If supplier assessment is open, ask about requirements and timing. If the route is wrong or suppliers are closed, record the answer and revise the recommendation. Agree any further follow-up with your team.
Reply All prepares
Research brief, proposed approach, draft and working-file handoff.
Your team approves
Account selection, recipient, claims and final message.
Your team sends and handles replies
A named customer owner controls sending and follow-up.
This sample shows research and outreach preparation. No message has been sent and no response or result is implied.
The next research cycle
Your feedback sharpens the work.
Your team may accept the recommendation, reject the fit or learn that the buying process works differently. We record the reason and agree what to investigate next.
The next shortlist builds on those decisions. Ongoing research and refresh timing are scoped around what your team needs.
Start with your market
Bring the question your team needs answered.
We’ll discuss the accounts you want to reach and a bounded piece of research that would help you decide what to do next.
