Optional. Helps find the right company.
More options
Sector
Optional. Anything you know about the lead, or what you want to find out.
What to get

A fast profile: sector, size, locations and training needs.

Usually finds 5 to 15 organisations
Name Email Title Company Found Contacted via Actions

Loading the company profile.

Loading innovations.

Loading users.

Admins can change the company profile, answer sector requests, sync innovations, export contacts, see the Activity panel, delete any pitch and manage users. Admins set in Scout’s configuration can’t be changed here. People appear here after they first sign in.

Reports can name people. Scout removes email addresses and phone numbers, but not names. Replace any names before you paste a report into Claude or anywhere else.

Loading reports.

This changes your prospect searches and your email drafts, and puts your products first when you draft a pitch. Company briefs and pitches stay the same for everyone. The team can see the lists you build, and each one shows the focus it was built with.

Loading your focus.

How Scout uses this
Only you can see this. Scout uses it for the emails you draft from pitches. It never changes briefs, pitches or anyone else’s emails.

Loading your writing style.

How your emails will look

      

To try it, click Save my style, then draft an email from a pitch on a company page. Change your style, save it and click Draft again until you’re happy. Each try replaces your last email to that person.

Light or dark

Light theme

Used when Scout is light.

Dark theme

Used when Scout is dark.

If your computer asks for more contrast, Scout uses High contrast when it is light, until you choose a light theme here.

Get started

Scout researches target companies and produces sales intelligence briefs for Me Learning. It answers one question: "Why should Me Learning talk to this company, and how do I start that conversation?"

Sign in

  1. Open Scout in your browser.
  2. Click Sign in with Microsoft.
  3. Authenticate with your Me Learning Microsoft account.

You'll see the Scout home screen with the research form. Your name appears top right.

Note: Scout uses your organisation's Microsoft Entra ID for single sign-on. Your session stays active between visits. You only need to sign in again if your session has expired. If that happens while Scout is open, Scout tells you, and signing in again takes you back to where you were. Anything you had typed but not saved is lost.

Take the tour

The first time you sign in, Scout shows you round in under a minute. If you used Scout before it changed, it offers to show you what is new, and you can say Not now. Take the tour again at any time:

Find your way around

The sidebar on the left is your main navigation. Here's what each item does:

ItemWhat it does
Scout a companyResearch a specific company and get a sales brief.
Find prospectsBuild a targeted list of companies matching your criteria.
CompaniesEvery company the team has scouted or found. Filter by scouted status or contacts.
ProspectsView prospect lists you've generated.
ContactsBrowse all contacts found across every company in a searchable table.
Company profileWhat Scout knows about Me Learning. It shapes every brief.
InnovationsNew ways we can build learning, and how ready each one is.
UsersSee who uses Scout and change roles.

On a computer, you can fold the sidebar to get more room on screen. Use the button at its top, next to Actions. It becomes a narrow strip of icons. Point at an icon to see its name. Use the same button to open it again. Scout remembers your choice on this computer.

Along the top of every screen you'll find Jump to, What’s new, Help and your name. Click your name for My focus, My writing style, Light, Auto or Dark, Themes, Report a problem and Sign out. A blue dot on What’s new means there’s a release entry you haven’t seen.

On a phone, Company profile, Innovations, Users and Help are under More.

On a phone, Company profile, Innovations and Help are under More.

Jump to anything

Press Ctrl K (⌘K on a Mac), or / when you are not typing in a box, or click the magnifying glass at the top. Type a few letters to find a company, prospect list, contact, innovation, Help topic or screen. Choosing an innovation opens its card on Innovations. Use the up and down keys to move, Enter to open and Esc to close. The last line offers to scout what you typed: it only fills in the form, so nothing is spent until you press Scout.

Tip: Double-click the Scout logo, top left (or press Ctrl+Shift+U) to open the Activity panel, where you can see a team activity feed and API usage and costs. Only admins can open it.

Scout a company

This is Scout's core feature. It uses AI-powered web research to build a tailored sales brief for any target company.

  1. Go to Scout a company in the sidebar.
  2. Type the company name in the Company name field. This is the only required field. You can also paste the company’s website, a work email address or its LinkedIn company link; Scout fills in what it can and confirms the name before scouting. If you already have the company, Scout says so as you type.
  3. Optionally, add a website. Sector and context are under More options. Target roles appears under What to get when your choice includes contacts. Scout remembers what you chose in What to get, and your target roles, for next time on this browser.
  4. Under What to get, choose how much to find out, then click Scout (or Find contacts for Contacts only). Pressing Enter in a box does the same.

While Scout writes

Scout shows how long it has taken so far. You can go to any other screen while it writes. The browser tab shows how far it has got, for example “Scouting Harbour Trust (2 of 3)”.

When the brief is ready and you are looking at something else, Scout says so, with Open. To hear from Scout when you are in another tab or app, click Tell me when it’s ready and allow notifications when your browser asks.

You can close the tab, or your computer can lose its connection: Scout carries on and saves the brief. Find it in Companies. If the connection drops while you are looking at the brief, Scout picks it up again. When you come back after closing the tab, Scout tells you how the scout went, with Open. If you reload the page while Scout writes, you see the brief carry on from where it has got to.

If you open another company’s page while Scout writes, or close the tab, the brief is still saved. Any pitch you chose under Also pitch is not written: draft it from the company’s page.

Cancel stops the scout. If you start scouting another company while one is still being written, Scout asks before it stops the first one.

Understand the form fields

FieldRequiredWhat it does
Company nameYesThe company you want to research.
WebsiteNoHelps Scout find the right company, especially for common names.
Additional contextNoSteers the research. For example: "Focus on their compliance training needs."
Target rolesNoComma-separated job titles. Scout looks for people in these roles. Shown when your choice includes contacts. Scout remembers the roles you used last.
SectorNoPublic sector, Private, Charity or not-for-profit, or Not sure. Helps tailor the brief.

Choose what to get

ChoiceWhat it doesSpeedCost
Quick scoutA short brief with Who they are and Why talk to them. Good for deciding if a company is worth pursuing.FastestCheapest
Full scoutThe full brief: Who they are, Why talk to them and How to start the conversation.A minute or twoMore than a Quick scout
Contacts onlySearches LinkedIn, the company website, news and directories for people, then checks their emails with ZeroBounce. No brief.Depends on how many people it findsZeroBounce credits for each new person
Full scout with contactsThe full brief and a contact search. The most thorough choice.SlowestCosts the most
Tip: Start with Quick scout to check if a company is worth pursuing. If it looks promising, click Run Full scout on its page to get the rest of the brief.

Read your research brief

When you scout a company, Scout shows each part of the brief as it writes it.

What’s in the brief

The brief is the Company profile panel. It opens with a one-sentence summary, then three parts, each backed by source links. The company’s website and LinkedIn page are links under Who they are.

  • Who they are: size, sector, locations, structure, and what they do.
  • Why talk to them: training and L&D signals, and why Me Learning is a fit.
  • How to start the conversation: angles for your first conversation.

Each part ends with a Sources link listing what it cites. Scout again, at the top of the panel, refreshes all of it, summary included. Staff numbers say what they count and where they come from, because sources often differ.

Earlier scouts

Nothing is lost when a company is scouted again, or when a part is retried. Scout keeps the profile it replaces. Open Earlier scouts, at the top of the Company profile panel, to see who scouted it and when, read it as it was, or download it as a Word document. Earlier scouts cannot be changed.

A pitch written from an earlier profile has a See that brief link to it.

A Quick scout includes only the first two parts. The last part shows a Run Full scout button so you can upgrade in place. Existing contacts and follow-ups are kept.

The rest of the page

Below the Company profile come Pitches, then Contacts, then a lighter More on this company panel with procurement, useful links and follow-up questions. The bar at the top of the page jumps to each one.

Charity Commission integration

When Scout matches a company to a charity registered in England or Wales, a green Matched to a registered charity banner appears above the brief. The brief then uses figures from the Charity Commission register: registration date, recent income and spending, trustees and stated activities. Scout looks for the match itself, so you don’t need to say it is a charity.

Already scouted

If you scout a company that’s been scouted before, Scout says when, and gives you two options:

  • Open company page: see the saved profile with its pitches and contacts. Nothing is spent.
  • Scout again: run a fresh scout with the latest information. The current profile is kept under Earlier scouts, and contacts, pitches and follow-ups stay.

The same Scout again button is at the top of the Company profile panel on any company page. A company not scouted yet has Scout this company there instead.

Clicking a scout button twice starts one scout, not two. If you start a different company while Scout is still writing, Scout asks before it stops the one before.

Ask follow-up questions

After a research brief is complete, you can ask follow-up questions to dig deeper into any topic.

  1. Go to More on this company, at the bottom of the company page.
  2. Type your question in the Ask a follow-up field.
  3. Click Ask.

The answer appears under the question. Scout answers from the brief, and can search the web. Each question counts towards the team’s daily limit of 30, which scouts and contact searches share.

Tip: Good follow-up questions are specific. For example: "Tell me more about their compliance setup" or "What procurement framework do they use?"

Draft a pitch

A pitch is a short note on how to offer one of our products or innovations to a company you have scouted. Scout writes it from the company’s brief.

What it does and does not do

  • It uses only what the brief found. It won’t look anything up, so a pitch is only as fresh as the brief.
  • It never changes the brief. The brief stays the same for everyone.
  • It never sends anything. It is a note for you to adapt.
  • Everyone on the team can see it.

Draft one

  1. Open a company you have scouted.
  2. Under Pitches, click Draft a pitch.
  3. Choose up to 3 products or innovations. Your focus is listed first, and your first focus product is already chosen. Choose more than one to pitch them together as a package.
  4. Click Draft the pitch. It takes a few seconds.

If the brief is more than 3 months old, Scout tells you. You can still draft a pitch from it. For an up-to-date pitch, click Scout again first. It runs a Full scout, which takes a minute or two, and the pitches you already have stay.

You can also choose an offer in Also pitch when you scout a company. Scout drafts that pitch once the brief is ready. If scouting fails, no pitch is written.

Read a pitch

  • Strong fit, Possible fit or Weak fit is Scout’s judgement from the brief. Check it against what you know.
  • A weak fit says what is missing. It may suggest a better offer instead.
  • For a package, Scout says which offer to lead with and how each one fits. It tells you to leave out any that don’t fit, and an email from the package leaves them out too.
  • Who to approach gives job roles. If people with matching titles are already in Contacts, Scout lists them under it, and an email from the pitch is addressed to the best match.
  • A prototype is pitched as a pilot or co-development, never as something available today.

You can delete a pitch you drafted.As an admin, you can delete any pitch, not only your own. It goes at once, with Undo for a few seconds. Pitches are included in the Word export.

Draft an email from a pitch

  1. Open a pitch and click Draft an email.
  2. Choose who it is to. Pick a contact Scout found, or write to the role if you have no name yet.
  3. Click Draft the email. Scout writes a subject and a short email from the pitch and the brief.
  4. Adapt it, then click Copy email and paste it into your email.

You can also start from a person. Click Write to on their contact card, or click their name under Who to approach on a pitch. Scout opens the email on the pitch that fits them best. If the company has no pitch yet, Scout asks what to offer them first, then opens the email.

  • Only you can see your email. The team can see that you drafted one, but not what it says.
  • Nothing is sent. Scout never sends email for you.
  • You keep one draft for each person you write to from a pitch. Drafting again to the same person replaces it. Click Write to someone else to add another.
  • An email to a team mailbox, such as an HR inbox, starts with your greeting but no name.
  • Changes you make in the box aren’t saved. Copy the email when you’re happy with it.
  • There is no email for a weak fit. Your emails are not included in the Word export.

Make emails sound like you

Click your name, top right, then My writing style. Choose your greeting, sign-off, tone, length and how the email ends, and add phrases you like or avoid. The preview shows how your emails will start and end. Scout uses it for every email you draft. Only you can see it.

  • How it ends: ask if it’s a priority for them, offer more details, offer an example, or suggest a short call. Asking if it’s a priority is the default, because in a first email it gets more replies than asking for a call.
  • Your name is optional. If your email signature adds it, delete it so it doesn’t appear twice.
  • Learn from your emails: paste one to three emails you have written and click Learn my style. Scout writes a short note on how you write, which you can change, then click Save my style. Scout keeps the note, not the emails. Take out names, organisations, prices and anything private before you paste.
  • Whatever your style, Scout starts with what it knows about them, and uses plain, everyday words.

To try a change, save it, open a pitch and click Draft again. Each try replaces your last draft to that person, so change it until you’re happy.

Find contacts

Scout searches multiple sources for real contacts at a target company and verifies their email addresses. Contacts appear as cards within the research brief and are also saved to the global Contacts screen.

How contact finding works

  1. Scout searches LinkedIn, the company website, news, and directories for people in HR, L&D, People, Training, Talent, and Compliance roles.
  2. For each person, ZeroBounce attempts to find and verify their email. Departmental mailboxes (e.g. hr@, training@) are added where they exist.
  3. When Scout is connected to Force 24, it also shows whether each email is subscribed or unsubscribed there, and when it was last active.

A Searched… note above the contacts list tells you which providers Scout actually used on this run.

Email status markers

Every email carries a small status marker, and its colour, so you know how far to trust the address.

Marker and colourWhat it means
Green tick / Verified. The address is green.ZeroBounce checked the inbox and confirmed it.
Amber warning / Unverified. The address is amber.ZeroBounce checked the inbox and could not confirm it. The email may bounce. This covers both catch-all domains and addresses that failed validation.
Grey question mark / Verify email. The address is in the normal text colour.Not yet checked. This includes an address you typed or saved with Try. Click the marker to run ZeroBounce for that one contact. The marker and the address change straight away to green or amber. Costs one credit.

The contacts table shows small icons to keep the column tight. A company’s contact cards show the same three states and colours as larger pills.

Source badges next to a name explain where the contact came from:

  • Departmental: a general mailbox at the company’s web address, such as hr@.
  • Via Force 24: matched with a record Force 24 already has.
  • No badge: found by Scout’s web search, the usual case.

View contacts for a company

  1. Open a company’s research brief from the Companies screen.
  2. Scroll down to the Contacts section.

Refresh contacts

Click Check again above the contacts cards to re-search and re-verify. Existing contacts and verified emails are always preserved, even if a re-search finds fewer people.

Find an email for one contact

If a contact has no email yet, click Find email next to their row to try ZeroBounce for that person only. The card updates in place once the lookup finishes.

If others at the same company have checked emails, Scout offers the likely address instead, such as Try jo.berry@example.org, following their pattern. Try saves it as not checked yet. Verify, in place of Find email, saves it and checks it with ZeroBounce (1 credit).

Mark a contact as contacted

Two checkbox pills sit under every contact card and on every row of the Contacts table, under a small Contacted via label. Tap a pill to mark the channel:

  • LinkedIn: for messages sent on LinkedIn.
  • Email: for emails sent to that contact.

The pill fills green with a tick. Hover over it to see the date and time you marked it.

Click a green pill again to unmark it. Scout unmarks it at once and shows Undo for a few seconds. Undo puts it back with its original date.

State persists across refreshes, between the Contacts screen and the company detail page, and through Check again. Running Find email on a marked contact keeps the mark intact.

Open a contact’s LinkedIn profile

On a contact card, click the blue LinkedIn chip in the action row. On the contacts table, click the small LinkedIn icon to the right of the contact’s name. Both open the profile in a new tab.

Edit a contact

If someone’s name, job title, email or LinkedIn URL is wrong or has changed, correct it yourself. What you change is kept: Scout never overwrites it when it searches for contacts again, and a renamed contact is not added a second time.

  1. In the Contacts table, click Edit at the end of the row. On a contact card, click the small pencil next to the LinkedIn icon.
  2. Change the Name, Job title, Email or LinkedIn URL. Leave a field blank to clear it (a name is needed).
  3. Click Save.

A new email shows as not checked yet. Click its grey question mark to check it with ZeroBounce (1 credit).

View all contacts

  1. Click Contacts in the sidebar.
  2. Use the search box to filter by name, title, email, or company.

The contacts screen shows a table with columns for Name, Email, Title, Company, Found, and Contacted via. The line under the title counts everyone, how many have an email, and how many have been contacted. Click any column header to sort. Click a company name to open its page. On a phone, each contact shows as a small card.

Filter the list

The filters beside the search box show how many contacts each one holds:

  • All. Every contact, with or without an email.
  • With email (default). Only contacts that have an email address on file. Hides the people you cannot reach yet.
  • Verified. Only contacts whose address ZeroBounce has confirmed.
  • Contacted. People someone has marked as contacted on LinkedIn or by email.
  • Not contacted. People nobody has marked as contacted on LinkedIn or by email yet.

Your choice is remembered between visits.

Verify an unchecked email

If a contact’s email shows a grey question mark in the table, or a Verify email pill on a contact card, click it to run a ZeroBounce check on that address only. The marker spins briefly, then resolves into either the green tick or the amber warning. Verified and unverified addresses are final outcomes, so clicking them does nothing. This avoids burning a credit re-checking an answer you already have.

Copy an email address

In the contacts table, click the copy icon beside an email address to copy it; it turns into a tick. Clicking the address itself opens your email app. On a contact card, click the email to copy it.

Export contacts

Only admins can export contacts, because contacts are personal data. If you need a list, ask an admin.

Only admins can export contacts, because contacts are personal data. Standard users do not see these buttons.

On a company’s page, click Export CSV at the top of the Contacts panel, or Export contacts (CSV) at the bottom of the page, to download all contacts for that company.

On the Contacts screen, Export CSV downloads exactly what the filters and search show, up to 5,000 contacts. Exports are recorded in the activity log.

Before your first download of personal data in a session (a contacts file or a Word brief, which can name people), Scout reminds you to keep the file on Me Learning systems, not send it outside the company, and delete it when you’ve finished with it.

Important: Contact data comes from third-party sources and may not always be current. Verify details before reaching out, especially for contacts marked Unverified or whose email is Not yet checked.

Build a prospect list

Prospect lists let you describe a type of company and have Scout find matching organisations. This is useful for prospecting across a sector or region.

  1. Go to Find prospects in the sidebar.
  2. Describe the kind of companies you’re looking for. Be specific about sector, size, location, or other criteria.
  3. Click Build list, or press Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac).

You’ll see a list of up to 15 matching organisations, best match first. Organisations that are already Me Learning clients are left out. From there, click Scout on any card to scout that company.

Scout ranks the results using your focus, shown above the search box. It never overrides what you type. To change it, click Change or go to My focus.

Your three most recent lists appear below the form, so you can pick up where you left off.

Tip: The more specific your description, the better the results. Try “Housing associations in the Midlands with 500+ employees” rather than “housing associations” on its own.

View your lists

Click Prospects in the sidebar to see all prospect lists. Use the Mine only / Everyone toggle to switch between your lists and the team’s. Sort by newest, oldest, or name. Click any list to see its companies and research status.

Work through a list

A list numbers its companies best match first. Search it by name, filter it like Companies, and sort it by best match, name or most recently scouted. Each company keeps its number whatever you do. When you go back from a company’s page, the list is as you left it. Find contacts from each company’s page, where you can see what Scout found.

Manage companies and lists

The Companies screen shows every company the team has scouted or found through prospect lists. The Prospects screen does the same for prospect lists.

Search

Each screen has a search box at the top. Search keeps working as you navigate: open a result, hit back, and your search term is still applied.

Filter pills (Companies only)

Below the search box, filter pills narrow the list:

FilterWhat it shows
AllEvery company in your database.
ScoutedCompanies with a completed research brief.
Has contactsCompanies where contacts have been found.
Not scoutedCompanies with no brief yet, even if they have contacts.

Mine only / Everyone

Inline with the search bar on Companies and Prospects, the Mine only / Everyone toggle switches between work attributed to you and work across the whole team. Filtering happens on the server, so pagination stays accurate.

Sort and page size

The sort dropdown offers Newest first, Oldest first, Name A–Z, and Name Z–A. Companies and Contacts also have a page-size selector (20, 50, 200 per page, or Show all). On the Contacts table, click any column header to sort by that column.

When you go back from a company’s page, Companies and Prospects are as you left them: the same search, filters, sort, page and place on the page.

Companies remembers your filter, Mine only or Everyone, and sort on this browser. The filters and sort on Companies and Contacts are also in the web address, so a link you send opens the same view. What you type in the search box is never in the address.

Understand the cards

Each row shows the company name, its badges, the brief’s one-line summary (or a short description), and when it was scouted or added. A row you can open ends in an arrow; a company with nothing saved yet has a Scout button instead. Hover over a row to see what a click will do.

BadgeWhat it means
Full scoutA full brief is saved, with How to start the conversation.
Quick scoutOnly a Quick scout is saved, without How to start the conversation. Open the company and click Run Full scout to add them.
3 contactsHow many people Scout has found at this company.

Open a company

Click any company card that has a brief or contacts to view the full detail. Companies without data show a Scout button instead, which takes you to the scout form with the name pre-filled.

Rename and delete

You can keep your data tidy without leaving Scout.

Rename a company or prospect list

  1. Open the company detail page or the prospect list detail page.
  2. Click the heading at the top of the page. It turns into an editable field.
  3. Type the new name and press Enter to save, or Escape to cancel.

Empty names are rejected and the original is restored. Company names that would clash with an existing company are also rejected: Scout normalises names before checking, so “Acme”, “Acme Ltd”, and “Acme Limited” all count as the same company.

Tip: Hover over the heading to see a Click to rename tooltip. The cursor changes to indicate the heading is editable.

Delete a company or list

Deleting a company also deletes its research, contacts, pitches and follow-ups, and clears anything Scout had stored about it. Deleting a list removes the list itself but leaves the underlying companies in place. Both actions are recorded in the activity feed.

Important: There is no Delete button. To remove a company or list, tell the developers with Report a problem.

Export your work

After a research brief is complete, an action bar at the bottom of the page collects every option in one place:

ButtonWhat it does
Copy briefCopies the whole brief, with follow-ups and pitches. It pastes with headings and lists into Teams, Outlook or Word, and as markdown into anything that reads markdown.
Download docxDownloads the brief as a Word document, with follow-ups and pitches. Contacts are not included.
Export contacts (CSV)Downloads all contacts for this company as a CSV. Only shown when contacts exist.
Scout another companyReturns to the scout form so you can start a new search.

Share a link

Click Copy link, next to the date at the top of a company’s page, and paste it into Teams or an email. Anyone at Me Learning can open it. To point at one part of the brief, use the link icon beside Who they are, Why talk to them or How to start the conversation. Each section of this Help has a link icon too.

A new brief gets its link once it is saved.

Procurement intelligence

Under More on this company, click Check procurement to search Contracts Finder and Stotles for LMS and eLearning contracts, values, and renewal dates. It is most useful for public sector organisations.

Refresh checks again. Earlier results are kept under Earlier checks.

Useful links

Below the brief, Scout provides direct links to external research sources for the company, including LinkedIn, Companies House, Contracts Finder, and Stotles.

Tip: The Word document has every part of the brief, with follow-up answers and pitches. Contacts are not included.

Usage and activity

The Activity panel, with what everyone has done in Scout and what Scout costs, is for admins. If you need to know who did something, ask an admin.

The Activity panel shows a team activity feed plus API usage and costs. Only admins can open it. Open it by double-clicking the Scout logo, top left, or press Ctrl+Shift+U. It lands on the Activity tab by default. Press Escape to close it.

Activity tab

The Activity tab is a chronological feed of everything the team has done in Scout. Each entry shows who performed the action, what they did, and when.

  • Filter by time range or by individual team member using the user pills.
  • Use the search bar to filter by a person’s email, a company name or a prospect list.
  • Company names, prospect lists, and contact names are all clickable. Click a company to jump to its brief, a list to open it, or a contact name to filter the Contacts screen.
  • The feed records what was done to a contact, not their details. It shows the contact’s current name, or a deleted contact once they have been deleted.
  • Scout keeps the activity log and usage for 24 months, then deletes them. The feed shows when it does.
  • Actions tracked include: scouts, contact searches, follow-up questions, prospect lists, charity lookups, pitches, email drafts, marking people as contacted, procurement checks, renames and deletions.

Usage tab

The Usage tab shows how Scout is being used across the team. Filter by time range: Today, 7 days, 30 days, or All time.

  • Summary cards: total API calls, tokens used, estimated cost, and ZeroBounce credits remaining.
  • Usage by type: a breakdown by Quick scout, Full scout, contacts, follow-ups, prospect lists, procurement, pitches, brief summaries and email drafts.
  • Recent activity log: the latest actions, with type, company name, tokens and time.
Note: All actions in Scout are attributed to your Microsoft account. This supports team visibility and audit compliance.

What’s new

The release notes panel records every meaningful change to Scout. It’s the quickest way to see what’s shipped recently.

Open the panel

  1. Look for the What’s new icon in the header, top right, next to Help.
  2. Click it to open the panel. Click outside, or hit Close, to dismiss.

A small blue dot appears on the icon when there’s a release entry you haven’t seen yet. Opening the panel marks it as read on this device.

How entries are organised

The newest entry is at the top. Earlier entries follow, newest first.

Feature tips

When a release adds something worth pointing out, a NEW pill appears next to it. Some also get a short tip the first time you reach the screen they are on. The tip says what it is and links straight to the release note.

Dismiss the tip with Got it, by pressing Esc, or by clicking outside. Its NEW pill goes with it. A pill with no tip goes once you use what it marks. Each one is tracked separately, so dismissing one won’t skip the next.

The tour covers some tips, so you won’t see those again after it. If you’re new to Scout, you won’t see tips about things that changed, because you never saw them before.

Your account and My focus

Your name, top right, opens a menu with your own settings. Only you can change them.

Set your focus

  1. Click your name, top right, then My focus. You can also click Change next to your focus on Find prospects.
  2. Choose who you sell to, the size of organisation, what you are promoting, and where. Leave Size of organisation empty for any size, and Where empty to cover the whole UK. How Scout uses this, under the lists, shows what changes as you choose.
  3. Click Save my focus.

What you are promoting includes innovations that are ready now or at prototype stage. Each shows its status. Scout tells your searches what the innovation is, and treats a prototype as something to pilot, not something to sell today.

Products come from Company profile, in Products. An innovation shows once it is Ready or Prototype on the Innovation Dashboard and you click Sync from dashboard on Innovations.

Products come from the company profile, and innovations from the Innovation Dashboard. If something you are promoting is missing, ask an admin to add it.

Can’t see your sector?

The sectors come from the company profile, so everyone works from the same list. Add a missing one yourself on Company profile, in Sectors we serve. Requests from the team show there too.

The sectors come from the company profile, so everyone works from the same list. Under the sectors on My focus, click Ask an admin to add it, name the sector and say why. An admin adds it or tells you why not. You see the answer the next time you open Scout, and on My focus. If it is added, it goes into your focus straight away.

Your focus changes two things, both your own:

  • Find prospects: Scout ranks matching organisations higher but never overrides what you type. Size only changes the order: Scout never leaves an organisation out because of its size.
  • Email drafts: Scout writes with the sectors and areas you look after in mind, when the organisation is one of them. What you are promoting and the size of organisation do not change them. It never adds an offer the pitch does not include.

Company briefs and pitches stay the same for everyone. Draft a pitch lists your focus products first.

The team can see the lists you build, so each list shows the focus it was built with.

Change how Scout looks

Open the menu under your name and choose Light, Auto or Dark. Auto matches your computer, so Scout can be light by day and dark at night.

To change how each one looks, choose Themes. Light has Scout light and High contrast. Dark has Brand ink and Nord. If your computer asks for more contrast, Scout uses High contrast until you choose a light theme. Scout remembers your choices on this device.

Sign out

Open the menu under your name and click Sign out.

Company profile

Company profile is what Scout knows about Me Learning: what we sell, the sectors we serve, buying signals, and who we are the right fit for. Scout uses it in every brief and every prospect search.

Everyone can read it. Only admins can change it, so if something is wrong or missing, ask an admin.

Everyone can read it. As an admin, you can change it.

Change a section

  1. Click Edit on the section you want to change.
  2. Make your changes, then click Save. Other sections are not affected.

To change one item in a list, such as a sector, click its words. Change it, then press Enter. Press Esc to leave it as it was. Click Save when you have finished.

Sectors are always listed A to Z, so a new or changed sector moves to its place in the list.

If someone else saved the same section while you were editing, Scout shows their version instead of overwriting it. Make your change again on top of theirs.

Changes apply to briefs you scout from then on. Briefs you already have keep what they said.

Scout sends the whole profile with every brief and prospect search, so it has a length limit. While you edit, a counter shows how long the profile will be. If a change would take it over the limit, shorten that section or another one before you save. Shorter, sharper sections also give more focused briefs.

Sector requests

When someone asks for a sector, a number appears next to Company profile in the sidebar. The requests are listed at the top of the page. Tidy the name if you need to, then click Add to Sectors we serve. Or click Decline and say why. The person who asked sees your answer.

Size sweet spot

The size sweet spot is the size of organisation that usually fits best.Set the size of organisation that usually fits best. Scout uses it to rank prospect searches, never to leave anyone out.

Briefs and pitches never call an organisation a poor fit because of its size. They give its size so you can plan the conversation, and judge fit by its training needs.

Innovations

Innovations lists new ways we can build learning, grouped by how ready each one is. Click Features, where it fits, considerations on any card for the detail.

To see innovations working, click Open the Innovation Dashboard at the top of the page. It opens in a new tab with every innovation and its demo, and asks for its access key the first time. Pick the innovation from the dashboard’s list.

  • Ready: available to offer now.
  • Prototype: working examples, not yet ready to sell.
  • Proof of concept: early exploration.

Only offer Ready innovations to a prospect as available today.

Sync from the dashboard

  1. Click Sync from dashboard. Scout checks the Innovation Dashboard and lists every difference. Nothing changes yet.
  2. Untick anything you don’t want. Innovations no longer on the dashboard stay unticked unless you tick them.
  3. Click Apply.

Manage users

Everyone who signs in to Scout appears in Users the first time they sign in, as a standard user.

Change someone’s role with Admin or Standard in their row. Admins can change the company profile, answer sector requests, sync innovations, export contacts, see the Activity panel, delete any pitch and manage users. Admins set in Scout’s configuration show Admin, with no choice, because they cannot be changed here.

Report a problem

If something goes wrong, tell the developers. Select Report this problem next to the error, or Report a problem here or in the menu under your profile name.

Say what you were trying to do and what happened. Scout adds what the developers need to find it: the version, the page you were on, and the error’s reference if there was one. It never sends what you typed into a search.

Leave out people’s names and contact details. Scout removes email addresses and phone numbers, but it cannot spot names.

When a developer has looked at your report, Scout tells you the next time you open it.

Tips for better results

Be specific with context

Adding context like "Focus on their apprenticeship programmes" or "They recently acquired XYZ" helps Scout prioritise what matters to your conversation.

Include the website

For companies with common names, adding the website URL helps Scout find the right organisation.

Set target roles

If you know who you want to speak to, add their job titles. Scout will prioritise finding people in those roles.

Choose the right sector

Selecting a sector helps Scout tailor the brief. Public sector briefs focus on frameworks and procurement. Private sector briefs focus on commercial drivers.

Use follow-ups

Follow-up questions are powerful. Use them to explore angles the initial brief didn't cover, or to get more detail on a specific section.

Write specific list queries

When building prospect lists, include size, sector, location, and any other distinguishing criteria. “NHS trusts in the South East” works better than “healthcare companies”.