Winning the Timing Game: How One CEO Uses AI to Spot Deals Early

If Dhara Patel is late — she loses.

As the CEO of Outer Realm, a construction tech company that helps real estate developers fully sell and lease projects before they’re even built, timing for her is everything.

If she reaches out after construction is complete, it’s too late. 

"I have no need for a project that's already built," she explains. "That's a waste of time to call and look silly while they say, 'Oh yeah, we finished that project two years ago.'"

But finding early-stage, pre-construction projects takes hours of tedious research.

“As a small business owner. I do all the marketing and sales. I make the phone calls, I have to find out who's who, and I need to know — is this client worth my time? Because every minute counts.”

This is what started Dhara on her AI journey and what led her to a timing-based AI prompt she calls  “Project Insight Finder”. It instantly surfaces the clients with upcoming projects that are worthy of her attention — and can be tweaked to find the relevant triggers for your ICPs, too.

Now the Apollodays template contest-winner is sharing her exact approach. 

👉 Get Dhara's research prompt in Apollo here. Keep reading to learn how to use it.

Creating an AI research assistant

Like all things, good prompts take time.

Dhara didn’t start out with the perfect command for AI. In fact, she stumbled onto Apollo’s AI prompting feature: “I just clicked on the button and went down a rabbit hole,” she says. “It took a few tries to get right.”

What began as curiosity quickly turned into a breakthrough for her sales process. Today, her prompt acts like an “always-on” researcher, scanning websites, news sources, and industry updates to find early-stage construction projects.

And because she has all of this lead qualification research, Dhara can create cold messages that include specifics.

Can Dhara's AI Power-up help you?

Dhara’s “Project Insight Finder” immediately finds upcoming construction or development projects by scanning real estate news sources.

While Dhara designed the prompt specifically for real estate and construction, it can be tweaked to work for any industry (that means yours!).

If any of your ICPs are likely to make a purchase around a newsworthy moment (think funding rounds, product launches, hiring pushes, regulation changes, or big tech shifts), adapting Dhara’s style of prompt can give you a major edge.

The format stays the same — the context changes according to your needs.

Use this prompt to:

• Quickly identify “coming soon” projects or opportunities from newsworthy moments
• Reach out to potential clients at the perfect moment
• Create personalized outreach that references specific projects
• Save hours of tedious research time

Find Dhara’s AI prompt template to use or adapt in the Apollo platform here.

Here's how it works...

Breaking down Dhara's "Project Insight Finder" prompt

To build her AI prompt, Dhara leaned on Apollo’s documentation and ChatGPT for help with structuring.

Eventually, she arrived at a detailed prompt that gives context and instructions on timing, search sources, and formatting.

Let's break down how she structured it in parts.

1. Set the context

Dhara starts by feeding AI the context for:

• The industry she’s researching
• The overview of the task
• And today’s date, using dynamic variables, to help the prompt return future-focused projects

You are a research analyst focused on the real estate and construction industry. Your task is to identify "coming soon" projects, recent announcements, or general project developments for specified builders and developers. Today's date is {{now_day}}-{{now_month}}-{{now_year}}.

👉 Tip: To give the best chance of the prompt returning your desired result, you can also specify what not to return. In this case, you could add another sentence like “Don’t output any projects that are already completed.”

2. Define the search sources

She then gives guidance on where to look for information:

Company Website:

• News or update pages
• Press releases
• Blog posts related to project announcements

External Sources:

• Real estate industry news sites
• Local news articles mentioning the builder or developer
• Trade publications related to construction or real estate
• City planning or zoning board meeting minutes and agendas
• Industry forums or project listing sites

3. Specify the output format

Then there are instructions to return the research in a useful format:

Provide the output in the following format:

Project summary with location, expected completion date (if available), and key project details.

• Date: Date of announcement or mention of the project (format: YYYY-MM-DD)
• Description: Brief description of the project, including any notable aspects or unique features.

4. Set key guardrails

Finally, she adds parameters to ensure accuracy, including a fallback output if AI doesn’t find anything.

Important:

• Only include information directly confirmed to be about the specified builder or developer.
• Exclude any unrelated projects or news about companies with similar names.
• If no relevant projects are found, respond only with "No projects found.

You'll often find out which guardrails are most important after previewing your prompt results.

For more…

• AI Prompt Best Practices
• How to Excel at AI Prompting in 3 Steps
• How to Write Amazing AI Prompts in Apollo [Video]

The results: Better conversations, higher response rates, and hours saved

Dhara’s prompt is still new, but it’s already delivering. She’s booking more calls and her personalized campaigns have seen standout engagement.

She’s able to act on opportunities that she would have missed. “The prompt pulls information I might have missed on my own, like one mention of a project in some obscure article,” she says. “I'm coming in with projects that they probably just announced so their interest is piqued.” 

And the time savings are real. “Now, my short attention span is focused on calling and emailing. It’s much more refined than before — more personalized, and not robotic. It’s been a game changer.”

Ready to try Dhara's approach?

Try AI prompting for free or start using her template now.