Why most sales prompts give you mush
You type "write a follow-up email to a prospect" and get back six paragraphs that open with "I hope this email finds you well". The AI had nothing to work with, so it wrote the average of every follow-up it has seen.
A prompt that works has four parts:
- Who you are and who you sell to, in one line.
- The one job you want done.
- Your facts: what they said, what you sell, what happened on the call.
- The shape you want back: how long, what tone, what to leave out.
Every prompt below follows that shape, with the words in brackets for you to fill. Paste them into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or whatever assistant your company allows.
If you want the bigger picture first, AI in sales covers where AI helps a team and where it gets things wrong.
Research before you reach out
Research prompts save the most time and carry the most risk, because the AI will happily invent a company's news. Check anything you plan to say out loud.
1. I sell [what you sell] to [type of buyer]. Here's what I found on [company]'s website and news page: [paste]. In five bullet points, tell me what they do, what's changed in the last six months, and one problem they're likely to have that I can help with. Mark anything you're guessing.
2. Here's the LinkedIn profile text of [name], [role] at [company]: [paste]. Give me two things we could genuinely talk about on a first call, based only on what's here. No flattery.
3. Here's my list of 30 prospects with their industry and size: [paste]. My best customers look like this: [describe]. Sort the list into "call this week", "later" and "not a fit", with one reason each.
The AI for sales prospecting post has more prospecting prompts and a weekly routine built around them.
Prepare for a call
4. I have a 20-minute first call tomorrow with [role] at [type of business]. They booked because [reason]. Give me six open questions that get them talking about how they do it today and what it costs them. Plain language, no jargon.
5. Here are my notes from our last two conversations: [paste]. What did they promise, what did I promise, and what's still unanswered? Then give me an agenda for today's call in four lines.
6. Play the buyer. You're a [role] at a [type of business] who's busy and a bit sceptical. I'll pitch you [product] in two minutes. Push back the way a real buyer would, then tell me which part of my pitch was weakest.
Follow up after the call
7. I just had a call with [name] at [company]. What we discussed: [three bullet points]. What we agreed: [next step and date]. Write a follow-up email under 120 words that repeats their problem in their words and confirms the next step. No "hope this finds you well", no "just circling back".
8. [Name] hasn't replied to my proposal in 9 days. Here's what they said on our last call: [paste]. Write three short follow-ups I could send a week apart, each with something new: a question, a useful detail, and a polite "shall I close this off?"
9. Here's a follow-up email I've written: [paste]. Cut it by half, keep the next step and the date, and make it sound like one person talking to another.
Editing your own draft, as in prompt 9, often beats asking the AI to write from nothing. For ready-made emails, the follow-up email templates cover eight situations.
Objections
10. I sell [product] at [price range] to [buyer]. List the five objections I'm most likely to hear. For each: what the buyer probably means, one question to find the real reason, and a short answer that doesn't sound defensive.
11. A prospect just said "[their exact words]". Here's the context: [what they want, what they're comparing]. Give me three ways to reply, from softest to most direct, each under 40 words.
AI is good at listing objections and weak at knowing your buyer. Use its answers as a first draft, then check them against the ones in common sales objections and your own lost deals.
WhatsApp replies
Chat replies need to be short and sound like a person on a phone. Say so in the prompt, or you'll get an email.
12. A new enquiry on WhatsApp says: "[paste]". Write a reply under 50 words that answers their question and asks one question back to move things on. Friendly, no emoji, no sales language.
13. This buyer went quiet after I sent prices: [paste the last few messages]. Write a two-line follow-up that gives them something new and is easy to answer in one word.
14. Turn this message into three versions: warm, formal and very short. Keep the facts exactly as they are. Message: [paste]
Never paste a whole chat with someone's number and address in it. More on that below.
The weekly review
Most people skip the weekly review, so this is where a prompt earns its keep. To pick which numbers to count, sales activity metrics lists the six that predict revenue.
15. Here are my numbers for the week: [calls, conversations, meetings, proposals, deals]. Last week: [same]. My weekly target: [numbers]. In five lines, tell me where I'm behind, which step lost the most people, and one thing to change next week.
16. Here are my open deals with their stage and last contact date: [paste]. Which three have gone quiet the longest, and what's a reasonable next step for each?
17. Here's what I wrote about my week: [paste]. Ask me three questions that would help me see what I'm avoiding.
18. Here's my calendar for next week: [paste]. Where can I fit two 90-minute call blocks without moving client meetings?
If you write a reflection each Friday, the weekly reflection template gives you the questions, and prompt 17 pushes past the easy answers.
The weekly review prompts work better when the AI can see your week. ActivityTracker's Ask AI answers questions about your day from your own tasks, goals and calendar, and one tap turns the answer into tasks, a goal or time on your timetable.
Two prompts for editing any output
19. Rewrite this so it sounds like me. Here are two messages I've written myself: [paste]. Match the sentence length and the words I use. Remove anything I wouldn't say.
20. Check this draft for anything that's a guess, a promise I can't keep, or a number I haven't given you: [paste]. List each one.
How to edit what comes back
Treat every output as a draft from a new colleague who's quick but doesn't know your clients.
- Check every fact, name and number against your own notes. AI fills gaps with things that sound right.
- Read it out loud. If you wouldn't say it on a call, change it.
- Keep the prompt that worked in a note, with the output you actually sent. That's your prompt library.
What never to paste in
Before you paste anything, check what your company allows and what your AI tool does with what you type. Settings differ between tools and plans, so read your own tool's settings page.
Whatever the settings say, keep these out:
- Clients' ID numbers, bank details, health information or passwords.
- Full chat or email threads with phone numbers, addresses and names. Summarise them in your own words instead.
- Contracts or anything marked confidential, unless your company has approved the tool for it.
- Anything a client told you in confidence.
A simple habit covers most of it: write "the client" instead of the name, and describe the situation instead of pasting it.
Made-up example: a rep who sells office cleaning contracts tries AI prompts for one week.
Monday: she runs prompt 3 on her list of 40 prospects. It sorts them in two minutes, but it puts two clinics in "not a fit" because she forgot to say clinics are her best customers. She adds that line and runs it again.
Wednesday: prompt 7 writes her follow-up. It includes a start date the client never agreed to. She catches it on the read-through and adds prompt 20 to her routine.
Thursday: prompt 13 gets a reply from a buyer who'd been quiet for eight days.
Friday: she pastes her week's counts into prompt 15. It points out that she booked 6 meetings from 55 calls last week and only 3 from 60 this week, which she hadn't noticed, so next week she moves her calls back to the mornings.
She keeps five prompts in a note on her phone and drops the rest.
What to do first
- Pick the one job you most dislike: research, follow-ups or the weekly review.
- Copy the prompts for that job into a note and fill in your "who I sell to" line once.
- Use them for a week on real work, and check every output before it goes out.
- Keep the ones that saved time. Delete the rest.
- Add the next job the week after.