Prompt Writing 101 for Sales

Revenue-driven professionals need prompt writing skills because clear, concise, and compelling communication directly impacts their ability to influence outcomes, build relationships, and drive results. This white paper will explore the importance of prompt writing in sales, identify specific challenges, and propose actionable solutions.

Problem 1: Engaging Prospects and Clients Effectively

Prompt writing skills enable professionals to craft messages that resonate with their audience, whether it’s cold outreach, proposals, or follow-up communication. Tailored prompts make interactions more relevant, which increases the likelihood of engagement.

Prompt for Personalization Matrix-Based Outreach Email:

“Write a personalized outreach email tailored to [specific audience, e.g., marketing managers in SaaS companies], using a personalization matrix to address their key pain points. Begin by acknowledging a common challenge they face, such as [example pain point, e.g., ‘streamlining lead generation while reducing costs’]. Share an actionable insight or tip they can implement independently, showcasing your understanding of their needs. Conclude with a subtle transition that highlights how your solution has helped similar companies achieve success. Maintain a tone that is professional, approachable, and value-driven. Limit the email to 150 words.”

Problem 2: Personalizing Faster

With LLM tools like ChatGPT and askSSL.ai, well-designed prompts can generate personalized responses, outreach emails, or content ideas that align with the recipient’s needs, pain points, and goals. This balances efficiency with the personalization necessary for meaningful interactions.

Actionable Step: Develop a list of common challenges and create tailored responses using AI tools.

Here are three prompts tailored for different client profiles to generate personalized outreach:

Prompt for a Mid-Level Decision Maker in a Tech Startup

“Generate a personalized LinkedIn message for a mid-level decision maker (e.g., Product Manager) at a tech startup. Their company recently launched a new AI-driven product, and they have posted about challenges in scaling user adoption. Mention their recent post, empathize with the challenge, and briefly introduce a solution that improves adoption metrics without adding to their workload. End with an invitation to discuss further.”

Prompt for a Senior Executive in an Enterprise Company

“Write an outreach email for a senior executive (e.g., CFO) in a Fortune 500 company in the retail sector. Focus on their company’s recent sustainability initiative, highlighted in a press release, and connect it to how our solutions reduce operational costs while supporting green practices. Keep the tone professional, acknowledge their leadership in sustainability, and suggest a brief call to explore potential synergies.”

Prompt for a Small Business Owner in the Hospitality Industry

“You are an [Expert in Industry]. Create a friendly and approachable email for a small business owner (e.g., restaurant owner) in the hospitality industry who recently mentioned staffing challenges on social media. Reference their post, empathize with the issue, and explain how our software helps streamline scheduling and reduce administrative burdens. End with an offer for a free demo or consultation to show how it works.”

Problem 3: Improving Marketing and Sales Alignment

Clear prompts help teams generate insights, messaging, or content that aligns with the brand voice and objectives. Revenue professionals can use these prompts to streamline collaboration between marketing and sales.

Actionable Step: Conduct bi-weekly alignment meetings to co-create prompts that reflect brand voice. Consider strategies from Tailored Swift for effective personalization.

Prompt to Personalize a Message Job Aid

“You are an [Expert in Industry]. Develop a customized message job aid for a sales team based on specific marketing insights. The aid should outline key messages tailored to the target audience, industry, or persona, along with corresponding sales strategies. Include the following: a brief description of the marketing insight, its relevance to the sales process, precise messaging aligned with the buyer’s needs, and actionable sales strategies to capitalize on the insight. Ensure the aid is easy to use during pre-call preparation or client interactions. Format it in a clear and concise way to maximize usability.”

Problem 4: Optimizing Social Selling Content

Professionals leveraging platforms like LinkedIn need prompts that produce high-quality posts, comments, and direct messages. Strong prompt writing ensures their digital presence builds trust, demonstrates expertise, and nurtures leads.

Personalized Prompt for Optimizing Social Selling Content

“You are an [Expert in Industry]. Create engaging social media posts for [specific audience or industry, e.g., ‘B2B sales professionals’ or ‘small business owners in hospitality’]. Each post should start with a compelling statistic or thought-provoking question relevant to the audience’s challenges or interests. Follow with a practical tip or insight that provides immediate value. End with an encouraging call to action that inspires the audience to engage further (e.g., comment, share, explore a resource, or connect). Ensure the tone is [specific tone, e.g., ‘professional yet approachable’ or ‘inspirational and actionable’].”

Problem 5: Reducing Friction in Communication

Precise prompts eliminate ambiguity, helping to generate content, reports, or analyses quickly. This allows professionals to spend more time on high-value activities like relationship-building and closing deals.

Personalized Prompt for Clear Communication Checklist and Exercise

“You are an [Expert in Industry]. Develop a practical checklist to ensure clear and concise communication in professional emails and reports. The checklist should focus on key elements such as logical structure, brevity, eliminating jargon, ensuring a clear call to action, and proper formatting for readability. Include tips for tailoring the tone to the audience and purpose of the message. As an exercise, select a recent email or report and use the checklist to identify areas for improvement. Revise the document to enhance clarity and conciseness while maintaining professionalism and alignment with the intended message.”

Problem 6: Empowering Data-Driven Decision Making

Revenue professionals often need insights or analytics to guide their strategies. Well-crafted prompts can extract actionable data, generate forecasts, or summarize trends effectively.

Personalized Prompt for Data-Driven Decision Making

“You are an [Expert in Industry]. Develop a set of prompts to generate concise and insightful performance reports based on specific key performance indicators (KPIs). Each prompt should focus on summarizing the past month’s performance, highlighting achievements, areas for improvement, and identifying emerging trends. Ensure the prompts are tailored for specific metrics such as [list relevant metrics, e.g., ‘sales revenue,’ ‘customer acquisition rate,’ or ‘social media engagement’]. Include prompts that guide the analysis to answer critical questions, such as: What were the key drivers of success? Which areas underperformed, and why? What trends should we monitor moving forward? Design the prompts to support data-driven decision-making and easy sharing with stakeholders.”

Problem 7: Creating Compelling Narratives

Whether pitching a solution, presenting ROI, or negotiating, storytelling plays a pivotal role. Prompt writing skills help craft narratives that connect logically and emotionally with stakeholders.

Personalized Prompt for Storytelling Practice in Mock Pitch Sessions

“You are a top expert and coach in [Industry]. Design a mock pitch emphasizing storytelling techniques to captivate and engage your audience. Focus on incorporating a clear problem-solution narrative highlighting the prospect’s key challenge, the emotional and financial impact of not addressing it, and your solution as the ideal remedy.

For the exercise, outline the pitch in three sections:

*The Problem: [Start by describing a relatable scenario or pain point that aligns with your audience’s experience.]
*The Solution: [Transition into how your product or service resolves the problem, using specific benefits and outcomes.]
*The Outcome: [End with a compelling vision of success, including metrics or examples of similar client results.]

Practice delivering the pitch in a mock session, focusing on tone, pace, and emotional connection.”

Problem 8: Enhancing Team Training and Development

For internal use, skilled prompt writing can help professionals generate training materials, role-play scenarios, and best practices, fostering growth and consistency across teams.

Prompt for Developing Training Prompts for Onboarding Sales Reps

“You are an [Expert in Industry]. Create a set of role-play scenario prompts designed for onboarding new sales reps. Each prompt should define a specific sales situation, such as handling objections, conducting discovery calls, or presenting a solution. Clearly outline the learning objectives for each scenario (e.g., building confidence, practicing objection handling, mastering product knowledge). Include step-by-step guidance for the role-play, such as setting the scene, defining the roles (rep and prospect), and providing sample dialogue or challenges the rep may face. Ensure the scenarios are realistic and tailored to common situations in [specific industry or product]. Focus on helping reps develop practical skills they can apply immediately in their roles.”

Problem 9: Adaptability to AI Tools

As AI tools become more integral to sales and marketing processes, the ability to write effective prompts ensures professionals maximize these tools’ potential, maintaining a competitive edge in the market.

Prompt for Engaging in AI Training to Refine Prompt-Writing Skills

“Participate in an AI training session to enhance your prompt-writing skills. Focus on crafting prompts that yield clear, actionable, and varied outputs for specific sales tasks. Practice by developing a prompt for generating a sales email tailored to a particular audience or goal, such as booking a meeting, nurturing a lead, or introducing a new product. For the exercise, use an AI tool to generate five distinct variations of the sales email based on the same prompt. Analyze the outputs for tone, clarity, and effectiveness, and refine the prompt to improve consistency and relevance. Document lessons learned to inform future prompt writing.”

Prompt writing isn’t just a technical skill—it’s a strategic enabler that helps revenue-driven professionals amplify their impact in every interaction. Mastering the art of prompt writing allows sales teams to initiate trust-based conversations without being overly salesy, leading to better engagement, higher conversion rates, and improved overall performance.

Looking for help building your prompt? Request a demo for askSSL.ai and Brynne Tillman will be happy to write a custom prompt for you!

Also, check out the Ultimate Guide to Prompt Writing for Sales Professionals to enhance your skills further, and listen to the podcasts on AI for Sales Success as well as ChatGPT Prompting for Sales for more insights.

Want to harness the power of AI and LinkedIn for social selling?
Follow Brynne Tillman, Bob Woods, and Stan Robinson, Jr.
for cutting-edge tips and strategies.