A good B2B sales prompt states the role, the commercial goal, the customer context, the output format and the constraints. With those five pieces, ChatGPT or Claude can prepare a call, summarise a meeting or draft a cold email in another language. The key is to give real context, always review the result and never paste confidential data.
What should a prompt include to help you sell better?
Anthropic's guide for Claude suggests treating the AI as a brilliant but brand-new employee who knows nothing about your company or habits. The same goes for ChatGPT. The test is simple: if a colleague with no context would be confused by your instruction, so will the AI.
A sales prompt works well with this structure:
- Role: "Act as a sales director at a [sector] company that exports to [country]".
- Goal: what you want to achieve (a meeting, a reply, a sample order).
- Context: who the customer is, what you sell and what you already know about the relationship.
- Format: length, language, tone, list or table.
- Constraints: what it must not invent or promise.
Explaining the reason behind each instruction helps too: "a buyer who receives 50 emails a day will read this, so 90 words maximum" works better than "be brief".
How do you research an account before contacting it?
Ask the AI to help you think, not to be your only source. Template:
"Act as a sales analyst. We sell [product] to [type of company]. Using this public information about the company [paste text from their website], tell me: what it does, which customers it serves, what needs it might have that fit our offer, and three questions to find out whether we are relevant. Flag what is your inference and what comes from the text".
Always verify important facts on the company's website or in reliable sources. Models can be wrong, so keep what appears in the text separate from what is assumption. This research works better if you have first defined your ideal B2B customer.
Which prompt helps prepare a sales call?
"I am going to call [job title] at [company] to [goal]. Here is what I know: [notes]. Prepare for me: a 20-second opening, five discovery questions, three likely objections with an honest answer to each, and a close that proposes a concrete next step".
A useful trick is to ask it to play a sceptical buyer and raise objections so you can rehearse. Then adapt the answers to your own way of speaking: a script read aloud sounds like a script.
How do you write a cold email in another language with AI?
"Write a cold email in [language] for [job title] at a [sector] company in [country]. Goal: get a 15-minute call. Include one specific reason I am writing [fact], a one-sentence value proposition and a single request. Maximum 90 words, professional and direct tone, no exaggerated adjectives".
Then ask for a second pass: "Review the text as a native speaker from [country] would and tell me what sounds artificial". If the campaign matters, have someone fluent in the language read it before sending. To scale this work with a method, see our guide to lead generation with AI.
How do you summarise a meeting and set next steps?
"Summarise these meeting notes into: decisions made, commitments with owner and date, open questions and risks. Then write a 100-word follow-up email for the customer. If a detail is missing, write 'pending' instead of assuming it".
That last sentence matters: forcing the AI to flag what is missing reduces invention.
What data should you never paste into an AI tool?
Before using these templates, set an internal rule. According to the European Commission, personal data is any information about an identifiable person, such as a name, a work email with first name and surname or an IP address, and the GDPR applies whatever the technology. Read more in the European Commission's explanation of personal data. Spain's data protection authority (AEPD) also notes that an AI component may process personal data at different stages and must comply with the GDPR; see its guide on AI and the GDPR (in Spanish).
Practical rules for your team:
- Do not paste contracts, confidential price lists, bank details or customer lists without an explicit company decision.
- Replace names with placeholders ("Customer A", "Distributor 1") when the analysis does not need them.
- Check the terms and privacy settings of each tool, and use business versions if you handle sensitive information.
- A person reviews everything that goes out to a customer.
How Vycte helps you
At Vycte we train sales and export teams to use ChatGPT and Claude in their real work: prospecting, call preparation and communication in several languages. Learn about AI training for companies and our training service, which may be eligible for FUNDAE subsidies. If you would like to talk first, get in touch.
Frequently asked questions
Do the same prompts work for ChatGPT and Claude? Yes, the templates work in both because they rely on giving context, a goal and a format. Each tool responds with different nuances, so test and adjust with your own cases.
Can I send the email the AI writes without reviewing it? It is not advisable. Check facts, tone and figures, and if the language is not your own, have someone fluent read it before sending.
Is it safe to paste customer information into these tools? It depends on the data and on the tool's terms. Avoid personal and confidential data unless your company has assessed it under the GDPR, and anonymise whenever you can.
