From the book · Unleash Your Business With AI
Chapter 6: Prompts that work
The 5 prompts from Chapter 6, ready to copy, with the chapter's mistakes to avoid and three tasks for this week.
The five parts
[Paste your business note from Chapter 5] Role: You are a senior sales executive at a [jewellery / garments / electronics] wholesaler. Facts: A retailer in [city] saw our [product range] at [a trade show / our showroom] on [date]. They showed interest in [what they liked, or "nothing specific"]. They have not ordered or replied since. Task: Write a follow-up WhatsApp message to this retailer. Format: Under 60 words. Polite, no pressure, no emojis. One clear question at the end. Limits: Do not mention any price, discount, scheme, stock position or delivery date. Do not use the words "just following up". Do not invent anything about the retailer or about what they saw. If you need a fact I have not given, ask me first. Example of our tone (a past message of ours, with names removed): "[paste one message you sent that worked well]"
What you should get back: one message under 60 words in your tone, or a question about a missing fact.
Check: the city, the product and the date. Check that nothing was promised. Then add the retailer's name yourself in WhatsApp and send. Chapter 8 builds the full follow-up schedule around messages like this one.
That's the first one
Open the rest, free
Enter your email once and every prompt page and guide on this site opens.
- Limits make a prompt safe to share
- Let the AI interview you
- Let AI improve your prompt
- Ask it to argue against you
- Mistakes to avoid
- Do this week
Let the AI interview you
[Paste your business note] I need to write [what you need, for example "a notice to retailers about our revised credit terms" or "a job post for a dispatch supervisor"]. Before you write anything, interview me. Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer. Ask only what you need to do this job well: who will read it, what they should do after reading it, the facts and dates, the tone, and anything I must not say. Stop after 8 questions at most. Then write a first draft using only my answers and my business note. Under the draft, list every assumption you had to make, so that I can correct it. Do not ask me for customer names, phone numbers or other personal details.
What you should get back: up to eight questions, one at a time, then a draft and a list of assumptions.
Check: read the assumptions first. Each one is a place where the AI filled a gap on its own. Correct those, then read the draft.
Let AI improve your prompt
Here is a prompt I use in my business: "[paste your prompt]" Check it against these five parts: role, facts, task, format, limits. Also check whether it includes an example of our tone. 1. Tell me which parts are missing or vague. 2. Ask me up to 5 questions to fill the gaps, one at a time. 3. Then rewrite the prompt so that anyone in my team can reuse it every week by changing only the parts in [square brackets]. 4. Keep every limit I wrote. If my prompt has no line that forbids inventing prices, dates or facts, add one.
What you should get back: a short diagnosis, a few questions and a reusable prompt with clear brackets.
Check: run the new prompt once on a real task before anyone else uses it.
Ask it to argue against you
[Paste your business note] I am planning to [describe the decision, for example "appoint a second distributor for Karnataka" or "stop taking orders below our minimum quantity"]. My reasons: [list your reasons] What I know about the costs and risks: [list them, using rough ranges if you prefer not to share exact figures] Act as a sceptical, experienced business adviser who wants me to succeed but thinks this may be a mistake. 1. Give me the 5 strongest arguments against this decision. 2. List the assumptions I am making that I have not tested. 3. Imagine it is a year later and the decision has failed. Give the 3 most likely reasons. 4. Suggest one small, low-cost way to test the idea before I commit. 5. List the questions I should answer with my own data before deciding. Be direct. Do not soften your points. Do not invent facts or figures about my market. Where you are guessing, say so. Do not tell me what to decide.
What you should get back: objections, untested assumptions, a failure story, a small test and a list of questions.
Check: treat every point as a question for you, not as a finding. The AI does not know your market. Anything that sounds like a fact about your customers or competitors has to be verified by you. The decision stays with you, and money, tax and legal questions go to your CA and your lawyer.
Mistakes to avoid
- Asking in one line and blaming the tool. A generic question gets a generic answer.
- Ten tasks in one prompt. One prompt, one job. Ask for the caption and the price analysis separately.
- Leaving out the limits because they are obvious. They are obvious to you. Write them in.
- Pasting a tone example that still has a customer's name and number in it. Clean the example like any other paste.
- Keeping the best prompts in private chats. If only one person can find it, the business does not have it.
- Reading the "argue against me" answer as market research. It is a list of questions to check, written by something that has never met your customers.
Do this week
- Pick one task you repeat every week and build a prompt for it with the five steps in "Build your own in one sitting". Run it on a real case from today.
- Run the "improve my prompt" prompt on the result. Save the final version in a shared sheet with the five columns and the safety line at the top.
- Take one decision you are about to make and run the "argue against me" prompt. Write down the one assumption you will test before you commit.