BY Jessica Helinski
Do you know how to write effective AI prompts for sales success? If not, you’re missing out on opportunities to make the most out of these powerful sales assistants.
Many reps say they use AI for a variety of tasks, according to SalesFuel’s Voice of the Sales Rep, including:
- Customer research and business intelligence – 31%
- Internal data analysis – 28%
- Conversation intelligence – 28%
- Client help/support – 26%
- Task automation – 26%
But use doesn’t always translate to success. The survey also found that sellers struggle with AI. Sellers report needing more/better training on how to sell with AI while only 23% say they understand its value to their success.
This is where understanding how creating effective prompts, also known as “prompt engineering,” impacts just how well AI works for you.
"Prompt engineering is becoming a key sales skill because better prompts lead to better insights, stronger messaging, and more effective customer outreach," explains Denise Gibson, director of AdMall sales.
How can sellers craft AI prompts for sales success?
“…Prompt engineering is just a simple phrase that means learning to prompt well,” explains Close’s Kaleigh Moore.
“You’re simply learning how to use today’s AI tools well enough to get your time back. (And stay ahead of the curve.)”
She goes on to explain how sellers can write prompts that lead to valuable, helpful AI output. First, it’s important to understand what she calls the primary three pillars of winning AI prompts for sales.
Context
For AI to help you, it must understand what you need and why. Context is important when writing prompts because it gives the tool a foundation for your request.
Without enough background information, the tool will likely deliver an output that doesn’t align with your goal.
The more relevant details you provide, such as the objective, audience, requirements, limitations, and examples, the better AI can understand the situation and tailor its response to meet your needs.
Clarity
Sellers must be clear when crafting AI prompts. These tools need clear direction to produce reliable results. When important details, parameters or constraints are missing, the tool may fill in the gaps on its own. This can lead to inaccurate or misleading outputs.
Creativity
Moore points out that assigning a role to the AI tool can help it provide more relevant content.
“AI does well when you tell it to role play…let it wear a hat,” she writes.
“Is it a sales coach today? A plumber poring through CRM data to find leaky workflows? Before you tell it precisely what to do, tell your AI tool what role you want it to play first.”
With that in mind, consider using this structure when crafting each prompt:
- Task: Tell the AI what to do and what output you need. For example, “Draft an email…” gives the tool its main instruction.
- Context: Explain the purpose and desired outcome. Adding details like “Your goal is to book a quick intro call” helps the AI understand the objective and role it should take.
- References: Provide examples of format you want so the AI knows what a successful response looks like.
- Evaluate: Review the first response and identify what works and what needs improvement.
- Iterate: Adjust your prompt with more details or clearer instructions, then try again to improve the output.
Don’t lose your human voice
One of the biggest challenges when using AI is keeping that distinctly human voice. You don’t want to sound generic or robotic, which often happens with AI-generated content.
In fact, SalesFuel found that a quarter of buyers say that they’ve received emails that look like they’ve been written by AI. And 28% say the same about online content they’ve seen.
Moore urges sellers to include reference to tone and style in their prompts. For example, she suggests a prompt like this to keep a human touch:
“Write a 90-word email for a VP of Sales in the logistics space referencing a recent hiring push. Keep tone warm and credible, no buzzwords.”
Keep in mind that AI is only as useful as the direction you give it. Learning how to communicate clearly with AI allows you to solve problems faster, improve your processes, and better prepare for important conversations.
The more you understand how to use AI, the more it can support your success. By incorporating these best practices, you’ll be able to write more effective AI prompts for sales success.
Photo by Zulfugar Karimov on Unsplash
