Sales Team Playbook

Why this matters

Sales teams send hundreds of emails a week. Most of that time goes on tasks that follow the same pattern: outreach, follow-up, proposal writing, meeting prep, CRM updates. Claude can cut the time spent on each of these by 60-80% — not by replacing judgement, but by handling the first draft so reps can focus on the relationship.

This lesson gives your sales team everything they need to be productive from day one: a ready-to-use Project system prompt and a tested prompt library for every common scenario.

Setting up the Sales Project

Before your team can use these prompts, IT creates a Claude Project with a system prompt that loads company context into every conversation. Users never have to re-explain who you are or what you sell.

Sales Project system prompt template

You are a sales assistant for [Company Name].

Company context:
- Products/services: [describe what you sell in 2-3 sentences]
- Target customers: [industry, company size, buyer persona]
- Average deal size: [GBP X] | Sales cycle: [X weeks]
- Key differentiators: [3 bullet points that matter to buyers]
- Pricing: [link or brief summary]
- Tone: professional, consultative. Ask questions before pitching. Never pushy.

Email guidelines:
- Subject lines under 50 characters
- Lead with value or relevance to the prospect, not product features
- Always include one clear next step (specific action, not "let me know")
- Sign off as: [First Name], [Title] at [Company]

Boundaries:
- Do not commit to pricing, delivery dates, or SLAs
- Do not disparage competitors
- If you do not know something, say so and suggest who to ask

Have a sales leader fill in the brackets before IT creates the Project. The quality of outputs scales directly with the specificity of this prompt.

Cold outreach

Draft a cold outreach email to [role] at [company type].
Context: [one sentence on why they are relevant]

Goal: get them to agree to a 20-minute discovery call.
Tone: warm and direct. Acknowledge they receive a lot of outreach.
Length: 150 words max. Include a subject line under 50 characters.

Full example:

Draft a cold outreach email to a Head of Operations at a 300-person
logistics company in the Midlands. They attended our AI in Supply Chain
webinar last Tuesday but have not booked a demo.

Goal: 20-minute call next week.
Tone: warm, direct, references the webinar topic specifically.
Length: 150 words max. Subject line under 50 characters.

Follow-up after no reply

Use after 5+ business days of silence. Add value, do not just check in.

I sent the email below [X] business days ago with no reply.

Write a one-paragraph follow-up that adds a new angle — a relevant case
study, a stat, or a fresh insight — rather than just bumping the thread.
Keep it under 100 words. New subject line.

[paste original email]

Replying to an inbound inquiry

A prospect emailed asking about [their question/need]. Here is their message:

[paste their email]

Write a reply that:
- Acknowledges their specific question
- Gives a helpful, concise answer
- Moves toward a discovery call without being pushy
- Ends with one clear next step

Tone: knowledgeable and helpful. Max 200 words.

Proposal executive summary

Write the executive summary for a proposal to [Company Name].

Their situation: [2-3 sentences on their problem]
Our solution: [what we are proposing]
Key outcome: [the measurable result they will get]
ROI: [key numbers if known]

Format: 3 short paragraphs. No bullet points.
Audience: [CEO / CFO / buying committee]
Tone: confident and specific. No phrases like "we are pleased to present".

Handling pricing objections

The prospect said: "[their exact words about price or budget]"

Write 3 different response options for a follow-up email:
1. Empathetic — acknowledge the constraint, plant a seed for next cycle
2. ROI reframe — challenge whether the status quo is actually cheaper
3. Smaller start — suggest a reduced-scope engagement to get going

Each response: max 4 sentences. No template-sounding language.

CRM note from a sales call

Write a CRM note from this sales call. Include:
- Key pain points the prospect mentioned
- Their buying process (decision makers, timeline)
- Next steps agreed
- Objections or concerns raised
- Recommended follow-up action and timing

Factual and specific. No filler. Max 200 words.

[paste your rough notes or transcript]

Meeting prep brief

I have a [length] discovery call tomorrow with [role] at [company].
How they came to us: [inbound, referral, outbound, event]

Prepare:
- 5 discovery questions to understand their situation and pain
- 3 questions about their decision-making process
- How to position our product for this specific buyer persona
- 2-3 objections to anticipate and a one-line response to each

What to use Claude for — and what not to

Claude is excellent for writing, reframing, and thinking through approaches. It does not know your live pipeline, real customer histories, or negotiated pricing.

Use Claude for: drafting emails and proposals, preparing for calls, writing CRM notes, objection frameworks.

Do not use Claude to: send emails automatically (review every output before sending), store sensitive deal financials, make commitments on behalf of the company.

Rolling this out to the team

The biggest adoption barrier is trust — reps worry they will sound generic. Fix it in the first training session: bring real emails that need writing, use Claude live, then edit the output to each rep's own voice. After one session where they see their own words improved, not replaced, most become advocates.

Set up a shared channel where reps post prompts that worked well. Within two weeks you will have a team-built prompt library far richer than anything written top-down.

See also: M64-L2 (Configuring Projects), M64-L4 (Shared Styles and Templates)