ChatGPT and Claude Prompts for Sales and SDRs: 25 Prompts for Cold Email, Calls, Follow-ups, Objections and Proposals

Updated

The best sales prompts carry your context: who you sell to, what it costs them not to buy, and what a good next step looks like. Below are 25 prompts that work in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot, grouped by deal stage - prospecting, cold email and LinkedIn, calls and demos, objections and negotiation, proposals and forecasting. None of them repeat the 10 on our prompts for sales page, so the two sets stack. You also get the seven-part sales script, a direct answer on how AI handles prospect research, and a table showing the point where a prompt stops being enough and a skill file starts paying for itself.

Updated 15 September 2026. Product names and prices were read from the live product pages on the day of writing; the product page is always the authority if they ever drift apart.

How do AI sales agents research a prospect before sending outreach?

They do not go and look. This is the single most common misunderstanding, and it is worth being blunt about: a skill or agent file running inside Claude or ChatGPT has no connection to your CRM, your sales engagement platform, LinkedIn or a data provider. It researches what you paste in, and nothing else.

What it does with that material is the actual value, and it happens in four steps:

  1. You supply the raw evidence. The job posts, the funding announcement, the LinkedIn About section, the last quarter's earnings call, the CRM notes from the previous owner of the account.
  2. It extracts trigger events - the changes that make your category relevant now rather than in general - and ranks them by how strong the signal is.
  3. It maps that to the buying committee: which role feels this trigger, what they are measured on, what they will be afraid of, and who blocks.
  4. It writes the opener from the strongest trigger, in one or two specific sentences rather than a paragraph proving you did homework.

So the research is real, but the inputs are yours. If you paste nothing, a model will produce plausible-sounding research about a company it knows nothing current about, and outreach built on it will be confidently wrong in front of a prospect. Prompt 2 below is the version of this you can run today; a skill file is the version that remembers your ICP so you stop re-explaining it.

How to get good output from sales prompts

  • Fill every bracket fully. Paste evidence - the job post, the About section, the CRM note - not adjectives like "a fintech company".
  • Ask for options plus a recommendation. A model asked for one answer gives you one answer and hides the reasoning.
  • Set the format. Word limits and "plain text, no headings" stop an email being padded into a brochure.
  • Ban the tells. No "I hope this finds you well", no "I came across your profile", no fake RE: subject lines. Say so explicitly or you will get them.
  • Notice the repetition. If you paste the same ICP every morning, that is the signal to move it into a skill file, which stores it once.

Group 1: prospecting and list building

These build the list and the reason to reach out.

Prompt 1 · ICP definitionAct as a B2B sales strategist. We sell [product] to [market]. Our five best customers are [list companies and why they bought]. Our three worst-fit customers were [list and why they churned]. Write an ideal customer profile with: firmographics (size, industry, geography), technographics, trigger events that signal buying intent, three buyer personas with their KPI and their pain, and five disqualifiers. Keep it to one page.
Prompt 2 · Trigger event scanI am prospecting [company]. Here is recent public information: [paste news, funding, hiring posts, product launches, job descriptions]. List every trigger event that makes [our product category] more relevant right now, rank them by strength, and for the top two write one sentence I could use as an opener that references the event without sounding like a press release.
Prompt 3 · Account tieringHere is a list of [number] target accounts with the fields [fields available]: [paste list]. Score each account 1 to 5 on fit against this ICP: [paste ICP]. Then score 1 to 5 on likely intent using the signals present. Return a table sorted by combined score, and tell me which 10 accounts to work first and why.
Prompt 4 · Buying committee mapFor a [deal size] deal selling [product] into a [company size, industry] company, map the likely buying committee. For each role list: title variants, what they care about, what they fear, the question they will ask in the first meeting, and whether they are a champion, decision maker, influencer or blocker. Then suggest which role I should contact first and why.
Prompt 5 · Referral askWrite a short message to [existing customer contact], who has been a customer for [time] and achieved [result]. Ask for an introduction to [target role] at [target company or type of company]. Make it easy to say yes: include a two-line forwardable blurb they can paste, and offer an out if they are not comfortable. Under 100 words.
Top of funnel, one file
Liam - SDR AI Skill
Liam - SDR AI Skill
$19once, keep the file vs $0/mono subscription

Account research, personalised sequences, reply handling and meeting booking, with your ICP and tone held in the file rather than pasted each morning. It still works on what you give it - see the research answer above.

View Liam →

Group 2: cold email and LinkedIn

The landing page covers the email variants and the follow-up sequence, so these handle the pieces around them.

Prompt 6 · Subject line testerHere is my cold email: [paste]. Write 10 subject lines under 45 characters. Mix four styles: a question, a specific number or detail, an internal-sounding lowercase line, and a plain statement of the topic. Mark which three you would A/B test first and explain in one line each what hypothesis they test. No clickbait, no fake replies (no RE: or FW:).
Prompt 7 · LinkedIn connection and first messageWrite a LinkedIn connection note (under 200 characters) and a first message to send after they accept (under 60 words) for [prospect name, title, company]. Context: [what they posted or what their company did]. Goal: a low-pressure conversation, not a meeting request in message one. No flattery, no 'I came across your profile'.
Prompt 8 · Reply to a soft noThe prospect replied: '[paste reply, e.g. not a priority right now, we already use X, send me info]'. Write a reply that acknowledges what they said, adds one specific piece of value related to [their situation], and proposes a light next step. Under 80 words. Then write a one-line calendar note telling me when to follow up and with what.
Prompt 9 · Breakup emailWrite the final email in a sequence to [prospect] after [number] unanswered touches about [topic]. Tone: respectful, no guilt, no 'just checking in'. Offer a clear reason to reply now if it is relevant, and leave the door open for later. Under 70 words. Give me two versions: one direct, one with light humour appropriate for [industry].
Prompt 10 · Sequence auditHere is my current outbound sequence: [paste all steps with timing]. Audit it as a senior SDR manager. For each step, say what it is trying to do, whether it earns a reply, and how to fix it. Flag anything that sounds like a template, any step that asks for too much too early, and any timing gap that is too short or too long. Then rewrite the weakest step.
Best for cold email
Zoe - Cold Email Copywriter AI Skill
Zoe - Cold Email Copywriter AI Skill
$19once, keep the file vs $0/mono subscription

Writes and iterates whole sequences rather than single emails, which is where most outbound actually breaks - step four sounding like step one with a different verb.

View Zoe →

If you would rather be walked through research, drafting and personalisation in one pass, George - AI Cold Email Agent ($39) runs it as a workflow instead of a set of prompts.

Group 3: call scripts and demos

These build each part of the call so you sound prepared without sounding scripted.

Prompt 11 · Cold call opener and permissionWrite a cold call opener for [prospect title] at [company]. Include: how I introduce myself in one sentence, a permission-based line that gives them an easy out, and a reason for the call tied to [trigger or observation]. Then write three variants of what to say if they say 'I only have a minute'. Total under 60 seconds of speech.
Prompt 12 · Discovery call agendaBuild a 30-minute discovery call agenda for a first meeting with [prospect role] at [company]. Include: a 60-second opener, an agenda I state up front and confirm, three sections of discovery (current state, impact, decision process), and a five-minute close that agrees next steps. For each section give me the goal, two questions, and what a good answer sounds like.
Prompt 13 · Demo storylineI am demoing [product] to [audience roles] who care about [top two priorities from discovery]. Design a 20-minute demo storyline: start with their problem in their words, show no more than three capabilities, each framed as 'before, after, proof', and end with a summary and a next step. Tell me which features to leave out and why.
Prompt 14 · Live objection cheat sheetCreate a one-page cheat sheet for a call with [prospect]. List the seven most likely objections for [product] sold to [role] in [industry]. For each: a one-line acknowledgement, a clarifying question, and a 30-word response with a proof point I can fill in from [our customer results]. Format as a table I can keep on a second screen.
Prompt 15 · Voicemail scriptWrite a voicemail script for [prospect] at [company], under 20 seconds when spoken. Say who I am, give one specific reason for calling tied to [observation], and tell them I will send an email so they do not need to call back. Then write the two-line email that references the voicemail.
Best for pitch and demo
Felix - Sales Pitch Writer AI Skill
Felix - Sales Pitch Writer AI Skill
$19once, keep the file vs $0/mono subscription

Turns discovery notes into a storyline, a talk track and objection notes. Its most useful habit is telling you which features to leave out, which is the hard part of a demo.

View Felix →

The seven-part sales script

Use this structure for any call. Each part has a job; if one is failing, fix that part rather than rewriting the whole script.

  1. Opener. Who you are, why you are calling, and a permission line. Fifteen seconds, one breath.
  2. Agenda. What you plan to cover and how long it will take. Ask what they want to add. This is where the prospect decides whether you are organised.
  3. Discovery. Current state, what it costs them, who else is involved, what they have tried. Questions in a logical order, and you let the silence work.
  4. Pitch. Reflect back what you heard, then show the two or three things that address it. Nothing else.
  5. Objections. Acknowledge, clarify, respond, check. Do not defend. A good objection is a request for more information.
  6. Close. Summarise agreed value in their words. Ask directly for the decision or the step you want.
  7. Next step. A date, an owner and a deliverable. Send the recap within the hour.

Group 4: objections and negotiation

These go deeper into the specific conversations that stall deals.

Prompt 16 · Price objectionThe prospect said: '[paste, e.g. it is too expensive, we do not have budget this quarter]'. Our price is [price and structure]. Their situation: [what discovery uncovered about cost of the problem]. Write a response that reframes price against the cost of the problem, offers one clarifying question to find out if this is a value or a timing issue, and proposes two paths forward without discounting.
Prompt 17 · Competitor comparisonThe prospect is also evaluating [competitor]. Based on what I know: [paste their priorities and what they said about the competitor]. Write a fair comparison I can say out loud that acknowledges where [competitor] is strong, states where we fit their priorities better, and avoids any claim I cannot back up. Then give me three questions that help the buyer notice the differences themselves.
Prompt 18 · Concession tradeI am negotiating a [deal size] deal. They asked for [request, e.g. 20 percent off, net 90 terms, free onboarding]. Our walk-away is [limit]. List what I could ask for in return (longer term, case study, earlier start, additional seats, reference call), rank by value to us, and write the sentence that proposes the trade so it sounds like a partnership, not a haggle.
Prompt 19 · Champion enablementMy champion [name, role] needs to sell this internally to [decision maker role] who cares about [priority]. Write a one-page internal memo the champion can forward as their own: the problem, the options considered, the recommendation, the cost, the risk of doing nothing, and the ask. Plain language, no marketing tone, no mention of me.
Prompt 20 · Procurement and legal pushbackProcurement returned our contract with these requests: [paste]. For each one explain in plain English what they are asking for, whether it is standard, what the business risk is if we accept, and a reasonable counter position. Flag anything I should escalate to legal rather than answer myself. This is not legal advice; I will confirm with counsel.
Best for the full deal cycle
Grace - Account Executive AI Skill
Grace - Account Executive AI Skill
$19once, keep the file vs $0/mono subscription

Objection handling, concession trades, champion memos and proposals in one method, so late-stage answers stay consistent instead of depending on how your week is going.

View Grace →

Group 5: proposals, forecasting and pipeline hygiene

Late stage is about clarity: a proposal the buyer can approve, and a forecast your manager believes.

Prompt 21 · Proposal outline from discoveryHere are my discovery notes: [paste]. Turn them into a proposal outline with: a one-paragraph problem statement in the buyer's words, three objectives with a measurable target each, the recommended scope, what is out of scope, a timeline, pricing options (good, better, best), assumptions, and a decision date. Flag any gap in my notes I need to fill before writing the full proposal.
Prompt 22 · Mutual action planCreate a mutual action plan for [deal] with target signature on [date]. List every step from today to go-live: technical validation, security review, legal, procurement, executive sign-off, onboarding kick-off. For each, assign an owner (us or them), a due date working backwards from [date], and a dependency. Format as a table I can paste into an email.
Prompt 23 · Forecast call prepHere is my pipeline for [period]: [paste deals with stage, amount, close date, last activity, next step]. For each deal classify as commit, best case or pipeline with a one-line reason based on evidence, not hope. Flag any deal with no next step or no activity in 14 days. Then write the three sentences I will say in the forecast call about my number.
Prompt 24 · Deal risk reviewReview this deal: [paste notes, stakeholders, timeline, competition, budget status]. Score it against these six factors: pain identified, champion confirmed, decision process known, budget confirmed, competition understood, compelling event. For each factor say confirmed, partial or unknown with evidence. Give the deal an overall risk rating and the one action that reduces risk most this week.
Prompt 25 · Pipeline cleanupHere is my CRM export: [paste deals with stage, close date, last activity, notes]. Identify deals that should be closed lost (no activity in 45 days, no next step, contact left), deals with unrealistic close dates, and deals in the wrong stage based on their notes. For each, propose the change and write the one-line CRM note. Summarise how the pipeline number changes after cleanup.

If forecast calls are a weekly pain, Hannah - Sales Forecasting Analyst AI Skill ($19) applies the same scoring method every week instead of a fresh judgement call, and Zbigniew - AI Lead Qualification & Deal Scoring Agent ($39) scores inbound leads before they reach your pipeline at all.

Prompt, template or skill: which one for which task

A prompt is right when the task is occasional and the context changes every time. A template is right when the wording is stable and only the names change. A skill file is right when you do the task most days and want the model to already hold your ICP, your tone rules and your frameworks. This table maps everything above to the fastest option.

Task Prompt Template Skill or agent
Define ICP and tier accounts 1, 3 ICP one-pager Anouk - Outbound Sales Coach ($19)
Research and personalise outreach 2, 4 Account research brief Liam - SDR AI Skill ($19) or Roland - AI SDR Agent ($39)
Write cold email and LinkedIn 6 to 10 Sequence skeleton Zoe - Cold Email Copywriter ($19) or George - AI Cold Email Agent ($39)
Run calls and demos 11 to 15 Seven-part sales script Felix - Sales Pitch Writer ($19)
Handle objections and negotiate 16 to 20 Objection cheat sheet Grace - Account Executive ($19)
Proposals and mutual action plan 21, 22 Proposal outline Grace - Account Executive ($19)
Forecast and pipeline hygiene 23 to 25 Deal review scorecard Hannah - Sales Forecasting Analyst ($19)
All of it, one purchase This page plus the sales prompts page - Sales Agent Bundle ($99) or Sales & Marketing Prompt Library ($9)

What "AI SDR" means, and which kind this is

The phrase covers two products that are not alike, and the price gap between them is the reason the confusion persists.

  • A hosted AI SDR platform. Software that sends outbound for you, priced per seat or per contact, with its own data, its own sending infrastructure and its own deliverability reputation. It acts on your behalf.
  • A skill or agent file. A document you load into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot that does the SDR thinking - research, qualification, drafting, reply handling - while you keep control of what actually gets sent.

Everything on this page is the second kind: a one-time purchase, a readable file plus a README, no subscription and no sending. In Claude you upload it under Customize then Skills. Skills need code execution enabled, under Settings → Capabilities. Anthropic's help centre currently lists Skills on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, while its Academy tutorial lists Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise - so if you are on the free plan, check Settings → Capabilities for your own account rather than taking either page's word for it. In ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot you paste its contents into custom instructions instead.

One thing to know if you were planning to wrap this in a custom GPT. OpenAI is retiring them: creation ends 25 September 2026 and existing custom GPTs stop running on 11 December 2026, with custom actions not transferring through the migration. That is the practical argument for keeping a specialist as a file you hold rather than a configuration on someone's platform. The detail is in Claude skills vs custom GPTs.

Browse the full set in the AI SDR collection, the wider sales, marketing and growth collection of 120 skills, or start with general-purpose prompts on the ChatGPT prompts hub.

Where these fall down

  • No system access. No CRM, no sales engagement platform, no LinkedIn, no data provider. Everything is what you pasted, which is the whole point of the research answer at the top of this page.
  • They will invent a proof point. Ask for a persuasive paragraph and a percentage appears. Every number in outbound has to come from you, or a prospect will eventually ask about one that does not exist.
  • They do not know your pricing floor or your legal position. Prompt 18 and Prompt 20 give you structure for those conversations, not authority to hold them.
  • They do not remember the account. Unless you keep the context in a project, last Tuesday's discovery is gone.
  • Deliverability is still yours. A better email does not fix a burnt domain, and no file on this page touches your sending setup.

In summary

Run the 25 prompts above with real evidence in every bracket, keep the seven-part script as your call structure, and move to a file the moment you notice you are pasting the same ICP for the tenth time. Top of funnel goes to Liam ($19), cold email to Zoe ($19), pitch and demo to Felix ($19), late-stage deals to Grace ($19) and forecasting to Hannah ($19). If sales is the whole job rather than one of your hats, the Sales Agent Bundle is $99 for five agents against $195 bought separately. All one-time, all with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Related Guides

The whole cycle, five agents
Sales Agent Bundle - all 5 AI sales agents
Sales Agent Bundle - All 5 AI Sales Agents
$99this bundle vs $195all five bought separately

Theodore for strategy, Harriet for lead generation, Roland for SDR work, George for cold email and Henry for proposals: first list to sent proposal, in one download.

View the Sales Agent Bundle →
Skill file · works with Claude & ChatGPT

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Frequently asked questions

How do AI sales agents research a prospect before sending outreach?+

They do not browse or connect to anything. A skill or agent file running in Claude or ChatGPT has no access to your CRM, your sales engagement platform, LinkedIn or a data provider. You paste the evidence - job posts, funding news, the LinkedIn About section, CRM notes - and it extracts the trigger events, ranks them by strength, maps them to the buying committee, and writes an opener from the strongest one. The research is real; the inputs are yours. Paste nothing and you get plausible-sounding invention.

Do these sales prompts work in Claude as well as ChatGPT?+

Yes, all 25 are model-agnostic and work in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot. Claude tends to follow long structured instructions closely and ChatGPT is quicker at producing variants, but both improve sharply the moment you paste real prospect context into the brackets instead of describing it.

How is this different from the prompts for sales landing page?+

The landing page holds 10 prompts covering the core workflow: research brief, cold email variants, follow-up, discovery questions, objection handling, recap, proposal summary, deal review, stalled deals and handover. The 25 here do not repeat any of them and go deeper into prospecting, LinkedIn, call scripts, negotiation and forecasting. The two sets are designed to stack.

What is an AI SDR, and which kind are these?+

The phrase covers two different products. One is a hosted platform that sends outbound for you, priced per seat or per contact, with its own data and sending infrastructure. The other is a file you load into an AI chat that does the SDR thinking - research, qualification, drafting, reply handling - while you keep control of what gets sent. Everything here is the second kind: a one-time purchase, no subscription, no sending.

When is a sales skill worth buying instead of using a prompt?+

When you are pasting the same ICP, tone rules and frameworks more than a few times a week. A prompt suits an occasional task where context changes every time; a skill file holds the context once. Liam covers top of funnel at $19, Zoe cold email at $19, Felix pitch and demo at $19, Grace late-stage deals at $19 and Hannah forecasting at $19.

Do I need a paid Claude plan to use a sales skill?+

Skills need code execution enabled, under Settings then Capabilities. Anthropic's help centre currently lists Skills on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, while its Academy tutorial lists Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, so if you are on the free plan check Settings then Capabilities for your own account rather than trusting either page. Where the Skills menu is not available, and in ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot, you paste the file's contents into custom instructions instead. You lose automatic triggering and keep the method.

Can I use the sales script template on a live cold call?+

Yes, but treat it as a checklist of seven parts rather than a text to read aloud. Prepare the opener and the agenda word for word, keep the discovery questions on a card, and let the pitch and the close come from what you actually heard. A script read verbatim is audible down a phone line.

What can these skills not do?+

They have no system access, so nothing reaches your CRM or your sending tool. They will invent a proof point if you let them, so every number has to come from you. They do not know your pricing floor or your legal position. They do not remember an account between sessions unless you keep the context in a project. And no file here improves deliverability - a better email does not fix a burnt domain.

Is there a refund if a skill is not right for me?+

Yes. Every skill and agent carries a 30-day money-back guarantee, and all of them are one-time purchases with no subscription.

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