The 5 best prompts for strategic AEs

Learn how top-performing AEs use advanced prompt engineering to drive urgency, clarity, and faster close rates across the sales cycle using AI in Revenue.io. This guide outlines five proven prompt types, including business case generation and strategic follow-ups, all based on real conversations and Salesforce data. Ideal for sales teams ready to operationalize AI and close more deals with precision.

In this edition, we discuss five prompt types that top-performing AEs are using inside Revenue.io’s Ask Revenue AI.

Each maps to a specific part of the sales cycle and helps reps move faster, deeper, and more decisively.

1. Narrative Business Case Generator

Prompt: “Create a one page narrative business case. It should start with a compelling headline that captures the business value the buyer should get. The business case should start with a crisp explanation of the business problem, and its financial impact. Then, it should summarize the solution. Finally, it should describe the financial impact detail of solving the problem. The narrative business case should be inspired by a 1 page business case.”

Why it works: When late-stage deals stall, it’s usually because someone senior, a CFO, COO, or CIO, hasn’t seen a clear justification for change. This prompt generates a short, persuasive business case tailored to the buyer’s own language, pulled directly from past meetings, emails, and Salesforce fields.

Use it when: You’re prepping for a stakeholder call and need a single-slide narrative that connects pain to value.

2. Customer Challenge Summary Deck

Prompt: “Summarize the following information, tailored for a customer-facing deck that will be used prior to a custom demo. Key challenges faced by the business, the impact of not solving those challenges, and the ideal future state that solves for those challenges. Make sure the impact can be quantified, and if available, use data points discussed during this meeting.”

Why it works: Good demos start before the product ever loads. This prompt turns discovery insights into a crisp slide that frames the demo around what matters most — the gap between today’s pain and tomorrow’s ROI.

Use it when: You’re customizing a demo and want to lead with business context, not product capabilities.

3. Urgency Discovery Question Generator

Prompt: “For my next meeting, give me 3 or 5 strategic open-ended questions calibrated to highlight the urgent need for change.”

Why it works: Time kills deals. This prompt helps you craft discovery questions that expose not just problems, but time-sensitive consequences of inaction. It gets buyers to say, in their own words, why change needs to happen this quarter, not next.

Use it when: You’re in early-stage discovery and want to surface urgency, not just curiosity.

4. Close Plan & Mutual Action Plan Builder

Prompt: “Suggest a detailed close plan for this deal. Consider the business case, needs of key stakeholders, and our sales process. As part of the closing strategy, also provide a suggested mutual action plan to share with the buyer aligning them to close by a desired date.”

Why it works: Most deals stall because next steps aren’t clear or mutually owned. This prompt guides reps to build structured close plans that align internal champions and buyer stakeholders around clear milestones, responsibilities, and timelines. It transforms closing from a vague follow-up into a shared execution roadmap that builds confidence and urgency on both sides.

Use it when: You’re finalizing deal strategy, preparing executive reviews, or aligning with a champion before presenting final terms or legal documents.

5. Mission-Critical Follow-Up Email

Prompt: “Write me a follow up email to that is in the format which captures his Mission Critical Priority for the business, the challenges and scope for the project we are discussing (this should include what the current state looks like including avg deal length and sales cycle, etc), root cause/ impact of the challenges, and finally any vision of solution discussed in this meeting.”

Why it works: Great follow-ups don’t just say “thanks.” They restate the buyer’s problem in their own words, reflect urgency, and reframe your solution as mission-critical. This prompt turns calls into compelling narratives that buyers can forward to their team.

Use it when: You’ve had a strategic conversation and need to anchor the next step around business value.

Why Reps Are Using These Workflows Every Day

When you’re preparing for a deal review or customer call, the last thing you want is to dig through scattered call recordings, Slack threads, or half-filled Salesforce fields just to remember what the buyer said.

Top-performing reps are using prompts to:

• Extract the buyer’s language from discovery calls
• Generate business cases without rewriting from scratch
• Build mutual action and close plans aligned to specific needs
• Craft follow-ups that reflect real urgency and priorities

Prompting is becoming a daily habit because it creates clarity, not just content.

Want to see how Revenue.io can help your team turn prompts into progress?

Watch interactive demos to explore how it works without sales!

This edition was curated and written by Chase Schardt, Marketing Manager at Revenue.io.

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