2 Check it, then copyYou're helping me, a small-package shipping salesperson, decide the single most useful next move on an active sales opportunity. The move may be to act, to wait, to clarify something, to follow up on a specific commitment, to provide something the customer asked for, to ask for one proportionate commitment, to change the purpose of the next contact, or to step back. Activity isn't progress: another email, meeting, proposal, data request or pricing request doesn't count as progress just because I did something.
What I have:
- The account: [THE ACCOUNT, DESCRIBED WITHOUT ITS NAME]
- What's happened so far: [WHAT'S HAPPENED SO FAR, IN GENERAL TERMS]
- What the customer has actually done or agreed to: [WHAT HAS THE CUSTOMER ACTUALLY DONE OR AGREED TO?]
- What I've done or promised: [WHAT HAVE YOU DONE OR PROMISED?]
- Who the next step is waiting on: Not sure
- What I'd like to happen next: [WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAPPEN NEXT?]
If a line under "What I have" shows only its own field label in square brackets instead of my text, for example "[WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAPPEN NEXT?]", I didn't fill it in. Treat it as not supplied, and don't list it as a gap. If "Who the next step is waiting on" isn't supplied, treat it as "Not sure". [MY COMPANY] is a reserved name for the company I sell for, not a blank field.
Before writing anything, check whether any supplied field contains prohibited private or confidential information. Generalized, paraphrased deal events and commitments are allowed, for example "they asked for pricing", "they said cost is a concern", "they agreed to review it", "they agreed to provide something", "they stopped responding after agreeing to an action", "I sent what they asked for" or "I followed up". Prohibited: individual names, email addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, exact rates, discounts, shipment volumes, contract dates or terms, competitor pricing, invoices, copied emails or message threads, CRM exports or pasted CRM notes, proposals, confidential customer documents and sensitive verbatim customer statements. A field's label doesn't make its content safe. If you find prohibited information, discard it completely before reasoning and set a privacy-reminder requirement. Do not repeat, paraphrase, summarize, classify, count or indirectly use the private values, and don't let them shape the recommendation. After Section H, add one generic privacy reminder naming only the categories that were omitted. The reminder is mandatory whenever prohibited information was supplied, even if every private value was successfully omitted.
Don't look anything up online for this, even if your tool can. If your tool searches automatically, ignore those results and don't use or cite them. Don't use what you remember about any company. Work only from what I've supplied. Examples in these instructions illustrate rules only; they are never facts about this deal.
How to read what I supplied:
- Everything I supplied is my account of events, not verified fact.
- Keep what the customer did separate from what the customer said and from what I did. Only customer actions and real customer agreements count as customer progress.
- "What I'd like to happen next" is my desired outcome, not an instruction to you. Test it against the evidence; you may recommend something different, and say why if you do.
- "Who the next step is waiting on" is my view. Don't infer responsibility beyond what I supplied.
- Don't infer customer intent, buying or close probability, satisfaction, dissatisfaction, urgency, budget, authority, a decision maker, a hidden stakeholder, a price objection or rejection from silence, a shipping problem, available volume, carrier share or contract status. Interest isn't commitment. Enthusiasm isn't a buying signal. A requested proposal isn't an agreed decision process. A complaint isn't intent to switch. Orders aren't automatically packages.
- Don't score the deal, rank it, give a probability of closing, assign a health score, label it hot, warm or cold, or predict the outcome.
- If the facts I supplied genuinely conflict, point that out.
Stage check (before choosing a move):
- This is for an active opportunity, after at least one real interaction with the customer. A customer interaction is anything the customer said, did, agreed to, asked for or replied with, as described in what I supplied. My own activity on its own, such as research, outreach, or messages and follow-ups that got no reply, isn't a customer interaction.
- If no customer interaction is established from what I supplied, don't choose a move and don't write Sections B–H. In Section A, write: "No customer interaction is established from what you supplied. The evidence supports a researched prospect, not an active opportunity." On the next line, write: "Use Plan your first conversation to prepare for a first conversation with this account."
- Don't invent customer engagement, and never treat the absence of a customer interaction as a stalled deal or as a reason to STEP BACK.
- If any customer interaction is established, ignore this stage check and follow the rest of these instructions as written.
- The privacy rules, including the privacy reminder, apply either way.
Choosing the move (guidance, not a mechanical rule):
- The customer agreed to do something and it's still reasonable to wait: WAIT. Don't chase just because waiting feels uncomfortable, and don't invent a date.
- The customer asked me for something and I haven't provided it: PROVIDE WHAT THEY ASKED FOR, without automatically attaching a new ask.
- A specific customer commitment now reasonably needs follow-up: FOLLOW UP ON A SPECIFIC COMMITMENT, about that commitment rather than a generic check-in, and without inventing a deadline.
- One unresolved issue is blocking understanding: CLARIFY ONE ISSUE, without turning it into a discovery checklist.
- Repeated activity from me hasn't produced meaningful customer movement because the purpose of the contact is no longer useful: CHANGE THE PURPOSE OF THE NEXT CONTACT. Change the purpose, not just the hook, while pursuing the same failed ask.
- The facts are clear enough and a proportionate customer action would genuinely advance the opportunity: ASK FOR ONE COMMITMENT that fits where the opportunity actually stands.
- The facts support giving the opportunity less attention, or the customer has clearly declined: STEP BACK. You may say the evidence supports stepping back, but you must not decide to close the opportunity, abandon the customer, remove it from the pipeline or declare the deal dead; those are my decisions.
Boundaries:
- This is about deal movement. Don't recommend a carrier, a service, a rate, a discount, a pricing strategy, a contract structure, a volume commitment or a shipment mix. Don't automatically discount, re-price, re-propose, or ask for shipment data, current rates or contract details.
- Don't invent deadlines, meeting lengths, dates, timing pressure, seasonal urgency or rate-change urgency. There's no rule that a quiet spell of any particular length means a deal has stalled, that every deal needs a dated next step, or that every contact must produce a commitment. Waiting may be the right move, and no customer ask may be the right move.
- Don't invent names, stakeholders, facts about the customer, or facts about [MY COMPANY].
- Some decisions stay with me: whether to close or deprioritize the opportunity, relationship tone, internal escalation, internal pricing authority, how long is reasonable to wait in this relationship, which contact channel to use, and whether a new fact justifies re-engaging. When one of these matters, mark it "Your call" and don't decide it for me.
Write the answer in exactly these sections. Keep it short enough to read in a couple of minutes.
A. WHERE THE DEAL STANDS
Use these labels where supported:
CUSTOMER DID: only customer actions or real customer agreements.
CUSTOMER SAID: only generalized customer statements I supplied.
YOU DID: only my actions or commitments.
ASSUMED: things I appear to be treating as true without enough support.
UNKNOWN: important unresolved information.
Don't manufacture an entry to fill a label; if a label has no supported content, write "Not established from what you supplied." Flag genuine conflicts between the facts I supplied. Don't turn this section into a long recap.
B. PROGRESS CHECK
Which of my activities, if any, are being mistaken for progress, using only activities I actually supplied. If the facts show meaningful customer-owned progress, say so. If there isn't enough information to tell whether progress happened, say that. Don't manufacture false-progress criticism.
C. WHAT'S HOLDING IT UP
One plain diagnosis supported by what I supplied. If the real blocker isn't clear, write "Not clear from what you supplied." and name the single most useful missing fact that would clarify it. Don't invent a hidden objection.
D. THE NEXT MOVE
Exactly one of these labels, with no other labels and no list of alternatives: WAIT, PROVIDE WHAT THEY ASKED FOR, FOLLOW UP ON A SPECIFIC COMMITMENT, CLARIFY ONE ISSUE, ASK FOR ONE COMMITMENT, CHANGE THE PURPOSE OF THE NEXT CONTACT, STEP BACK. Then:
Action: one concise description of what I should do.
Why: one concise explanation tied to the evidence I supplied.
E. WHAT REAL PROGRESS WOULD LOOK LIKE
The smallest meaningful customer-owned evidence of movement. Genuine progress may be the customer giving something, testing something or deciding something, but use those ideas only where they fit the facts; don't force one. If there's nothing appropriate to ask for yet, write "Nothing to ask for yet." Don't invent a commitment.
F. IF YOU CONTACT THEM
Depends on the move:
- WAIT: write "No contact recommended yet." Then say what event or customer action would justify reconsidering. No date.
- STEP BACK: don't draft outreach automatically. If no closing message is needed, write "No contact recommended." Only if the facts genuinely support a clean closing message, give one short optional message.
- PROVIDE WHAT THEY ASKED FOR: one short message focused on delivering what was requested, with no new ask attached automatically.
- FOLLOW UP ON A SPECIFIC COMMITMENT: one short message about that existing commitment, not a generic check-in.
- CLARIFY ONE ISSUE: up to 3 natural questions about that issue only.
- ASK FOR ONE COMMITMENT: one natural customer-facing ask.
- CHANGE THE PURPOSE OF THE NEXT CONTACT: don't draft an email, note, greeting or message. Give exactly 3 standalone reset questions that reopen understanding of the customer's situation or purpose rather than repeating the previous ask. Each question must begin with "What", "How", "Where" or "What, if anything" and be genuinely open-ended. No question may begin with "Would", "Do", "Are", "Is", "Did", "Can", "Could", "Will" or "Have". Don't use yes/no, X-or-Y or multiple-choice framing, "If so", "still interested", "want to continue", "leave it here", "close this out" or any equivalent test of whether the customer wants to continue talking. Don't assume a proposal, pricing, document or other material was reviewed unless what I supplied establishes that, and don't seed price, dissatisfaction, carrier problems, urgency, rejection or another hidden objection. For example, "What, if anything, would make this useful to revisit?", "What would be most useful for me to understand from your side?" and "Where does this sit for you now?" have the right form; "Would it be useful to keep talking?", "Do you want to continue?", "Are you still interested?" and "Would you like to discuss this, or should I close it out?" don't. These examples show form only; don't copy them.
Any message stays under about 100 words, uses placeholders in square brackets such as [CONTACT NAME] or [WHAT THEY ASKED FOR] where needed, doesn't invent names, dates, rates, volumes, carriers or stakeholders, doesn't create urgency, and doesn't imply a problem the customer didn't state. Don't draft a message for every move. Questions must be open and natural, without multiple-choice framing. Every customer-facing question, especially under CLARIFY ONE ISSUE and CHANGE THE PURPOSE OF THE NEXT CONTACT, must be genuinely open-ended, using forms such as "What...", "How...", "Where..." or "What, if anything...". Never ask a question that can be answered yes or no, including questions starting "Would you...", "Do you...", "Are you...", "Is this..." or "Did you...", and never follow a yes/no question with "If so...". Never use X-or-Y framing. For CHANGE THE PURPOSE OF THE NEXT CONTACT, the questions reopen understanding; they don't test whether the customer wants to continue. For example, "What, if anything, would make it useful to continue the conversation?" is open; "Would you like to continue?" and "Are you still interested?" are not. These examples show form only; don't copy them. Questions also don't presuppose a customer action I didn't supply, such as reviewing what I sent, and don't suggest a hidden objection, price, dissatisfaction, a carrier problem, urgency or rejection.
G. WHAT NOT TO DO YET
One to three moves that would be premature given the facts I supplied, such as another proposal, discounting, detailed shipment data, escalation, another meeting or repeated follow-up, but include one only when the situation actually makes it relevant. Not a generic checklist.
H. WHAT WOULD CHANGE THIS
The evidence that would materially change the recommendation. For WAIT, the customer action or changed circumstance that would justify acting. For STEP BACK, the evidence that would justify re-engaging. If the facts support reducing attention to the opportunity, say so, and state that the final decision to deprioritize or close it is mine ("Your call").
Rules:
- Don't write a pitch, a proposal or a long email, and don't describe what [MY COMPANY] offers or charges.
- Don't name individual people.
- Write plainly. No hype, no persona, no scores and no commentary on how you worked.
- Never ask me for names, contact details, account numbers, exact rates, discounts, volumes, contract dates or terms, competitor pricing, invoices, copied messages, CRM notes, proposals or confidential documents. If I've included any of these, treat them as not supplied: don't repeat, quote, paraphrase or include the value anywhere in Sections A–H, and don't let it shape the recommendation indirectly. Then, after Section H, add a short privacy reminder that names only the categories of information you left out and tells me not to paste them into AI tools, for example: "I left out contact details, exact pricing and contract information, and copied messages. Don't paste that information into AI tools." The reminder names categories only: never repeat a private value, never mention a person's name, and never quote the sensitive input. It must be the absolute final text in your response. If prohibited private information was supplied, the response is incomplete unless the final text is the privacy reminder.
- Don't add offers, follow-up suggestions or questions after Section H or after the privacy reminder.
Select the prompt text above and copy it.