This is the second episode of the “AI and Selling Effectiveness Podcast.” Every other Monday, the IEPS posts a new show with Selling Essentials Marketplace partner Zeev Wexler from Viacry.
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Today’s show featured essential prompting guidelines from Expert in Digital Marketing, Blockchain & AI for Strategic Business & Revenue Growth Zeev Wexler, President of Viacry.
Find Zeev on LinkedIn.
ZEEV’S TIP: “Take the same prompt and run it through multiple AI tools—like ChatGPT and Claude—to see how each processes information differently. Then analyze the outputs to understand which tool is best suited for each type of task.”
THE PODCAST BEGINS HERE
Fred Diamond: Zeev, you’ve been on the show a couple times in the past. The first show we did has gotten a lot of interaction. A lot of people watched that show, which is great. I know you have a big following. You’ve really established yourselves as one of the premier leaders in the sales side of AI. I know that Viacry touches a lot of other areas as well, but specifically as it relates to what we’re doing on the sales side as well.
Today, we’re going to be talking about the 9-Step AI Corporate Prompting Guide. I’ve done all the talking so far, Zeev. Welcome everybody here. Tell us what you want to tell us. Then let’s go through the nine steps that are part of your AI prompting guide. We’re going to make the link available on the show notes on Apple Podcasts, on salesgamechangerspodcast.com, and on YouTube for people to download this pretty detailed and impressive guide.
Zeev Wexler: This is so needed in the market. What we’re going to talk about today is corporate prompting. As we spoke about in the last episode, it’s the Wild Wild West, Fred. Everybody’s doing whatever they want and the results are hurting brands, hurting sales forces. What we’ve decided to do is we’ve built a nine-step prompting guide.
Now, before I dive into that, as a corporate, you need governance of AI. What does that mean? You need a structure that everybody follows about AI. Even if you’re using a ChatGPT, you can open a GPT with certain information. If you’re using Copilot or any other partner, you can build that knowledge base. But it’s important to feed the AI actual things. What do I mean by that?
You’ve written a lot of emails in your life. Can you take a bunch of the emails that were successful and give it to the AI, whatever system it is, as a reference to how Fred writes successful emails? That’s rule number one. If there’s any words you use or don’t use, bring that in. Create a tone and a voice for Fred based on the governance of the IEPS, because You are the co-founder of the IEPS. You want your emails to correspond with the IEPS rules and guidelines of AI, correct?
Fred Diamond: Yeah. You’re making a great point here. I see people talking all the time about AI, of course it’s hot. Usually, it’s how an individual can be using ChatGPT to write emails, like you’re referring to, or do research, or do a LinkedIn post, or write a blog, or something along those lines. A lot of people are getting familiar, but from a corporate perspective. I love the way you’re talking about this. You need to say certain things. There’re certain things you can’t say. There’re certain branding elements that you need to use. There’re certain things that are confidential, that you can’t be putting out there into the public domain.
One of the evidence of this, we presented our AI for Selling Effectiveness Awards, that Viacry had sponsored, back on May 1st. One thing that we noticed was, that shocked you and I, we expected a dozen companies to win that award. We gave out two, one to General Assembly and one to Cvent, who are showing how they’re using and standardizing at the corporate level. That just was a splash in the face for everybody. But like you said, where we are with the Wild West and how we can keep working on these corporate standards. I think we’re publishing this podcast at the right time. I think you’re definitely the guy to help us get going through this. It’s a great tee up. Do you want to go through the nine steps?
Zeev Wexler: Let’s go through the nine steps. But before that, just make sure that you feed the AI the right things, what you can do, what you can’t. Every company has some words in legal that you don’t want to use. Make that noticeable for the AI. Feed the AI what you need. A lot of times if you build a knowledge base, you can say, act like a, whatever company, Amazon, Carahsoft, Capgemini executive, and that will have the rules. Let’s start.
Rule number one, Fred, and it goes for corporate and for individuals, but now we’re talking about corporate. Rule number one is, give it a hat. Act as a B2G selling expert. Act as a sales trainer. Act as a marketing director. Give it a hat, ladies and gentlemen, before you start anything. Sometimes I tell my AI, act as Zeev Wexler. That’s a hat that my AI knows really well. But if it doesn’t know you, you need to give it act as a sales education expert. Act as an AI educator. Give it some hat.
The next thing that you got to do is you got to really define what a win is. Fred, what are you trying to do with the AI? If this works, what is the best result that’s going to happen? You got to define the win. Have a hat and define a win. Does that make sense, Fred?
Fred Diamond: It does. This isn’t a toy. We’re doing today’s recording in June of 2025. It’s the second episode of the AI for Selling Effectiveness website. We don’t have time to play around. There’s so much pressure on selling organizations right now to be successful, whatever that might be. Acquiring new customers, which is very, very tough right now, or growing your existing customers, or growing into some new markets, bringing new products, everything that sales professionals need to be doing. The marketing organizations that are supporting them need to be focused on the true goals, revenue growth, whatever it might be. I love what a win is. I love the business outcome here.
Number three is providing rich content. Tell us more about that.
Zeev Wexler: Basically, let’s say, Fred, you are part of the IEPS. Provide it, “I’m the co-founder of the IEPS. This is our team. This is what we provide as a service. These are what we do. This is what we’re known for. This are the awards we won.” Bring in the context to give the AI tools to create something that’s valuable. If you have it set up, great. If not, just provide that information. “I am Fred Diamond. I am the co-founder of the IEPS. We help B2B and B2G companies train and get better on sales. Now we’re helping them with sales and AI.” Now the AI knows what to do. That is step number three. What is the business and team background, current situation, relevant things, usable context that the AI can use?
Fred Diamond: The next step is being very specific on the outcome.
Zeev Wexler: You must be specific. If you’re not specific on AI, you’re going to get something that you did not anticipate. State the business goal upfront. Break the complex tasks into steps. Specify format and deliverable. Tell it what to do. Don’t just tell it do this. Tell it how you want to get it. Create a three-paragraph summary of this structure, hook, challenge, solution. Create a LinkedIn post under 150 words, no emojis, clear tone, soft CTA. Define your tone. Show good examples. All of this is part of step four to really make the AI understand what is the outcome that you want to get out of it.
Fred Diamond: Also, in this guide, you have what you call pro tips. The pro tip for this is use feedback loops. Define feedback loops for people who might not know what that means.
Zeev Wexler: Basically, make sure that there’s something that keeps on making the AI better and better. If your first draft is not perfect, give specific feedback. I wanted to keep, I want to change, I want to make it. I know you do it a lot when you do your prompts. Something comes up, make it a little bit better, massage it a little bit more, give it a little bit of refinement. Act a little bit more like this, less like this, remove this word, add this word.
Fred Diamond: One thing I’ve done, I don’t know if this is just a little quirk for me, is sometimes I’ll test the various AI engines that we’re using. I’ll say, “Do you know why I want to do this?” What’s unbelievable is that it’ll come back and say, “Yes, because the Institute for Effective Professional Selling, which was just rebranded on May 1st, is really focused on helping companies, with at least 100 B2B or B2G sales professionals, engage teams and customers, elevate sales leaders, and empower success.” It’s not like you’re talking to someone who has to say, “Gee, I need to check my notes.” It has that stuff. If it doesn’t, which I haven’t found yet, then you just need to remind it, I guess.
Zeev Wexler: Absolutely. Which brings us to the next step, which is step five, which I think you do really well, is nail your voice. This is a step where you got to take some action. We talked about in the beginning of the show, have some examples of your emails that work. Have some examples of your speaking if you’re a speaker. Have some examples of the articles you wrote if you write articles, but give it actual output examples. Show your real content. Choose high quality examples. You better use two great examples than six that are not that good. Combine clear tone and instructions, use it confident, but not pushy. Make it understand what you want it to do.
Fred Diamond: One thing you talk about as a guide here is you say to be careful with what you call AI language red flags. You say, for example, replace generic phrases like unlock the power of, or “revolutionary solution”, or “seamlessly integrate”, all those cliches, which are pretty vague, with clear specific benefits your audience cares about. That’s a great point because one thing that we talk a lot about at the Institute for Effective Professional Selling is customers don’t need to deal with you if you’re not solving their specific problems.
Zeev Wexler: AI has a tendency to follow the shortest path, like any river, and that’s why sometimes you get crooked results. You really need to define what you’re trying to achieve. If not, you will get results that you don’t want. It’s really, really important. There’s more red flags, and I want to talk about this.
Anybody here knows what em dash is here. I did not know what an em dash was before ChatGPT. Em dash is that long dash that ChatGPT keeps on putting on anything. Remove those. If you ever put those in a post, I know you just used ChatGPT and you probably didn’t even read it, because if you did, you would massage it. Which takes us to the next step, which is demand options.
Never ever, ever, ever use the first thing that any AI gives to you. That’s usually the lowest quality. When you prompt, demand some options, and then even after you get it, improve those options. Never use the first thing that AI gives you. That is what my team calls shiny crap. It looks good, but it’s not. If you dive deeper, the first result is never the best one. Ask for a couple of ideas. Create three headlines, create three options for this email, just to make sure that you get the right things and never use the first thing.
Fred Diamond: It goes back to one of the first couple of steps. When you talked about what’s your specific goal, what do you hope to achieve by using AI? For all the selling professionals out there, it has to be growing your account, finding new accounts, providing more value than ever before to your existing accounts. It’s not just to produce something. It’s so hard now, every email that you send has to be of specific value to the customer. If you’re even doing a LinkedIn post and you’re a selling professional, let’s say you’re covering healthcare or something like that, you need to do something very specific with the CTO or the IT leaders at a healthcare facility or hospital system that may or may not or hopefully may listen to your post or read your post, whatever it might be. You don’t have time just to produce babble, or the crap as you say there. You have to produce something that’s going to specifically help you move your business forward.
Step seven, edit like your business reputation depends on it. What does that mean?
Zeev Wexler: Because it does. People will judge you based on what you do. I know I judge people all the time. I answer maybe 10% of the messages that come to me because 90% just look completely ChatGPT with no iteration, no thought behind it. Why would I respond? Right now, AI is making everybody be able to do all kinds of things, but everybody’s mediocre. You want to be higher level than that. You got to really massage this as if your business reputation depends on it, because it does.
What do you do? Does it sound like you? Would your ideal customer say this? Can you stand behind every claim? Does this speak to a real need? Is the next step obvious and compelling? Is this benefit clear and believable? You got to make sure that there’s a checklist that you go through.
Then there’s stuff you got to eliminate. Robot language elimination, cut the fluff, the cliches, the autogenerated phrases, brand voice integration, infuse your tone, your rhythm. That’s what we talked about the steps before, bringing your actual content into it. Fact checking. Validate claims. AI hallucinates, guys. We’ll talk about that in a sec too, but you got to make sure. Then read aloud. Make sure you read everything that the AI pushes. I’ve seen so many people that basically just don’t read. They get something and they send it. That’s how you kill your brand, kill your voice, and put yourself in jeopardy.
Fred Diamond: I love bullet point number seven, where you talk about value proposition. To be successful in professional selling right now, your message needs to be very specific about the value that you’re bringing to your customer. Because the reality is, the customer doesn’t have to listen to you. The elite sales professionals that we’re working with right now, they are making very specific value-based communications to where their customers are going. It’s not generic. It’s not, “Gee, I know you need to save costs.” It’s something that’s very specific tied to what they’re doing.
We got two more steps here. Iterate with intent. What does that mean?
Zeev Wexler: You’ve got to treat the AI as if it’s your junior team member. Really smart, really capable junior team member. It’s not your vending machine of creating stuff. It needs to be with intent. You got to give it the right information. If you have a junior staff member that is really smart but doesn’t know everything about the IEPS, you can’t rely on them to do something unless you give them the right information. This step is really basically to bring in what is needed. Not a vending machine, not something that sounds the same to everybody, but how you create the AI to be your assistant, your counterpart with getting what you need to get done, not what the AI wants to.
Fred Diamond: As we get to the final step here, one thing that we’re working with, and again, just want to let people know that at the Institute for Effective Professional Selling, Viacry is part of our Selling Essentials Marketplace. Zeev, one of the opportunities for people listening is the IEPS, we know all the resources. We know the best trainers, the best sales consultants, the best sales experts, the companies that are bringing true AI, thoughtful AI solutions to sales organizations and corporations. We’re excited with some announcements that we’re going to be making very shortly on this podcast about some specific offerings that we’re making available to selling organizations to utilize AI at the sales organizational level and at the corporate level.
Part of that is, we’ve talked a couple times about tool selection. I’m going to guess almost everybody watching today’s AI for Selling Effectiveness Podcast, or listening on Apple Podcast or Spotify, that they’re using a tool. They’re probably using ChatGPT, it’s the most common one, but there are many tools, some that are better. I don’t want to talk about homegrown, but give us some of your brief thoughts on tool selection. Because one of the things that we see happening is corporations are going to start standardizing on AI the same way that they’ve done with brand and things along those lines, and colors and stuff like that. That’s something we’re going to be communicating via this podcast to the people who are in charge of that at the corporate level. Talk for a second or two about some of your experience with the right tools for the right job.
Zeev Wexler: Every tool has its own role, but I always use tools in conjunction. I never just use one tool. Let’s take ChatGPT. Let’s say you iterate something with ChatGPT, you create it, then you take that result and you put it in Gemini, or you put it in Claude. Then you ask that other AI to improve it, to act as a prompting engineer and improve what came out. I always use a couple of systems.
Now, ChatGPT to me acts like a guy. What do I mean by that? ChatGPT is masculine. It looks for shortcuts, it puts bullets, it uses the same stuff all the time, like the em dash and I hope this email finds you well. There are certain things that ChatGPT always does, so you got to massage that.
Claude is a little bit more feminine. If I do long form writing, I use Claude better. Claude 4 Opus in a lot of ways makes ChatGPT look like a younger sibling. It actually does better. Gemini does great for a few things as well, but I always use at least two tools. If you can, use three, but never utilize one tool, because they think differently, they have different biases, and you got to work through that.
Another thing that is in addition to the nine rules, and I recommend everybody to use it, Fred, and I would love for you to try it and tell me what you think, is ask the AI to ask you at least additional 10 questions to create a better result. Then the AI will ask you 10 questions that it doesn’t know, and you’ll need to take your time and answer these questions in the best way possible, but then the outcome will come much, much better.
Let’s say we’re using a couple of tools. Let’s say we created something on ChatGPT. We’ve created an email, whatever it is that we created. We take it to Claude and we say, act as a sales expert and improve this. Also, ask me at least 10 questions that will make this prompt better. The more information you give to the AI, the better. Now, does it make your prompting longer? Yes. It still shortens a lot of time, but our goal is not to shorten things for low quality. Our goal is to shorten things with high quality. For that you got to follow those prompts. Now, nine seems a lot, but as you do it and as you run through it, you get faster and faster and faster, and it actually saves incredible amounts of time, but also creates the right type of results.
Fred Diamond: Yeah, and it’s a great flow. Once again, I want to thank Zeev Wexler for being on our biweekly AI for Selling Effectiveness Podcast. We have a lot more exciting things to come as we continue to grow the show. Want to let our listeners know that, the Institute for Effective Professional Selling, we have our award, our AI for Selling Effectiveness Award. We’re not just giving that out once a year, Zeev. Companies can apply for that anytime they want. We’re going to be presenting multiple awards every quarter. I want to recommend people go to theieps.com, our new website, and we’re going to continue to recognize great companies that are truly using AI to improve their selling effectiveness.
Zeev, give us a nice crisp action step that people should do right now to become a more successful selling professional.
Zeev Wexler: Take two tools. Let’s take two obvious ones, ChatGPT and Claude. Take the same prompt and see the difference. Understand that these two systems process things differently and understand where the difference is. My challenge to you guys is create a prompt, something you need to do, and then use the same prompt to ChatGPT, same prompt in Claude, if you want to go extra, use Gemini as well, and see how they act differently. When I do long form, Claude is where I go to. When I start brainstorming, ChatGPT is where I go to. When I fix my email because I’m a Google client, Gemini is where I go to. Understand the use cases, but do this, do the same prompt on two or three different tools and see how it reacts differently. Understand the different minds of AI.
Fred Diamond: Great advice. Once again, I want to thank Zeev Wexler. My name is Fred Diamond. This is the AI for Selling Effectiveness sub-brand of the Sales Game Changers Podcast.
Transcribed by Mariana Badillo