Research the account

By the end of this task, you will be able to synthesize customer context, buying signals, and internal evidence into a defensible Canada Post account brief that supports a realistic service opportunity conversation.

Your situation

You are the Canada Post account executive for Tailwind Traders, a mid-market outdoor-equipment manufacturer with five distribution centres. Their parcel volume grew 93% last year. Their procurement manager has just confirmed that the March pricing review will require a written proposal and a competitive benchmark — something she has asked for twice before and never received.

You have three weeks. Before you can propose anything, you need to know what the account file actually says.

Files you'll use

How to read the prompts

Each prompt below is one block you can copy whole. The # lines are labels, not instructions — they mark where the prompt stops setting the goal and starts giving the context, the sources, and the expectations. Copying them along with the prompt does no harm.

Those four moves, in that order, are what makes a prompt work. Use the same shape when you write your own.

Steps

1. In Microsoft Edge, go to the Microsoft 365 home page and open Copilot Chat.

2. Attach the three files listed above, then ask Copilot to build the account brief.

   goal

   Build a one-page account brief for Tailwind Traders that my sales manager can act on before the March pricing review.

   context

   I am the Canada Post account executive for this account. Tailwind is a mid-market outdoor-equipment manufacturer with five distribution centres, and their procurement manager has asked for a written proposal and a competitive benchmark at that review.

   sources

   Use only the three attached files - the account research notes, the account summary, and the discovery call notes. Do not add outside information about the company.

   expectations

   Keep it to one page, under the headings Account context, Business drivers, Opportunity themes, and Risks to validate. Name the source file under every claim, and put anything the files do not directly support under a final heading called Assumptions.

3. Read the response against the source files. Copilot should surface the reliability shortfall, the Calgary site, the volume band crossing, and the Northline trial. If any of those are missing, ask for them by name.

4. Now pressure-test the evidence. A brief that cannot survive your manager's questions is not finished.

   goal

   Separate what these files prove from what they only suggest.

   context

   My sales manager will challenge any claim I cannot source, and I would rather find the weak points now than during the review.

   sources

   Work only from the three attached files.

   expectations

   Give me three lists. Facts, quoting the line that states each one. Inferences that are reasonable but not stated, each with what would confirm it. And gaps, where I need something no file answers. Be strict - if it is only implied, it is not a fact.

5. Ask Copilot where the account is genuinely at risk, and where there is room to grow.

   goal

   Identify the three strongest service opportunities in this account and the single biggest threat to keeping it.

   context

   The customer’s stated requirement is 95% on-time delivery. They buy four services today and there are others they do not buy.

   sources

   Use the attached account files.

   expectations

   For each opportunity, give me what it addresses, the evidence behind it, and the one question I must answer before raising it. For the threat, tell me what it is, how much volume is exposed, and how confident the files let me be about that number.

6. Open Outlook and draft a short internal note to Lynne Robbins, your sales manager. Use Copilot in Outlook to tighten it.

   goal

   Draft a short internal email to my sales manager on where the Tailwind account stands and what I intend to do next.

   context

   She has not looked at this account since the July escalation and needs enough to decide whether to join the March review.

   sources

   Use the account brief from this conversation.

   expectations

   Under 200 words. Lead with the decision I need from her, then four short sections: where the account stands, what changed, what I am proposing, and what I need from her. Direct and factual, with no preamble.

7. Save both the brief and the email. You reuse them in Tasks 2, 4, 6, and 7.

Check your work

Your brief is ready to move on when all five are true:

• Every factual claim names the file it came from.
• Assumptions are in their own section, not mixed into the findings.
• It states the Calgary problem without asserting a cause.
• It quantifies the volume at risk and flags that the number is unverified.
• Your manager could read it in two minutes and know what to decide.

Stretch prompts

Starting out — get a fast orientation:

Summarize the attached Canada Post account files in five
bullets: who the customer is, what they buy, what is going
wrong, what they have asked for, and what is at risk.

Comfortable — build the argument:

Using the attached files, make the case that Tailwind is at
risk of moving volume away from Canada Post. Give me the three
strongest pieces of evidence, the strongest counter-argument,
and what I would need to check to settle it.

Confident — prepare for challenge:

Act as Miriam Graham, VP Supply Chain at Tailwind, who has
not been briefed on the service issues in detail. Read my
account brief and give me the five hardest questions you would
ask, and where my brief is currently weakest against each one.