Plan the next opportunity

By the end of this task, you will be able to build a targeted outreach plan from evidence already in your files, and open a conversation with an executive who has given you all the attention she intends to.

Your situation

The March review closed better than the two before it. Miriam Graham told you it was the first review in three years where she heard about a problem before she found it herself.

That earns you one more conversation, not a standing invitation.

Four services on the catalogue are unsold on this account. Their volume crosses into the next pricing band during the second quarter, which gives you a reason to be in touch that is about them rather than about you. Your job is to decide which one or two are worth raising, and to open with the person who signs.

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. Open Copilot Chat and attach the service catalogue, the research notes, and the performance workbook.

2. Narrow four services to two, on evidence rather than price.

   goal

   Tell me which of the services this customer does not buy actually fit their situation.

   context

   Four services are unsold on this account. The March review is closed and I want the next conversation to be about one or two of them, not all four.

   sources

   Use the service catalogue, the account research notes, and the twelve months of performance data.

   expectations

   Rank them by the evidence in the files, not by what they cost. For each, the one piece of evidence that argues for it, the one that argues against, and the question I would need answered before proposing it.

3. Build the plan around their calendar, not yours.

   goal

   Build me an outreach plan for the two services worth pursuing.

   context

   The customer’s volume crosses into the next pricing band during the second quarter, which gives me a reason to be in touch that is about them rather than about us. Three people matter and they care about different things.

   sources

   The ranking, the account notes, and the contact list.

   expectations

   For each person, what they care about, what I open with, what I am asking for, and what event triggers the contact. Put dates against the band crossing rather than against this week.

4. Move to Outlook and draft the opening email.

   goal

   Draft the email that opens this conversation with the VP Supply Chain.

   context

   Miriam Graham signs, thinks in total landed cost, and told me she has three carriers and about ten minutes each. She said the March review was the first in three years where she heard about a problem before she found it.

   sources

   The outreach plan, and the performance data behind it.

   expectations

   Under 150 words. One reason to read it, one number, one ask. No recap of the March review and no product description.

5. Now find out why it would not get read.

   goal

   Tell me what gets this email deleted.

   context

   It lands in the inbox of someone who reads it on a phone between meetings and has already given us more attention than she planned to.

   sources

   The draft.

   expectations

   The sentence that reads as a sales pitch, the sentence that asks for too much, and the sentence she would forward if she forwarded anything. Then the shortest version of this email that still works.

6. Send yourself the shortest version. Read it on your phone before you decide it is finished.

Check your work

• Two services, not four, each with the evidence that selected it.
• Every contact has a trigger event, not just a date.
• The email is under 150 words and carries one ask.
• It contains one number, and that number is about them.
• Nothing in it recaps the March review.

Stretch prompts

Starting out — find the opening:

Using the attached account files, give me three reasons to
contact this customer in the next quarter that are about
their business rather than our services.

Comfortable — write for three readers:

Rewrite this email three ways: for the VP who signs, the
procurement manager who checks, and the operations director
who is measured on delivery. Same ask, different first line.

Confident — plan the whole quarter:

Build me a contact plan for this account through to the band
crossing. For each touch, the trigger, the person, the ask,
and what tells me to skip it. Mark anything that depends on
something I have not confirmed.