Some conversations change everything—not because of what’s said, but because of who’s listening.
In the era of Generative AI, we’ve crossed a threshold. We’re no longer just communicating with colleagues or customers—we’re communicating with intelligent systems. And just like any strategic dialogue, the outcome depends on the quality of your input.
That’s where prompt engineering comes into play. It’s the discipline of directing an AI system with intention, structure, and context—so that what you receive isn’t generic, but valuable. And for leaders building ecosystems, leading GTM strategy, or scaling new offerings, mastering this dialogue with AI has become a competitive imperative.
I’ve spent 25 years refining how to align teams, partners, and solutions. Now, I find myself applying those same instincts to something new: getting AI to think with me, not just for me.
Crafting Prompts Is Like Crafting a Strategic Brief
In business development, poorly defined objectives lead to wasted cycles. Think of a partner onboarding session where you say, “Just sell our solution.” That vagueness guarantees friction. Now consider saying, “Here’s how to position our offering to mid-market clients struggling with cost optimization in hybrid cloud.” Different outcome entirely.
AI models respond the same way. A vague prompt like “Tell me about partner strategy” returns broad, unhelpful content. But a well-framed prompt—“Summarize a go-to-market plan for onboarding regional software integrators into a cloud-based analytics partner program targeting financial services SMBs”—triggers focused, actionable responses.
Good prompts, like good strategy, come from understanding the audience, the problem, and the outcome you seek.
Why Does Prompt Engineering Matter?
Let’s say you want a product description for a new smartwatch.
- Prompt A: “Write something about a smartwatch.”
- Prompt B: “Write a 3-sentence product description for a fitness-focused smartwatch designed for teenagers, highlighting battery life and music features.”
Guess which one gives you a better result?
The difference is context and clarity. Prompt engineering teaches you how to guide the AI so it understands exactly what you want.
Zero-Shot to Chain-of-Thought: AI Techniques That Mirror Business Thinking
Terms like zero-shot, few-shot, and chain-of-thought prompting may sound technical, but they’re intuitive for anyone who’s led teams or built programs.
Zero-shot prompting is when the AI gets no examples—it relies on general knowledge. It’s like assigning a senior account manager to a well-known vertical and trusting their intuition. No handholding needed.
Few-shot prompting, on the other hand, is when you feed the model a couple of examples to guide its output. I use this approach when fine-tuning proposal drafts, sharing a format that’s worked for past deals and asking AI to replicate the tone, structure, or logic.
Chain-of-thought prompting is the real game-changer. It’s like watching a business analyst think out loud while building a scenario model: first identifying the assumptions, then mapping the logic, and finally recommending a course of action. This technique helps AI produce not just answers, but reasoning. And in strategic planning, that’s gold.
AI thrives on clarity.
Why Every Leader Should Pay Attention—Even If They Don’t Write Prompts Themselves
You might be leading a team, not typing prompts. But here’s the reality—your teams are already engaging with AI tools, whether in sales operations, marketing, partner onboarding, or customer support.
If they don’t know how to prompt effectively, they’re flying blind. Worse, they might think the AI’s answer is always right, instead of knowing how to push it to do better.
That’s why I’ve started embedding AI fluency—especially prompt literacy—into team enablement. In one recent GTM workshop with partners, we didn’t just talk about product features. We co-created prompts to auto-generate value propositions, solution briefs, and even training outlines based on real market data.
It wasn’t about replacing our thinking. It was about accelerating it—with strategic input, not guesswork.
Prompts Are the New Power Slides
Prompt engineering is less about coding and more about persuasion. Think of each prompt like a slide in an executive pitch: it should be clear, goal-oriented, and tailored to your audience.
When I needed to segment partner types across a fast-growing ecosystem, I didn’t ask the AI, “How do I segment partners?” I asked: “Design a tiered segmentation framework for technology partners across EMEA who vary in digital maturity, resource capacity, and co-marketing alignment. Highlight incentives and enablement needs per tier.”
The AI gave me a useful framework—not because it was clever, but because I was clear.
Prompting, like leadership, is about intent and clarity. It’s about framing the problem so the response leads to action.
Prompt Engineering as a Leadership Advantage
AI isn’t just for analysts or data scientists anymore. It’s in CRM systems, partner portals, onboarding journeys, sales playbooks. It’s embedded in the daily decisions that shape your revenue and growth.
As leaders, we must ask ourselves: do our teams understand how to guide AI? Do we?
Prompt engineering isn’t a side skill—it’s a strategic language. One that enables faster planning, better content, sharper messaging, and richer customer understanding. And it’s not just a tool—it’s a mindset.
I’ve seen it in action. From accelerating market research ahead of regional expansion, to dynamically refining channel playbooks based on AI-generated insights, prompt literacy is showing up where execution meets speed.
Speak with Purpose, Lead with Prompts
The future of work will be conversational—and not just between people.
We’ll brief AI systems like we brief team members. We’ll co-develop with machines that can think, write, and adapt—if we learn how to guide them well.
So don’t think of prompt engineering as technical. Think of it as the next evolution of strategic communication.
When you ask a better question, you get a better answer. And when you prompt with purpose, you lead with clarity.
Now imagine what your business could unlock—if everyone on your team knew how to ask the right questions, in the right way, to the right system.
📣 Let’s open the dialogue.
How are you upskilling your teams to speak the language of AI? Drop your thoughts or share your experience with prompt design and AI workflows on LinkedIn. The future belongs to those who know what to ask.