Getting the Most Out of ChatGPT: Prompting Tips & Tricks for Business Users
You're already using ChatGPT. Here's how to get sharper, more useful answers with a few small changes to how you ask.
If you've used ChatGPT for a while, you've probably noticed the results are hit or miss. Sometimes the answer is exactly what you needed. Other times it's generic, off-tone, or just not useful. The difference usually isn't the tool — it's the prompt.
Good news: you don't need to learn "prompt engineering" as a discipline. A handful of small habits will noticeably improve what you get back, starting with your very next chat.
Why Prompts Matter More Than People Think
ChatGPT doesn't know your business, your customers, or what "good" looks like to you unless you tell it. A vague prompt like "write a marketing email" forces it to guess — your industry, your tone, your audience, your goal. It'll guess reasonably well, but reasonably well isn't the bar you want.
A better prompt gives it the same things you'd give a new employee on their first task: context, role, audience, and a clear picture of the finished product. The more of that you provide up front, the less back-and-forth editing you'll do after.
Real Business Tasks Where This Pays Off
A few everyday uses where a well-built prompt makes a real difference:
- Drafting emails. Instead of "write an email about the price increase," try: "Write a short, professional email to our long-time customers explaining a 5% price increase starting next quarter. Tone should be appreciative, not apologetic. Keep it under 150 words."
- Summarizing long documents. Paste in a contract, report, or long email thread and ask for a summary in a specific format — "Summarize this in 5 bullet points, then list any deadlines or dollar amounts mentioned."
- Brainstorming. Ask for options, not answers. "Give me 10 possible names for this service" or "What are three different angles we could take for this LinkedIn post?"
- Turning meeting notes into action items. Paste in messy, unedited notes and ask ChatGPT to pull out decisions made, owners, and deadlines into a clean list. This alone saves most managers real time every week.
- First drafts of policies. Ask for a first draft of a remote work policy, a PTO policy, or a customer refund policy based on a few bullet points you give it. It won't be final — treat it as a starting point your team and, where appropriate, your attorney reviews.
7 Prompt Tricks to Start Using Today
- Give it a role. "You're an experienced office manager reviewing this policy" gets a different, often better, answer than no role at all.
- Tell it who the audience is. "Explain this to a customer with no technical background" versus "explain this to our IT team" produces two very different — and both useful — explanations.
- Give it an example of the format you want. If you want a table, a numbered list, or an email with a specific structure, show it a quick example. It will match the pattern closely.
- Ask it to ask you clarifying questions first. Add "Before you answer, ask me any questions you need to give a better response." This single line prevents a lot of wasted first drafts.
- Ask for three versions and pick one. Rather than accepting the first draft, ask for three options at different tones or lengths, then choose or combine the best parts.
- Paste in real content and ask it to match the voice. Give it a past email or blog post you liked and say "match this tone and style." It's much better at imitating a real example than guessing at "friendly but professional."
- Tell it what to leave out. "Don't use exclamation points" or "skip the intro paragraph and get straight to the point" is often more useful feedback than telling it what to add.
None of these require special software or a paid plan — they're just habits. Try adding one or two to your next few prompts and notice the difference in the first response.
If your team is exploring more advanced use cases — connecting AI tools into daily workflows, not just one-off chats — that's worth a broader look. Our AI consulting and implementation services cover exactly that kind of planning.
What Not to Paste Into ChatGPT
A quick, honest note: treat ChatGPT like you would any outside vendor you don't have a data agreement with. Don't paste in:
- Customer personal information (SSNs, account numbers, health information)
- Passwords, API keys, or login credentials
- Confidential contracts, financial statements, or anything under an NDA
- Employee personal data beyond what's needed for the task
Most everyday business writing — emails, summaries, brainstorming, drafts — doesn't require any of that. When in doubt, swap in placeholder names ("Customer A," "$X amount") and ask the question in the abstract. This isn't about avoiding AI — it's basic data governance, the same instinct you'd apply before emailing something to a personal account.
What This Says About Your Organization's AI Maturity
How comfortable and effective your team is with a tool like ChatGPT — day to day, not just occasionally — is actually a meaningful signal. In our AI Business Maturity Model (AIBMM), that shows up mostly in the Culture and Talent dimensions: are people encouraged to experiment, do they know good prompting habits, and is there any shared knowledge instead of everyone starting from zero?
Teams that prompt well individually but never share what works are leaving maturity — and time savings — on the table. If you're curious where your organization actually stands across all six AIBMM dimensions, our AI Business Maturity Assessment is a good next step.
And if you'd rather just talk it through, contact us — no pitch, just a conversation about where AI fits into how your team already works.
