{"id":"sales-feature-request-reply-no-roadmap-promise","audience":"sales","category":"sales-work","technique":"constraints","track":"sales","level":"intermediate","title":"Answer a feature request without making a roadmap promise","free":false,"task":"A prospect asked whether you will build a feature. Reply in plain text under 80 words, starting \"Hi Rhea,\". Say what the product does today for the need, say the request has been logged with Product, ask one question to understand the use case, and do not say or imply a date, a quarter, or that it is \"coming soon\" or \"planned\". Don't promise that it will be built.","materialLabel":"Prospect request and product status (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"Prospect: Rhea Banerjee, operations lead at Tidewater Seafood. Product: Dockline (cold-chain shipment tracking).\n\nRhea's question (Nov 5): \"Do you support automatic SMS alerts to our drivers when a reefer truck's temperature goes out of range? That's a must-have for us.\"\n\nProduct status:\n- Today: email alerts to dispatchers when temperature leaves a set range; alerts can be forwarded to any email address (including SMS gateways on some carriers, not officially supported).\n- SMS to drivers: not available. Product is 'evaluating' it; no decision, no date. Logging requests: reps submit them in the feature-request form.\n- Never say 'roadmap', 'coming soon', 'planned' or give a quarter. Never promise.\n\nRep: Kofi. Rhea's deadline for a decision on vendors: Dec 15.","rules":[{"type":"maxWords","max":80},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Hinting at a roadmap","why":"The AI says 'this is on our roadmap'.","fix":"Add: \"Don't say roadmap, coming soon, planned, or give any date.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Overselling the workaround","why":"The AI says SMS gateways work.","fix":"Add: \"Mention only today's email alerts.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"No question","why":"The AI ends with a pitch.","fix":"Add: \"Ask exactly one question about the use case.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Long reply","why":"The AI writes a long email.","fix":"Add: \"Plain text under 80 words.\"","checks":["r0","maxWords","plainText"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Sets the opener","patterns":["hi rhea"]},{"label":"States what exists today","patterns":["today","email alerts"]},{"label":"States what doesn't","patterns":["not available","logged"]},{"label":"Asks one question","patterns":["one question","use case"]},{"label":"Bans promises","patterns":["roadmap","coming soon","planned","date"]}],"hint":"Say what exists, what doesn't, the single question and the banned roadmap language.","rubricLabels":["Starts with \"Hi Rhea,\" and says that today Dockline sends email alerts to dispatchers when temperature leaves the set range","Says SMS alerts to drivers are not available today and the request has been logged with Product, and asks exactly one question about her use case","Contains no date, quarter, roadmap, coming soon, planned or promise that it will be built"]}