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Turn messy competitor notes into a fair snapshot

Practice: Catching mistakes and made-up facts. About 5 minutes.

About this exercise

Your sales lead wants a quick competitor snapshot she can paste into an email. You need exactly 3 numbered lines, one per competitor, each listing price, free plan (yes or no) and one standout feature in that order, under 80 words, plain text. Use the latest price for each, and mark anything that is only a rumor as 'Unconfirmed' instead of stating it as fact.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Accepting a table. The AI loves markdown tables, which break when pasted into email. Try: Say: "Exactly 3 numbered lines, plain text, no table."
  • Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it. Try: Cap each line instead: "each line under 20 words."
  • Using the old price. Both Brightlane prices are in the notes, and the AI may pick the first one. Try: Add: "Use the latest price for each; Brightlane is now $12."
  • No fixed field order. The AI writes a different mini-paragraph for each competitor, which is hard to compare. Try: Show it: "Name: price | free plan yes/no | standout feature".
  • Stating rumors as fact. The AI repeats the Reddit post and the sales-rep claim like news. Try: Add: "Label rumors Unconfirmed. Leave out our app ratings."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Fixes the field order
  • Uses the latest price
  • Labels rumors
  • Sets the number of lines
  • Sets a word limit

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