Copier Salespeople Already Know How to Prompt. They Just Don’t Know It Yet.

By Greg Walters

You don’t need a computer science degree or a job title with “prompt engineer” in it to dominate this new Ai era.

If you’ve ever done a real needs assessment, framed a lease conversation, or positioned an A3 when the prospect thought they needed an A4, you already know how to prompt. You just haven’t called it that yet.

This article is for copier reps, sales pros, and anyone who's ever sold in the trenches and is now staring at ChatGPT wondering how to make it useful.

Here’s how your sales instincts already are your prompt engineering superpower.

If you’ve ever asked a prospect, “What’s your average monthly volume?” or “Who’s in charge of approving this lease?”, guess what? You already know how to prompt a language model.

You’ve just never thought of it that way.

Salespeople, especially those of us who’ve sold copiers in the trenches, are already wired to think in prompts. We ask leading questions. We probe pain. We guide conversations toward outcomes. What the new generation of Ai tools demands isn’t a new skill set. It’s a reframe of an old one.

And that’s good news.

Most prompt engineering advice out there is either written by developers for other developers or so abstract it belongs in a philosophy class. But here’s the secret: You already know how to prompt ChatGPT if you’ve ever written an assessment, handled objections, or built a proposal from a discovery call.

Let’s break that open.

Open-Ended vs. Leading Questions

When you’re qualifying a buyer, you ask things like, “What does your print environment look like today?” or “Walk me through how your team handles documents.” That’s wide open. You’re fishing for context.

Then you steer:

“Would it be helpful if your team could print remotely without calling IT?”

That’s a leading question. It helps the buyer connect the dots.

Prompting works the same way.

You might start with:

“What are some risks in copier lease agreements?”

That’s open-ended.

Then narrow in:

“List five hidden costs in copier leases, including CPI increases and delivery fees.”

That’s leading. It’s the sales version of a scoped prompt.

Know how to use both? You’re already dangerous.

Socratic Layering

Let’s say the model gives you a shallow answer. You drill deeper the same way you would with a prospect. You don’t accept the first surface-level response, you keep peeling.

Try:

“What’s the consequence of that hidden fee for an SMB?”

“How would a competitor use that lease structure to win a deal?”

That’s what we do in real sales conversations. Now you’re doing it with a machine that thinks in patterns.

Objection Handling = Prompt Iteration

Sales reps are trained to isolate and overcome objections. You do the same thing when a model gives you something irrelevant or off the mark. You iterate.

The first answer isn’t the end of the conversation, it’s the beginning.

If you prompt:

“Write a proposal to save a customer money,”

…and it comes back with fluff, just like a vague prospect, you respond:

“Rewrite this with three hard numbers, specific copier models, and a real use case from a 25-employee firm.”

You’re redirecting the call. Just like always.

The Million-Dollar Mindset Shift

Here’s the real shift: You’re not using ChatGPT to replace your instincts. You’re using it to scale them.

Imagine turning every objection you’ve heard into a playbook. Every lease clause into a battlecard. Every pitch variation into a custom script in 10 seconds flat.

What if you started feeding ChatGPT your actual deals, and had it run them through:

• The Skeptic Test: “Where would a CFO poke holes in this offer?”
• The Jargon Test: “Rewrite this so a non-technical buyer understands.”
• The Trust Test: “What parts of this sound too good to be true?”

Now your prompts aren’t just content commands. They’re strategic accelerants.

This Isn’t a Trick. It’s a Force Multiplier.

You’ve spent years learning how to ask better questions. This tool rewards you for that. If you’re used to walking into offices cold and asking smart, high-leverage questions, you’re already halfway to mastering Ai-enhanced selling.

If not, this is your chance to learn fast.

The old guard thinks prompting is for nerds. The new pros see it for what it is: Sales psychology applied to an unlimited assistant.

This is the future of selling. You don’t need a PhD. You need curiosity, clarity, and the ability to think one step ahead, just like you always have.

We teach real sales reps how to use ChatGPT to write better quotes, prep for objections, and close faster. Join the next session of Using the LLM to Sell More.

​This is a hands-on, no-fluff training built for you and applicable, immediately.

reach out to us and we'll get the ball rolling, so you can crush the quota.

👉 grwalters@grwalters.com 👈