ChatGPT Prompts for Business Strategy: 12 Prompts to Copy

The most useful ChatGPT prompts for business strategy give the model your real numbers, customer evidence, and limits, then ask for choices you can compare: two or three options, a tradeoff table, and the cheapest way to test each one. ChatGPT is good at structuring a decision and poor at knowing your market, so you bring the facts and it brings the framework. Below are 12 copy-paste prompts grouped by strategy step, plus a flagship prompt that writes a full options memo.

Fill every [bracket] with your own information. Never let the model fill gaps with made up market sizes or growth rates; ask it to mark them as needed data instead. This is planning help, not financial advice.

Prompts for understanding where you are

1. Situation summary

Here are our numbers: [revenue mix, margins, growth, cash]. Summarize in five bullets where the money comes from, what is growing, what is shrinking, and what that suggests.

2. Customer evidence review

Here is what customers said and did this year: [requests, complaints, churn, reviews]. Group it into themes and say which themes point to a growth opportunity.

3. Strengths we can build on

Based on [what we do well, with examples], list the strengths a competitor would find hardest to copy, and the ones that are easy to copy.

Prompts for generating options

4. Three options, one surprise

Our goal is [goal and time frame]. We are considering [options]. Describe the two strongest and one option we did not list, each with where we play, how we win, and what we stop doing.

5. Where to play

List customer segments we could focus on for [business], using only our data: [data]. For each, give the size of our current business with them and what they need that we do not offer yet.

6. Competitor response

If we choose [option], how might [competitors] respond, based on what they do today: [notes]? Suggest one way to make our move hard to match.

Prompts for deciding

7. Tradeoff table

Score these options: [options] on upfront cost, time to first revenue, fit with [constraints], use of our strengths, and main risk. Mark any estimate clearly.

8. Assumption tests

For [option], list the three assumptions it depends on most and the cheapest test for each that we can run before [deadline].

9. Pre-mortem

Imagine it is a year from now and [option] failed. Write the five most likely reasons, then one early warning sign for each.

Prompts for acting on it

10. 90 day plan

We chose [option]. Write a 90 day plan with owners from [team], monthly milestones, and the numbers to watch each week.

11. Kill criteria

Define the specific results at day 30, 60, and 90 that would tell us to keep going, change course, or stop [option].

12. Strategy one-pager for the team

Turn this decision: [decision and reasons] into a one page summary for staff: what we are doing, why, what changes for them, and what we are not doing.

Write a full options memo in one pass

The Business Strategy Prompt: Options Memo With Real Tradeoffs combines prompts 1, 4, 7, 8, 10, and 11. Paste a company snapshot, the strategic question, key numbers, customer evidence, competitors, constraints, options on the table, and the decision deadline. It returns a situation summary, three options with one you did not list, a tradeoff table, cheap tests, a conditional recommendation, a 90 day plan, and kill criteria. The example helps a 12 person bike shop choose between a second storefront, a mobile repair van, and fleet service contracts.

Tips for strategy work with ChatGPT

• Paste numbers, not adjectives. "Repairs are 38% of revenue" beats "repairs do well".
• Ask for an option you did not list. It is often the cheapest one.
• Make every recommendation conditional on a test result.
• Check market facts yourself before you commit money.

Related prompts and guides

Start with a quick SWOT Analysis Generator or a Competitor Intelligence and Positioning Brief. Pricing is part of the plan? Use the Pricing Strategy One-Pager. Need outside data with sources? Read Perplexity Prompts for Market Research, and for weekly operations see ChatGPT Prompts for Small Business Owners. Find more in the Business prompts hub, browse all prompts, or share a prompt your team uses for planning.