Stage diagnosis
What stage are you at — and what does that actually mean for marketing?
The same title means completely different jobs at different stages. Pick yours.
Pre-PMF: marketing cannot fix a product problem
At this stage the single most dangerous thing you can do is run marketing. Spending on acquisition before product-market fit is setting money on fire and calling it a growth strategy.
Before marketing spends anything, confirm:
At least one rep has closed a deal without the founder in the room
NRR above 100% — existing customers are expanding, not just staying
At least 20% of leads come from referral without you asking
PMF diagnostic — run this first
Here are our last 20 closed-won deals: [paste deal notes, size, source, ICP]. And our last 10 churned customers: [paste]. Diagnose: (1) do we have real PMF or founder-led traction? (2) what is our actual ICP based on closed-won patterns? (3) what is the one thing that would prove replicable PMF?
$3M–$10M: you are the system builder, not the pipeline engine
At this stage marketing does not generate pipeline. It builds the system that makes outbound land — ICP documentation, positioning architecture, sales enablement, air cover for the SDR team.
ICP sharpening prompt
Here are our last 20 closed-won deals tagged by ICP segment, ACV, and sales cycle length: [paste]. Identify: (1) the 2–3 ICP segments with the highest win rate, (2) the segments we keep pursuing that consistently lose, (3) one updated ICP definition the sales team and marketing can both use tomorrow.
$10M–$30M: scaling what works — before you know what works
At growth stage, the constraint shifts from pipeline to efficiency. You have enough data to be dangerous. The question is whether you are scaling the right motions or amplifying a broken system.
Pipeline lumpiness root cause
Here is our pipeline by week for the last 6 months, with source and deal size: [paste]. Our average sales cycle is [X] weeks. Diagnose: (1) root cause of lumpiness — is it channel concentration, cycle mismatch, or ICP? (2) what was different in the 3 strongest pipeline weeks? (3) minimum viable fix before we add more spend?
$50M+: category plays and board-level credibility
At scale, the CMO's job is no longer about tactics. It is about owning the category narrative, translating marketing performance into financial language, and building the org that executes the strategy.
Board-level marketing update
Here is our marketing performance data for this quarter: [paste]. Our revenue target was $[X]M. Write a 10-minute board update covering: (1) pipeline generated vs target — one number, no caveats, (2) what worked and why, (3) what did not work and what we are changing, (4) the one investment decision we need the board to make. Under 200 words total. No MQL counts.
By function
The highest-leverage Claude workflows — by what you actually own.
Workflow 1 · Pipeline
Win/loss pattern analysis — find the real ICP from deal data
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1
Export last 50 closed deals from CRM
Include: company size, ICP segment, deal source, sales cycle, ACV, who championed internally.
2
Tag wins and losses
Add a column: W or L. Add a second column: why you think it closed or why you think it did not.
3
Run the prompt
Paste the data and ask Claude to find the top 3 patterns separating wins from losses.
The prompt
Here are our last 50 closed deals tagged as won or lost, with: company size, segment, source, ACV, sales cycle length, and deal notes: [paste data]. Identify: (1) the top 3 characteristics of won deals — be specific, not generic, (2) the top 3 patterns in lost deals, (3) the 2 ICP segments with highest win rate, (4) one segment we should stop targeting based on this data.
Workflow 2 · Pipeline
Weekly pipeline brief — the one-page CEO update that builds trust
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Pipeline brief prompt
Here is our current pipeline data: [paste CRM export]. Our Q[X] target is $[X]M. Analyse: (1) our coverage ratio and whether it is realistic given average win rate of [X]%, (2) top 5 deals most likely to close this quarter and why, (3) deals I should remove from forecast — be direct, (4) the pipeline gap and what that implies for marketing this quarter. Write as a 3-paragraph brief I can send to the CEO. Under 200 words.
Workflow 3 · PMM
Positioning audit — does your homepage differentiate or describe?
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Positioning stress test
Here is our homepage copy: [paste]. Here are our top 3 competitors' homepages: [paste each]. Act as a senior VP at a [ICP company type] evaluating vendors in this category. After reading all four, tell me: (1) what impression you have of each company, (2) where our positioning sounds identical to competitors, (3) the one claim we make that no competitor makes — and whether it is believable, (4) the single change that would most sharpen our differentiation.
Workflow 4 · Content
AEO audit — are you the cited source or the invisible option?
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Before writing a word of new content, find out what AI engines say about your category — and whether you appear at all.
1
Test 10 buyer questions in Perplexity and ChatGPT
Ask the questions your buyer asks before they ever visit a website. "What is the best [category] for [ICP]?" "How do I solve [problem]?"
2
Note who gets cited — and why
The cited sources have specific content assets. Find the pattern: are they citing original data? Specific frameworks? Comparison content?
AEO content strategy prompt
Here are 10 questions our buyers ask AI search engines: [list]. Here is the content that currently ranks or gets cited for these questions: [paste what you found]. We currently rank for: [X]. Identify: (1) the 3 questions we could own fastest given our existing authority, (2) what content format gets cited most for this category, (3) one original dataset we could publish from our product data that no competitor has.
Workflow 5 · Sales enablement
Competitive battlecard — honest, not cheerleader
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Most sales battlecards are written by marketing about marketing's product. They are useless in the field because they do not acknowledge where competitors are legitimately stronger.
Battlecard prompt
We compete with [Competitor] regularly. Here is what we know about them: [paste public info, G2 reviews, lost deal notes]. Here is our product: [describe]. Build a battlecard for our sales team that: (1) honestly names the 2 areas where Competitor is legitimately stronger, (2) names the 3 areas where we win, with specific proof not generic claims, (3) gives a 2-sentence response to their most common attack on us, (4) names the buyer profile most likely to choose them vs us — so we qualify better.
Workflow 6 · Attribution
Build the CFO-trusted attribution narrative
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Attribution is a trust problem, not a technology problem. The CFO does not trust marketing's numbers because marketing reports what makes marketing look good, not what is true.
Attribution narrative prompt
Here is our pipeline data for last quarter by source and by influenced touchpoint: [paste]. Our CFO believes marketing contributes less than 20% of pipeline. Our internal attribution model shows 40%. Help me build an honest reconciliation: (1) what would a sceptical CFO challenge in our 40% claim? (2) what is the most defensible version of our contribution — one they cannot argue with? (3) what data would I need to collect to close this gap permanently?
Delegation map
What a CMO should own, delegate, and stop doing entirely.
The biggest leverage gain for a senior marketer with Claude is not doing things faster — it is rethinking what you should be doing at all.
CMO owns
ICP definition and sign-off—
Positioning architecture—
Board and CFO relationship—
CRO/VP Sales alignment—
Channel strategy and budget allocation—
Delegate to team
Content production and scheduling—
Campaign execution—
Weekly reporting compilation—
Social media management—
SEO and technical optimisation—
Delegate to Claude
First draft of all written content—
Data analysis and pattern finding—
Competitive research synthesis—
Meeting prep and briefing documents—
Stakeholder communication drafts—
Stop doing entirely
Writing copy yourself—
Manual data compilation for reports—
Reviewing every piece of content—
Attending every campaign review meeting—