Playbook: Alex for Consultants

Your reference for using Alex across the consulting lifecycle. Ready-to-run prompts for proposals, deliverables, frameworks, and client management.

What This Guide Is Not

This is not a habit formation guide (see Self-Study Guide for that). This is a consulting toolkit — the specific ways Alex can accelerate your client work, and the prompts that deliver.

Where to Practice These Prompts

Every prompt in this guide works with any AI assistant — ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub Copilot, Gemini, or whatever tool you prefer. The prompts are the skill; the tool is just where you type them. Pick the one you’re comfortable with and start today.

For an integrated experience, the Alex VS Code extension (free) was purpose-built for this workshop. It understands consulting context, lets you save effective prompts with /saveinsight, and brings your playbook and practice exercises into one workspace. VS Code is a free editor that takes minutes to set up, even if you’ve never used it before.

You don’t need a specific tool to benefit. You need the habit of reaching for AI when the work is genuinely hard — not just when it’s repetitive.

Core Principle for Consultants

Consulting is about solving problems clients can’t solve themselves — and getting paid to do it well. Alex’s highest value is in the leverage: faster research, better-structured thinking, and more polished deliverables. But the strategic insight, the client relationship, and the judgment call — those are yours.

The key pattern: bring your frameworks. Alex can operationalize your methodology, not invent it. Feed it your approach, your templates, your way of structuring problems — and let it help you execute faster.

The Seven Use Cases

1. Proposal and Pitch Writing

When to use: Responding to RFPs, writing proposals, preparing pitch decks.

Prompt pattern:

Help me write a proposal:

Client: [industry, size, situation — anonymized as needed]
Opportunity: [what they need]
Our approach: [how we'd solve it]
Differentiators: [why us]
Timeline: [proposed duration]
Budget range: [if known]

Create a proposal structure with:
1. Executive summary that leads with their problem, not our capabilities
2. Understanding of their situation (shows we've listened)
3. Proposed approach and methodology
4. Timeline and milestones
5. Team and qualifications
6. Investment and terms

Follow-up prompts:

The client cares most about speed. Emphasize that.

We're competing against [type of competitor]. Differentiate us.

Make the executive summary punchier — it's for a busy executive.

Try this now: A mid-market manufacturing client has issued an RFP for digital transformation consulting. They want to modernize their ERP, but their IT team is four people and their last software project went 3x over budget. Paste the RFP requirements and your differentiators into the proposal prompt. The first draft will not win the deal — but it will give you a structure to sharpen, and it will flag the risk areas where your proposal needs to address the client’s past failures honestly.

2. Framework Development and Application

When to use: Structuring problems, developing analytical approaches, applying existing frameworks.

Prompt pattern:

Help me apply a framework to this problem:

Framework: [describe your methodology or name a standard framework]
Client situation: [the problem they're facing]
Available data: [what information we have]
Constraints: [timeline, resources, access]

Help me:
1. Adapt the framework to this specific situation
2. Define the key questions to answer
3. Identify the analysis we need to perform
4. Structure the work into workstreams
5. Define what a good answer looks like

Follow-up prompts:

This framework doesn't quite fit. How do I adapt it?

What's missing from this analysis?

The client pushes back on frameworks. How do I make this feel custom?

3. Research and Analysis

When to use: Industry research, competitive analysis, market sizing, data synthesis.

Prompt pattern:

Help me research [topic]:

Client context: [why they need this]
What we need to understand: [key questions]
What we already know: [starting knowledge]
Deliverable: [how this will be used]

Help me:
1. Structure the research into key areas
2. Identify the types of sources to consult
3. Develop hypotheses to test
4. Create an analysis framework
5. Anticipate what the data might show

Follow-up prompts:

We have this data. What does it suggest?
[paste or describe data]

The data is messy/incomplete. How do we work around that?

What would change our conclusion?

4. Deliverable and Slide Development

When to use: Creating client presentations, reports, and documents.

Prompt pattern:

Help me structure a deliverable:

Purpose: [what decision this supports]
Audience: [who will see it]
Format: [deck / report / memo / workshop]
Key findings: [what we learned]
Recommendations: [what we suggest]
Length: [target pages/slides]

Create an outline with:
1. Narrative arc (situation → insight → recommendation)
2. Key slides/sections with headline messages
3. Supporting evidence for each point
4. Anticipated questions and where to address them
5. Clear ask or next steps

Follow-up prompts:

Write the executive summary slide.

This finding is complex. How do I visualize it?

The client prefers reading documents to slides. Convert this.

5. Workshop and Facilitation Design

When to use: Planning client workshops, offsites, working sessions.

Prompt pattern:

Help me design a workshop:

Purpose: [what we need to accomplish]
Participants: [who's in the room, their roles]
Duration: [how long]
Key outputs: [what we need to walk away with]
Constraints: [dynamics, sensitivities, logistics]

Create a workshop plan with:
1. Agenda with timing
2. Opening that sets context and rules
3. Key exercises with instructions
4. Discussion prompts
5. Synthesis and next steps
6. Pre-work if needed

Follow-up prompts:

There's conflict between participants. How do I manage that?

We're stuck on [topic]. Design an exercise to break through.

Create a participant packet for pre-reading.

6. Client Communication and Relationship

When to use: Status updates, difficult conversations, escalations, relationship management.

Prompt pattern:

Help me communicate with my client:

Situation: [what's happening]
Message: [what they need to know]
Relationship context: [is this good news, bad news, neutral]
Client personality: [detail-oriented, big picture, skeptical, etc.]
Next steps: [what you need from them]

Write a [email / call script / talking points] that:
1. Respects their time
2. Leads with what matters to them
3. Is honest about challenges without creating panic
4. Proposes solutions, not just problems
5. Makes the ask clear

Follow-up prompts:

The project is behind. How do I communicate that?

We need to push back on scope creep. Help me frame it.

The client sponsor changed. How do I rebuild the relationship?

7. Thought Leadership and Business Development

When to use: Writing articles, developing IP, creating BD materials.

Prompt pattern:

Help me develop thought leadership:

Topic: [what you want to write about]
Audience: [prospective clients, industry]
Your angle: [what's distinctive about your perspective]
Format: [article / white paper / LinkedIn post / webinar]
Goal: [lead generation / credibility / specific opportunity]

Create:
1. A compelling angle or thesis
2. Outline with key points
3. Examples or case studies to reference
4. A clear takeaway for the reader
5. A call to action that generates leads

Follow-up prompts:

Make this less generic — what would make a [industry] executive stop scrolling?

Develop this into a 5-post LinkedIn series.

What's the webinar version of this content?

Your AI toolkit: These prompts work in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini — and in the Alex VS Code extension, which was designed around them. Start with whatever you have. The skill transfers across all of them.

What Great Looks Like

After consistent use, you should notice:

Faster proposals with better win rates
More structured deliverables
Higher-impact workshops
More consistent BD activity

The goal isn’t for Alex to be a consultant — it’s for Alex to help you consult at a higher level.

Practice Plan

Day	Focus	Time
Day 1	Proposal Writing — draft a proposal for a current or mock engagement	30 min
Day 2	Framework Application — apply a structured framework to a real client problem	30 min
Day 3	Deliverable Development — outline a client presentation with narrative arc	25 min
Day 4	Thought Leadership — draft a LinkedIn article or white paper outline for BD	30 min
Day 5	Review the week’s prompts — save your three best with /saveinsight	25 min

Month 2–3

Shift from guided exercises to independent workflows — build templates, integrate AI into your real projects, and create reusable prompt libraries for repeating tasks.

Track Your Growth

/saveinsight Proposal Frameworks: reusable proposal structure for [industry/engagement type]

/saveinsight Client Deliverable Templates: slide narrative arc that worked for [deliverable type]

Continue your practice: Self-Study Guide has weekly challenges to keep building your skills after the workshop ends.

Confidentiality Note: Client work involves confidential information. Anonymize client details in prompts, don’t paste proprietary client data, be thoughtful about competitive intelligence, and remember your engagement agreements. Your reputation rests on trust.