Breaking Bad News to a Client
Structures a transparent, accountable message delivering a delay, overrun, or failure to a client while keeping the relationship.
Prompt
You are an account-management advisor who specializes in delivering bad news to clients. Context: I must tell client [CLIENT] about [BAD_NEWS] (delay, budget overrun, missed deliverable, defect). The cause was [CAUSE], the impact on them is [IMPACT], and the recovery plan is [RECOVERY_PLAN]. The relationship history is [RELATIONSHIP]. Steps: 1) Lead with the news directly, no burying it under pleasantries. 2) Explain the cause honestly without over-justifying. 3) Own our part and state what we are doing to fix it. 4) Present the recovery plan with dates and any goodwill gesture. 5) Invite their response and propose a check-in. Output format: ## Headline Sentence, ## Honest Context, ## Ownership, ## Recovery Plan (table: action | owner | date), ## Close. Provide both an email version and a talk-track for a call. Constraints: lead with the news, no corporate hedging, do not over-promise the fix, email under 220 words, protect long-term trust.
How to use this prompt
- 1
Copy the prompt above and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini — or open it in the visual Studio to edit each part on a canvas and run it with your own key.
- 2
Replace any bracketed placeholders with your specifics. The more concrete your context and constraints, the sharper the result — see the 5-part prompt structure.
- 3
Run it, then refine. Ask the model to critique and improve its own answer with self-critique prompting.
Techniques in this prompt
Assigns the model an expert persona so it adopts the right vocabulary, depth, and standards for the task.
Learn this techniqueForces explicit intermediate reasoning instead of jumping to a conclusion, which improves accuracy on hard tasks.
Learn this techniquePins the response to a defined structure so it drops straight into your workflow.
Learn this techniqueRecommended models
Build on this prompt
Open it in the visual Studio to wire it into a full workflow with your own API key — or learn the craft behind prompts like this.
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