For people who work in sales, marketing, press and communications, social media, or run a small business such as a shop, a restaurant or an agency. Everything in this field goes out under your name: a proposal to a customer, a reply to a review, a press release a journalist will copy as it is. The cases start from the jobs that come back every week and show the request to copy, adapted to your situation.
Each case says what to check before the text leaves the office: prices and discounts against your price list, quotes nobody said, facts the model added on its own. The first two cases summarise two full walkthroughs, graphics with Canva and Claude Design and a website run from the chat. The cases were tested in Claude in the Italian edition of this guide, and the cases that report what the model did in a test were tested again in English on these documents, in November 2026. Where a test showed a typical mistake, the case says so.
Where the test used a fictional document, the case offers it for download: you can redo the test and compare the answer with what the case describes.
Before you start: what goes out carries your name
People in sales and communications write for the outside world: customers, journalists, whoever reads a review. Four rules apply to every case below.
- Prices, discounts, dates and terms come from your price list and your notes, never from the model. Put them in the request and ask it not to add any.
- Quotes from real people are written with those people. A model asked to "give the chair a line" invents a plausible sentence: leave a gap to fill in.
- No customer data in a personal tool: to answer a complaint, the text of the complaint and the facts are enough, without name, address and order number.
- What you publish online stays there. Every text for the outside world goes past a person who has read all of it first.
1. Graphics: the everyday post and the proposal
The situation. Two different jobs. The everyday graphic, the post or the flyer in the office template. And the proposal: three directions for a visual identity to discuss with a client.
The request. For the first job, Canva connected as a connector: "In Canva create three versions of a square post for [event]. Use exactly this text: [text]." If the office has brand templates, start from those. For the second, Claude Design (from the "/" menu in the chat) with a brief you write yourself: who the client is, what they want to say, what to avoid, the pieces needed, three different directions with one line each.
What to check. In the post: dates, times, names letter by letter, the logo, the sizes the channel requires. In the proposal: originality. A generated symbol can look like a registered trade mark without the model knowing; before you present it, search for the symbol and the name.
The full walkthrough. Carried out for real, with a post in Canva and three directions in Claude Design: Graphics: Canva and Claude Design. One hour.
Stages. 16 (your data, connected), 5 (the finished work).
2. The website, run from the chat
The situation. The business website needs frequent updates: a text, a new page, a contact form. Every time you have to call someone.
The request. With a service you control from the chat (in the example Base44, connected as a connector): "Create a branch called test and work only there. On the Contact page add a form with name, email and message. Do not touch the other pages. At the end give me the preview link and the list of files you changed."
What to check. The preview, on the computer and on the phone, before publishing. The list of changed files: if one of them has nothing to do with the job, ask why. A restore point before publishing, and the publishing done by you.
The full walkthrough. How the website of this guide is kept running: A website run by the model. An hour and a half the first time.
Stages. 16, 19 (the first task handed over in full).
3. Before meeting a prospective client
The situation. Tomorrow you meet a company you do not know. You need ten minutes of serious preparation.
The request. With web search switched on:
"Prepare a brief on [company] for a first sales meeting: what it does, size (turnover and number of employees, with the year), news from the last twelve months, who makes decisions in the area I am interested in, if that is public. Every piece of information with its source and date. At the end, three questions to ask at the meeting. Today is [date]."
What to check. The company's figures: year and source, because turnover figures from different years sit side by side online. People: a name found on a website two years old may have left. For a UK company, filed accounts and current directors are on Companies House, and a name in the brief can be checked there. What is not public should not be looked for elsewhere: the brief stops at what the company and the press say. A name that comes from a third-party website should be marked in the brief as still to be checked; if it is not, ask the model where each name comes from. In the test, on Renishaw plc, turnover and profit were right and dated to the year ended 30 June 2026 (checked on the company's results announcement); the head of IT came only from profile websites, and the model marked him as still to be checked and said that who buys IT services is not public.
Stages. 15 (when it searches instead of remembering), 4 (the check).
4. The sales proposal from the price list
The situation. A client asks for three services, has a budget, wants a discount and also asks for something you do not offer.
The request. Paste the client's request and the internal price list, then:
"Prepare the proposal for this client using only the prices and terms in the price list. Work out the total with a program. Answer every question the client asks: where the price list says no, write a polite no with the alternative the price list offers. Do not grant discounts beyond those in the price list. At the end, separately, the things I have to decide. Today is [date]."
To redo the test. The fictional document used: case4_request_and_price_list.txt.
What to check. The discount: the model tends to please the client, and an extra discount written in a proposal is a commitment. The total, worked out again, and whether it is with or without VAT. The timing: if the client asks for a date, the proposal must say what it depends on (the signature, the client's copy). The services you do not offer: a clear no, because "we will look into it" reads as a promise. And the additions: every line that does not come from the price list or the request needs a look. In the test the discount stayed at 10%, the 15% went among the decisions for the account manager, the VAT rate was left as "the applicable rate" because the price list does not give it, and nothing was added to the proposal.
Stages. 2 (the same request, done well), 7 (Excel: formulas, data and charts).
5. Replying to reviews
The situation. Five new reviews: one delighted, one with a real delay, one that blames the restaurant for an illness, one with a wrong price, one that names a member of staff.
The request. Paste the reviews and your notes, then:
"Write a public reply to each review, four lines at most, polite tone. Use only the facts in my notes. Do not admit any liability my notes do not admit, do not promise refunds, do not repeat staff names or personal details. If a fact in the review is wrong, correct it gently."
To redo the test. The fictional document used: case5_reviews.txt.
What to check. Admissions: a public reply that says "we are sorry for the illness we caused" is a statement that stays online. Names: the reply must not repeat the staff member's name. Promises: a free dessert can go in if it is in the notes, a refund cannot. The wrong price: corrected, without calling anyone a liar.
6. The press release
The situation. An opening, a result, an event. The notes are there, the press release is not.
The request. Paste the notes, then:
"Write a one-page press release: headline, standfirst, an opening paragraph with who, what, when and where, then the details, 'ENDS', notes to editors and the media contact. Use only the facts in the notes. For statements by people leave a gap in square brackets: [quote from the chair to be collected]. Do not invent quotes."
To redo the test. The fictional document used: case6_press_release_notes.txt.
What to check. Quotes: if words appear in quotation marks that nobody said, take them out. This includes the council leader or the mayor: a line from an elected official is collected from their office. Figures and dates against the notes, above all the figures journalists will copy as they are (the investment, the public grant). Adjectives: a release full of "groundbreaking" and "state-of-the-art" ends up in the newsroom bin. Verbs too: "the chair will speak" is a quote in disguise if the notes give only his name. In the test the quotes stayed in square brackets, the council leader "will attend" as the notes said, and the gaps the notes left (date, address, name of the grant scheme) were marked and listed.
Stages. 2, 6 (Word and Outlook).
7. The same announcement for three channels
The situation. An announcement to publish on LinkedIn, in the newsletter and on Instagram, each with its own tone and length.
The request. Paste the announcement, then:
"Adapt this announcement for three channels: a LinkedIn post of at most 1,300 characters, a paragraph for the newsletter, an Instagram caption of at most 600 characters with at most five hashtags. The same facts in all three: dates, times, address, terms of the discount. At the end, the length of each text counted with a program."
To redo the test. The fictional document used: case7_announcement.txt.
What to check. The terms: "10% off all books on opening day, in the new shop only" easily turns into "10% off" and nothing more. Dates and address, identical in the three texts. Lengths: models count characters badly by eye, which is why you ask for the count to be done with a program.
8. Six months of sales
The situation. An export of sales by product and by month. You want to know what sells, what does not, and how the last month went.
The request. Upload the file, then:
"Check the file first: missing months, negative rows, odd values; tell me what you find. Then with a program: revenue by product and by month, the ranking of products, the trend in a chart. Keep returns separate from sales."
To redo the test. The fictional document used: case8_sales.csv.
What to check. The missing month: if a month is absent, a trend line drawn from one point to the next invents a stretch of line, and the monthly average changes depending on whether that month counts as zero or as absent. Returns: negative rows that, added to sales, lower a product's revenue without anyone seeing it. The ranking: by quantity and by revenue it is not the same.
9. Answers to customers' questions
The situation. The same questions arrive every week: delivery, returns, refunds. The rules exist, but they are scattered.
The request. Paste the shop's rules and a month of questions, then:
"Group these questions by topic and write the frequently asked questions with their answers, using only the rules. For each answer, the number of the rule. Put the questions the rules do not answer to one side, with no answer: I will decide those."
To redo the test. The fictional document used: case9_customer_emails_and_rules.txt.
What to check. The questions with no answer: they are the point of the request, and a model that answers them anyway invents a shop rule (gift wrapping, payment by bank transfer). Answers that rely on outside knowledge, such as whether an address is in the United Kingdom: the model should say so. In the test it put the Jersey questions to one side and said that, as far as it knew, Jersey is not part of the United Kingdom, but that this came from outside the rules and the decision was yours. The rule numbers: open two of them. Your rules also have to respect consumer law on returns and refunds: the model works with the rules you give it and does not check them. When the answers are right, they can become a project (stage 12) that answers new questions with the same rules.
Cases tested on 7 November 2026.