Guide
How to set up a Claude project for sales
For sales, set up one Claude project per territory or key account and give it three things. Instructions with your product, who you sell to and the rules for every task, such as never quoting a discount that isn't approved. Knowledge files: the product one-pager, the current price list, case studies and the account's notes. And a brief for the job that matters most on a key account, the 90-day account plan: renewal health first, the people and where they stand, where the customer could grow, the risks, and three to five plays with an owner and a date each. Projects are on every Claude plan (up to five on Free), and on Team and Enterprise you can share one with the account team.
Short answer
- Instructions: product, buyers, every-task rules.
- Knowledge: one-pager, price list, case studies, account notes.
- The account plan brief: health first, then people, growth, risks, plays.
- No invented numbers, prices or discounts.
What goes where
| Part of the project | What to put in it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Instructions | What you sell, to whom, rules for every task, default format | "Account manager for HR software sold to 200 to 1,000-person companies. Prices only from the price list; no discount without the sales director." |
| Knowledge | Documents the answers should come from | One-pager, current price list, three case studies, the account's notes |
| Chats | One task each | "Account plan for Calder Foods for the next 90 days" |
From the Claude Help Center's page on projects, read 5 November 2026.
The account plan brief to copy
Account plan brief
"Write a 90-day plan for this account from the notes.
Start with renewal health, green, yellow or red. Red if any of: usage down over 20% in 90 days, the sponsor left, an open escalation, or no contact with the buyer in 60 days. If red, the first two plays fix health, not expansion.
Map the people: role, what they care about, stance (champion, supporter, neutral, skeptic), last contact. Mark the economic buyer, any blocker, and any team that uses us with no named contact.
Describe current use in their words; use only numbers they gave. List whitespace ranked by evidence, and risks with a mitigation each.
Write three to five plays: goal, first action, owner, date, how we'll know. One play reaches someone we haven't met. End with one measure and today's value.
Notes: [paste]"
A worked example
Illustration: a made-up business. Priya is an account manager at an HR software company. Her account Calder Foods has 300 staff and renews in March. Her notes: logins down 25% over the last 90 days; the HR operations lead is a fan; the CFO signs and was last contacted 70 days ago; the payroll team uses the product but nobody there knows her; an open ticket about the time-off module. The plan, in part:
From the account plan
Health: red. Usage down over 20% in 90 days, and no contact with the buyer in 60 days. The first two plays fix health.
Gap: payroll uses the product with no named contact.
Play 1: close the time-off ticket. First action: a call with support and the HR operations lead. Owner: Priya. By 20 November. Worked if: ticket closed and the lead confirms.
Play 2: a usage review with the HR operations lead, to find which teams stopped logging in and why. Owner: Priya. By 27 November.
Play 3: meet the payroll lead, through the HR operations lead. Owner: Priya. By 4 December.
Measure: renewal signed by 31 January. Today: not started.
The plan has no expansion play: with health red, growth waits. Priya checks the dates against her calendar and saves the plan in the project's knowledge, so next month's plan starts from it.
Set yours up
- Create one project per territory or key account.
- Write the instructions: product, buyers, every-task rules, default format.
- Add the knowledge: one-pager, current price list, case studies, account notes.
- Draft one account plan with the brief above, and check every number against your notes.
- Keep customer data on the company's account; see what not to paste.
Next step: the same plan across the team
A project helps one rep; the team still plans accounts its own way. The sales team AI playbook covers agreeing the jobs and sharing one set of instructions for each. For what projects can and can't do, see Claude Projects explained.
Skills for this
- SalesAccount expansion planBuilds an expansion plan for an existing customer: renewal health, stakeholder map, current use, whitespace, risks, and 90-day plays with owners.
- Customer successQBR deck outline and talking pointsPrepares a quarterly business review: outcomes vs goals, usage that explains them, ROI in the customer's numbers, roadmap asks, and next quarter's plan.
- Customer successChurn-risk note for an accountWrites a churn-risk note on one account: risk level with evidence, a root-cause hypothesis, a save plan with owners and dates, and what to tell the customer.
- SalesDeal review with MEDDICC or BANTScores a deal against MEDDICC or BANT from the buyer's own words, lists each gap with a next action, and suggests a forecast category.
Questions
How can sales reps use Claude?
Set up one project per territory or key account: instructions with your product, who you sell to and the rules for every task; knowledge files with the one-pager, the current price list, case studies and the account's notes; and a chat per task inside it. On a key account, the most useful repeated job is the 90-day account plan.
What should a sales project's instructions say?
What you sell and to whom, what a good answer does, the rules that apply to every task (never quote a price or discount that isn't in the price list or approved, never promise a feature on the roadmap), and the default format. Long documents go in the project's knowledge, not the instructions.
Can I share a Claude project with my account team?
On Claude Team and Enterprise, yes, as Can view or Can edit. On Free, Pro, Max and Ultra, projects aren't shared, so each person keeps their own copy, and customer data belongs on the company's account in any case.
AI skill
Have your AI plan how to grow an existing account
Put this skill in AI Skill Pod and everyone on your team gets it in their Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT (Pro, Business, Enterprise): one invite link, free to start. Account expansion plan has your AI write a 90-day account plan from your notes: renewal health first, a stakeholder map with gaps, current use in the customer's words, whitespace ranked by evidence, risks, three to five plays with owners and dates, and one measure.
14 days free · No card needed
Sources
- Claude Help Center: What are projects? — project instructions and a knowledge base per project; every plan, Free up to five projects; sharing on Team and Enterprise as Can view or Can edit (read 2026-11-05)
- Anthropic Privacy Center: commercial products — Claude for Work not used for training by default (read 2026-11-05)
- Claude Docs: Prompting best practices — context and examples improve results (read 2026-11-05)