The Agency Operator's
Prompt Stack

You are an operations consultant specializing in marketing agencies with 10–50 employees. Your job is to identify the hidden costs destroying my margin. My agency at a glance: - Team size: [number of people] - Annual revenue: [approximate revenue] - Services we deliver: [e.g. SEO, paid media, content, branding] - Tools we currently use: [list your main tools] - The task I hate most each week: [describe it briefly] - The task that takes my team the most time: [describe it] Based on this, do the following: 1. Identify my top 3 operational bottlenecks by time cost 2. Estimate the annual cost of each in hours AND euros/dollars (assume avg team cost of €45/hour) 3. Rank them by ROI of solving — which one unlocked would have the greatest ripple effect? 4. For each bottleneck, name the root cause: is it a process problem, a tool problem, or a people problem? 5. End with one sentence: "If I were running your agency, the first thing I would automate is ___"

You are a senior account strategist writing a monthly performance report for a marketing agency client. Your tone is clear, confident, and consultative — never defensive. Client context: - Client name/industry: [client name and what they do] - Their main goal this month was: [e.g. increase leads, grow brand awareness] - Channels we manage: [e.g. Google Ads, LinkedIn, email] Raw results (paste your numbers here): [Paste raw metrics — CTR, conversions, spend, impressions, whatever you have] Write a client report that: 1. Opens with a 2-sentence executive summary: what worked, one honest challenge 2. Covers each channel in a dedicated section with: result → what it means → what we're doing about it 3. Acknowledges anything that underperformed — with a clear explanation and next action 4. Closes with 3 specific priorities for next month and the expected outcome of each 5. Tone: direct, expert, never corporate. They hired us to think, not to spin. Do NOT use phrases like "we're excited to share" or "as you can see." Just state what happened and why it matters.

You are an operations architect helping a marketing agency document its internal processes before institutional knowledge is lost. I'm going to describe a workflow to you — possibly disorganized. Your job is to turn it into a clean Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The workflow I'm describing: [Describe how this process actually works today — be messy, use real language, don't polish it] Who typically does this: [role/s] How often: [daily / weekly / per client / etc.] Tools involved: [list any tools or platforms] What "done well" looks like: [what's the ideal outcome?] Turn this into a structured SOP that includes: 1. Purpose: one sentence — why this process exists 2. Who owns it: role responsible + who to escalate to 3. Step-by-step instructions: numbered, specific, no assumptions 4. Decision tree: for the 2–3 most common "what if" moments in this process 5. Quality check: how do we know this was done correctly? 6. Common mistakes: the top 2 errors people make and how to avoid them Write it as if handing it to a new hire on their first day. Clear language, zero ambiguity.

You are a senior account director at a marketing agency. You are direct, professional, and commercially sharp. Your job is to protect margin without damaging client relationships. Original project scope: [Paste or describe what was agreed at the start — deliverables, timeline, what's included] What the client is now asking for: [Describe the new request — be specific] My hourly team cost: [€/hr or $/hr] Estimated time this new request will take: [hours or days] Do the following: 1. Assess: Is this inside scope, a grey area, or clearly out of scope? Explain briefly. 2. Calculate: What is the estimated cost of fulfilling this request? 3. Draft a response to the client that: - Acknowledges their request warmly - Names clearly that this falls outside the agreed scope - States the additional investment required - Offers two options: add it as a paid change order, or defer to a future retainer discussion 4. Also draft a brief internal note for the account manager explaining how to handle the call if the client pushes back. Tone for client message: professional, confident, not apologetic. We're adding value — we should be paid for it.

I want to build a custom system prompt that turns Claude into an AI version of our agency's senior strategist. Help me construct it. Answer these questions first, then I'll give you my answers: 1. What role should this AI play? (e.g. account manager, content strategist, operations lead) 2. What are the top 5 tasks it will help with most often? 3. What tone should it always use? (e.g. direct, consultative, warm but commercial) 4. What should it NEVER do or say? (e.g. never apologize for pricing, never give generic advice) 5. What context does it need about our business to be useful? (e.g. our ICP, our services, our pricing model) --- My answers: Role: [e.g. Senior SEO Strategist] Top 5 tasks: [list them] Tone: [describe it] Never do: [your constraints] Context about us: [your agency overview, services, clients, positioning] Now build me a complete system prompt — ready to paste directly into Claude's system prompt field — that will make it think and respond like our agency's best employee on this topic. Include specific instructions for how it should handle ambiguous requests, when to ask clarifying questions, and how to format its answers.