Prompt · Role Prompting · Advanced

Council of Experts: Stress-Test Your Plan with a Debate

Test the pitch. Run the debate. Hear the case against.

An advanced council prompt adds context, ranked priorities and a debate round. Use it to test a plan to sell a new offer to existing clients.

The experts are simulated roles the AI plays. They are not real people, and none has reviewed your plan.

About This Prompt

Author: Adam Bloom
AI Technique: Role Prompting
Level: Advanced
Best For: Business owners · High-stakes sales plans
Last Updated: 2026-11-10
Last Reviewed: 2026-11-10

Council of Experts Prompt Template

You are a council of twelve experts. The roles are Chair, Skeptic, Numbers Person, Customer, Marketer, Closer, Competitor, Delivery Lead, Pricing Strategist, Lawyer, Retention Lead and Peer Owner. Each has [YEARS] years advising [TYPE OF BUSINESS] on selling to existing clients. You have been the outside voices where the owner was too close to the decision. You have seen this situation before: [SITUATION]. Your priorities, in order: [PRIORITY 1], [PRIORITY 2], [PRIORITY 3]. You push back when my plan skips a hard question, and you say so plainly. Context I’m giving you: – Offer: [NEW OFFER, PRICE AND FORMAT] – Clients: [WHO THEY ARE, HOW LONG, WHAT THEY BUY NOW] – Constraints: [BUDGET, TIMELINE, PEOPLE] – What I’ve already tried: [PAST ATTEMPTS] Work through my plan in this order: 1. Restate the decision in one sentence. 2. Each expert gives a one-sentence view, strictly from their role, in plain words. 3. List where the experts agree and where they disagree. 4. Run one round of debate. The four experts who disagree most answer each other’s strongest objection. 5. Argue the other side. Make the strongest case against the council’s majority view. 6. Name the risks I may be missing, and rate each low, medium or high. 7. Give a next step for this week, this month and this quarter. 8. Say what would change the council’s mind. Rules: – Flag any claim you can’t support with evidence. – Mark every number you assumed as an assumption. – If you need information I haven’t given, ask up to three questions first. – Keep the whole answer under 600 words. My plan: [MY PLAN].

Free to use. Copy it, change it, share it. No credit needed.

What to Fill In

[YEARS] and [TYPE OF BUSINESS]: how seasoned the experts are, and who they have advised.
[SITUATION]: the pattern the council has seen before, in one sentence.
[PRIORITY 1 to 3]: what to protect, ranked.
Context lines: your offer, your clients, your limits and what you have tried. Use real figures, or leave a line out.
[MY PLAN]: how you intend to introduce and sell the offer.

Example: An Advanced Council on Selling a New Offer

Illustrative example, not a client result

Input: Years: 20. Business type: owner-run consulting firms. Situation: clients trust the firm on delivery but have never bought strategy work from it. Priorities: keep the relationship, protect margin, no hard sell. Offer: a quarterly strategy review, $3,000 a quarter, one workshop plus a written plan. Clients: my ten longest-standing clients, 3 to 8 years, all on monthly retainers. Constraints: launch in six weeks, no new hires, one hour a week for outreach. Tried: mentioned it on two client calls, no follow-up. Plan: email each of the ten personally, offer a 30-minute call, and book the first reviews within six weeks.

Prompt as sent:

You are a council of twelve experts. The roles are Chair, Skeptic, Numbers Person, Customer, Marketer, Closer, Competitor, Delivery Lead, Pricing Strategist, Lawyer, Retention Lead and Peer Owner. Each has 20 years advising owner-run consulting firms on selling to existing clients. You have been the outside voices where the owner was too close to the decision. You have seen this situation before: clients trust the firm on delivery but have never bought strategy work from it. Your priorities, in order: keep the relationship, protect margin, no hard sell. You push back when my plan skips a hard question, and you say so plainly. Context I’m giving you: – Offer: a quarterly strategy review, $3,000 a quarter, one workshop plus a written plan – Clients: my ten longest-standing clients, 3 to 8 years, all on monthly retainers – Constraints: launch in six weeks, no new hires, one hour a week for outreach – What I’ve already tried: mentioned it on two client calls, no follow-up Work through my plan in this order: 1. Restate the decision in one sentence. 2. Each expert gives a one-sentence view, strictly from their role, in plain words. 3. List where the experts agree and where they disagree. 4. Run one round of debate. The four experts who disagree most answer each other’s strongest objection. 5. Argue the other side. Make the strongest case against the council’s majority view. 6. Name the risks I may be missing, and rate each low, medium or high. 7. Give a next step for this week, this month and this quarter. 8. Say what would change the council’s mind. Rules: – Flag any claim you can’t support with evidence. – Mark every number you assumed as an assumption. – If you need information I haven’t given, ask up to three questions first. – Keep the whole answer under 600 words. My plan: email each of the ten personally, offer a 30-minute call, and book the first reviews within six weeks.

Output (shortened):

Decision: Not “how to email ten clients.” The real decision is whether this is a new product or a better retainer.
Views: Chair: Your first priority is the relationship, so test this as help, not a sale. Skeptic: Two casual mentions with no follow-up is not demand. Numbers Person: Ten clients at $3,000 a quarter is $30,000 at best. Customer: Show me what changes for me, or a quarterly bill feels like an upsell. Marketer: Lead with one result from a past engagement. Closer: Ask for a 30-minute call, not a purchase. Competitor: A cheaper outside review is easy to find, so lean on what you know about them. Delivery Lead: One hour a week for outreach cannot also cover preparing the first reviews. Pricing Strategist: Offer a bundled option and a separate one, and let clients pick. Lawyer: Check that the retainer contracts don’t already cover strategy work. Retention Lead: Don’t pitch the three clients you would hate to lose first. Peer Owner: Ask one owner who has sold strategy work to retainer clients what they would change.
Agree and disagree: All twelve agree on a small, personal start, not a broadcast. They disagree on selling it separately or folding it into the retainer, and on whom to pitch first.
Debate: The Customer and the Pricing Strategist disagree on separate versus bundled. The Retention Lead and the Closer disagree on who to approach first. The Chair rules: offer both options to three warm clients first.
Other side: Do nothing new. If your retainers are your steadiest income, a clumsy pitch could cost more than the review earns.
Risks: Clients read it as an upsell (high). Review hours pull time from retainers (medium). Your one weekly hour can’t cover follow-up (medium).
Next: This week, pick the three most likely clients and write the one-line result. This month, send three personal emails and hold the calls. This quarter, adjust the offer from what they said, then open it to the rest.
Would change the council’s mind: If two of the first three clients ask for the review unprompted, the council would widen the launch.

Flag: The idea that two or three of ten will say yes is an assumption, not a figure from you. The council can’t see how happy your clients are, so check before you decide.

Why the Council Works

Ranked priorities and a situation give the council something to weigh. The debate round makes the four most opposed experts answer each other. The other-side step forces a case against the majority, including the case for not selling at all.

When the Council Doesn’t Work

A long prompt can bury the plan. Cut any line the answer doesn’t need.
Debate surfaces objections. It is not a fact check. Verify any number before you act on it.
One AI plays all twelve voices, so it can agree with itself. The Customer is a guess, not a real buyer. Ask a real client.
For a simple plan, this is overkill. Use the simple or intermediate version.

Research Behind This Prompt

Sela (2026), Preserving Disagreement: Architectural Heterogeneity and Coherence Validation in Multi-Agent Policy Simulation. Supports. Giving each viewpoint a different model cut how often the group converged on one first choice, from 70.9% to 46.1% in one scenario and from 46.0% to 22.9% in another. In accuracy-focused debate, mixing models did not reduce convergence.
Yao et al. (2025), Peacemaker or Troublemaker: How Sycophancy Shapes Multi-Agent Debate. Challenges. Debating agents often agreed too fast, and sycophantic debate was less accurate than a single agent.
Wynn et al. (2025), Talk Isn’t Always Cheap: Understanding Failure Modes in Multi-Agent Debate. Challenges. Accuracy can fall over time, as models switch from correct to incorrect answers to match their peers.

What the Evidence Says

Mixed. Different models for different viewpoints kept more disagreement alive in one study. Others found debate can slide into agreement and lose accuracy. Use the debate round to surface objections, then check the facts yourself.

Sources last checked 2026-11-10.

Council of Experts FAQ

Why does the prompt state a situation and priorities?

They give the council something to weigh. Without ranked priorities, the AI picks its own, and they may not be yours.

What does the debate round add?

The four experts who disagree most answer each other’s strongest objection. That tests their views before the summary. Research on debate is mixed, so treat it as a way to find objections.

Why ask for the case against the majority?

It surfaces objections you would otherwise miss. It is not a fact check, so verify any claim before you act.

What does the ask-first rule do?

It lets the council ask for missing facts instead of guessing. The cap of three questions keeps it from turning into an interview.

Why ask what would change the council’s mind?

It shows what the advice depends on. If those facts turn out wrong, you know to rethink the plan.

Want this applied to your business?

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