The practice: Never use the first output from any AI prompt as your final deliverable. The first output is a starting point. The second or third iteration — after specific feedback — is where quality gets high enough to use.
Why this matters: First outputs are good enough to be tempting but rarely good enough to send unchanged. Using them without editing signals to your prospect that you used AI and didn't care enough to check.
The iteration workflow:
1. Run the prompt — read the output critically
2. Identify the single thing that feels most generic or off
3. Give Claude one specific note: "The opening line is too generic. Rewrite it starting with the trigger event instead"
4. Repeat until the output sounds like something you'd actually say
5. Do one final personal pass to add details only you know
The rule of thumb: Good AI-assisted writing takes 5 minutes of human finishing work, not 0. If you spend zero time editing before sending, you didn't write it — you forwarded it.