An Interactive Skill Setup Guide
Client Fit
Screener Skill
Build Your Own Client Vetting Tool
Stop dreading discovery calls. Start saying yes on purpose — with a custom skill you build once and own forever.
Before You Start
A Claude account — the Free plan works, though a paid plan avoids hitting message limits partway through a build (claude.ai/upgrade)
This guide open alongside your Claude chat — two windows or two tabs works great
30–45 minutes for your first pass — this isn't a tool you rent, it's a thinking process you'll want to get right
1Your Offers
2Your Ideal Client
3Your Working Style
4Your Redirects
5Build Your Custom Screener
Keep this guide open in one tab. Open Claude.ai in another. You'll paste each prompt directly into your Claude chat.
Step 1 of 5 — Your Offers
What you actually sell.
Before we can screen anyone, your screener needs to know exactly who each offer is for. Open a new Claude chat and paste the prompt below.
Paste to Claude
I'm building a custom client fit screener for my business. Let's start with what I actually sell. For each offer I take clients into: 1. What is it, what does it cost, and what does the client get? (Name each one.) 2. Who is it right for — and at what stage? A starter offer fits a wider range than a premium one. 3. What's a GREEN flag for this offer, a YELLOW flag (workable, just note it), and a RED flag (wrong offer or wrong time)? Once I answer, ask follow-ups if any offer's fit bar is fuzzy. I want it crystal clear who each offer is — and isn't — for.
Answer for each offer, then answer Claude's follow-ups. When it feels clear, move to Step 2.
Step 2 of 5 — Your Ideal Client
The person you do your best work with.
A vague description makes a useless screener. Paste this into the same Claude chat.
Paste to Claude
Now let's get specific about my ideal client — the person I do my best work with: 1. Describe your absolute best-fit client: stage, situation, how they show up, what they've already tried. 2. What green-flag traits do you want to see in an application? (Specific about their problem, takes action, knows what they want.) 3. What red-flag traits have predicted a hard engagement? (Wants done-for-you, vague about everything, has bought lots of help that never "worked.") Push back if I'm being too broad. "A small business owner who needs help" isn't a profile — help me name who I'm actually saying yes and no to.
Answer fully, and let Claude tighten it with you. Then move to Step 3.
Step 3 of 5 — Your Working Style
The part that makes it yours.
This is the part most fit-checks skip, and it's the one that decides whether working together is a pleasure or a slog. Paste this into the same Claude chat.
Paste to Claude
Help me capture how I work, so my screener flags personality clashes before I'm on a call: 1. How do I communicate best — bottom-line and direct, full-context and thorough, or exploratory and collaborative? Be honest about my natural gear. 2. What client behaviors energize me, and which ones drain me? (Needs constant reassurance, pushes back on everything, won't make a decision.) 3. How do I handle a client who's anxious, scattered, or in crisis — what can I work with, and what's beyond my capacity? If I'm unsure of my own style, ask me questions to draw it out — or suggest a quick free personality/DISC assessment I can take and bring back. Then turn all of it into clear "compatible vs. friction" signals my screener can watch for.
Don't rush this one. A perfect professional match with a clashing style is still a hard client.
Step 4 of 5 — Your Redirects
Where a "not yet" should go instead.
When someone isn't a fit, you don't have to just say no. Paste this into the same Claude chat.
This one's optional. Even one or two redirects make your declines generous instead of cold.
Paste to Claude
When someone isn't a fit for what they applied for, I don't want to just say no — I want to point them somewhere better. Help me map my redirects: 1. What other offers, lower-tier options, or free resources could a "not yet" person start with? 2. For each, when is it the right next step — what blocker does it solve? 3. If nothing fits, what's an honest "here's what to do on your own first" I'd feel good sending? Help me build a simple ladder so a "not yet" always ends with a real path forward, not a dead end.
A quick pass is enough here. When you've got a ladder, move to Step 5.
Step 5 of 5 — Build Your Custom Screener
Where it all comes together.
Claude assembles everything you've said into the screener you'll run on every application. Paste this into the same Claude chat.
Paste to Claude
Based on everything we've talked through, build me my custom client fit screener — the one I'll run on every application. First, confirm these back to me: 1. My offers and the fit bar for each: 2. My ideal client (green flags) and my dealbreakers (red flags): 3. My working style and the personality signals to watch for: Then create the screener. It should read an application across two dimensions — professional fit AND working-style fit — give a clear YES / MAYBE / NOT YET verdict with reasoning that quotes their actual answers, flag anything to resolve on a call, and for a "not yet" suggest the right next step from my redirects. Make it sound like me, not a generic template.
The framework underneath it all:
- YES — strong fit. Right offer, right stage, working style clicks. Take them.
- MAYBE — mixed signals. Real promise, but open questions worth a short call.
- NOT YET — wrong offer or wrong time. Decline with care, point to a better next step.
Read the finished screener against a recent real application — does it sound like something you'd actually say? Adjust with Claude until it does, then move on to save it.
Keep It Forever
Save your screener as a Claude skill.
The best way to keep your screener is to install it as your own Claude skill — so it's always there, ready anytime an application comes in.
Paste to Claude
Please format this as a SKILL.md file I can upload as a custom skill. Give it a short name, a clear description of when to use it (so it triggers when I'm screening a client application or inquiry), and put my screener in as the instructions.
1
Save the file
Save Claude's output into a file named SKILL.md — keep that exact name.
2
Zip it
Put that file inside a folder, then zip the folder (Mac: right-click → Compress. Windows: right-click → Send to → Compressed folder).
3
Turn skills on
In Claude, go to Settings → Capabilities and switch on Code execution and file creation.
4
Upload your skill
Go to Customize → Skills, click +, then + Create skill, then Upload a skill. Choose your zip and toggle it on.
5
Use it anytime
In any new chat, paste an application and say: "Run my client fit screener on this." Claude loads it automatically.
Your screener is built.
You're not buying a black box. You thought through your real offers, your real client, and your own working style — and you walked away with something genuinely yours.
What You Built
A screener that reads every application across professional fit AND working-style fit
A clear YES / MAYBE / NOT YET verdict with reasoning, every time
A redirect ladder so a "not yet" always ends with a real next step
A finished Claude skill you own forever — no subscriptions, no platform you're renting
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