13:24Adam Erhart · Tutorial
How I Use a Free 5-Minute Audit to Get Agency Clients (No Sales Calls)
Adam Erhart's four-step method for turning a free, no-pitch marketing audit into replies from businesses that never asked to hear from him.
July 15thThe argument in one line.
Local businesses that stop collecting reviews become invisible to AI search engines, creating a $297/month recurring service opportunity by automating review requests through HighLevel to maintain the review velocity that AI platforms use to recommend businesses.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You're a freelancer or solo operator with zero sales experience who wants to launch a recurring revenue service without building a full sales process or team.
- A local service business owner (plumber, dentist, HVAC, etc.) losing leads to competitors and looking for a concrete way to understand why AI search isn't recommending you.
- You have access to 10-50 local service businesses in your network and want a simple, repeatable pitch you can deliver via screen share to close $297/month contracts quickly.
SKIP IF…
- You're already running a mature service business with established sales infrastructure — this is designed for zero-experience entry, not scaling existing operations.
- You work in non-local verticals (SaaS, e-commerce, B2B software) where review velocity isn't a core lead-generation signal or competitive differentiator.
- You're skeptical that AI recommendation algorithms prioritize review recency as heavily as the framework claims, or you want deeper technical validation before pitching this to clients.
The full version, fast.
AI search engines now recommend only one or two local businesses per query, and the deciding signal is review velocity � how recently and consistently a business collects fresh reviews. The opportunity is a $297/month recurring service built on three steps: run a two-minute ChatGPT audit in front of the prospect that shows their business getting skipped while a competitor gets named, then set up an automated two-text sequence inside HighLevel that asks every completed customer for a Google review using one identical link with no filtering, then send a monthly Loom walking through the reputation dashboard and AI review summary. Target established local service businesses with 30-80 reviews that have gone stale for several months.
Free for members
Chat with this breakdown — free.
Sign in and you get 23 free chat messages on us — ask for the hook, quote a framework, find the exact transcript moment, generate a markdown action plan. Bring your own key when you want unlimited.
Create a free account →Where the time goes.
00:00 – 01:02
01 · Hook + AI shift
Cold open with the $297 service claim; explains AI picks one business and skips the rest — framed as witness-protection-level invisibility for losers.
01:02 – 02:43
02 · The review velocity signal
Why AI chooses who to recommend: review recency, not volume. Restaurant analogy. ChatGPT/Claude/Perplexity/Gemini/Meta AI all use the same signal.
02:43 – 03:03
03 · Credibility + system intro
Three 7-figure agencies, 1,500+ clients, 10 years. Teases the three-step system.
03:03 – 05:12
04 · Step 1 — The AI Audit
Define the perfect prospect (30–80 Google reviews, last review several months old, 4.1–4.6 rating). Find them in 5 minutes on Google Maps. Run the ChatGPT demo live. Deliver the scripted close.
05:12 – 06:30
05 · Step 2 — Review Velocity
Define review velocity. Set up HighLevel reputation module: configure review link, build the Send Review Request automation workflow.
06:30 – 08:34
06 · Step 3 — The Automation
Walk through the 2-message automation (check-in text → review link after 2 hours). Compliance rule: every customer same link, no filtering. HighLevel reputation dashboard for monthly reporting. Loom screen-recording delivery.
08:34 – 09:30
07 · The $297 math + retention hook
Monthly touchpoint script. Explains why this is recurring (moment they stop = drip stops = AI skips them again). One extra customer pays for the service several times over.
09:30 – 10:05
08 · The simplicity argument
Contrasts this service with complicated agency offers. Four-property frame: simple problem, simple fix, fast results, price clients don’t blink at. Warning not to overcomplicate it.
10:05 – 10:32
09 · CTA
FOMO close. HighLevel free trial CTA + free masterclass end-screen CTA.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- AI search engines now recommend only 1-2 local businesses per query, making visibility binary — you either get picked or you don't exist.
- Recent review velocity is the primary AI ranking signal, not total review count — a business with 15 new reviews this month beats one with 500 reviews from three years ago.
- The fastest way to close a local business on AI reputation management is a live ChatGPT demo showing their competitor being recommended instead of them.
- A business with 30-80 reviews and their last review 3-6 months ago is the ideal prospect — visible enough to have something at stake, stagnant enough to need intervention.
- Automating review requests via text message after job completion is the mechanical core of AI reputation management — no system, no new reviews, no ranking.
- Two automated HighLevel text messages sent post-job generate consistent review velocity without requiring any action from the business owner after initial setup.
- A monthly Loom video showing review funnel analytics is the retention mechanism — clients who see their own data stay longer than clients who just see a ranking.
- Local service businesses at 4.1-4.6 stars are the sweet spot — low enough to need help, high enough that new reviews move the needle quickly.
- $297 per month for a service that runs without you after setup is the recurring revenue model that compounds without compounding your workload.
- The shift from search engine results pages to AI-generated recommendations has made local SEO irrelevant and AI reputation velocity the only metric that matters.
The 2-minute demo that closes agency clients.
Agency playbook
The best pitch is not a pitch at all — it’s a live search that makes the prospect watch their own business disappear.
- The AI audit opener is format-portable: swap the business type and city, run it live on any video call or in a Loom, watch the silence do the work.
- Name the mechanism. “Review velocity” gives clients a concept they can explain to their spouse — that’s what makes them stick.
- The 4-property filter (simple problem / simple fix / fast results / price they don’t blink at) is worth applying to every service you sell — not just this one.
- Pre-write your close. Adam’s “That’s your competitor getting that call, not you” is memorizable because it’s seven words. Have your version ready.
- Async reporting (Loom monthly) is the churn killer — it proves the service is working without requiring calendar coordination.
- Don’t build a complicated version of a simple thing. The overcomplicated system breaks in 3 days and kills retention.
Terms worth knowing.
- Review velocity
- The pace at which a business collects new customer reviews over time. AI search engines treat a steady stream of recent reviews as a signal that the business is active and trustworthy.
- HighLevel
- An all-in-one CRM and marketing automation platform aimed at agencies, offering features like automated review requests, reputation dashboards, SMS/email workflows, and client sub-accounts.
- Sub-account (HighLevel)
- A dedicated workspace inside a HighLevel agency account that holds all the contacts, automations, and settings for a single client.
- Loom
- A screen-recording tool that creates a shareable video link, commonly used to send asynchronous video messages or client reports without scheduling a live call.
- Perplexity
- An AI-powered search engine that answers questions in natural language by synthesizing information from multiple web sources, often citing specific businesses or products.
- Recurring service
- A business arrangement where a client pays a fixed fee on a regular schedule (monthly, annually) in exchange for ongoing work or access, as opposed to a one-time project fee.
- Agency OS
- A packaged set of automations, templates, and workflows that an agency uses to deliver a service, typically cloned into each new client account.
Things they pointed at.
Lines you could clip.
00:00
“AI just changed how customers find local businesses and it's created a $297 a month service they're saying yes to almost immediately.”
00:14
“Not second page of Google invisible. I'm talking witness protection program invisible.”
04:55
“That's your competitor getting that call, not you. I can fix that and once I set it up, the system runs automatically so you never have to think about it again.”
08:51
“That's why this isn't a one-time project. It's a recurring service because the moment they stop, the drip stops and AI starts skipping them again.”
09:35
“This combination is rare. Simple problem, simple fix, fast results, a price point most clients don't even blink at.”
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
metaphoranalogy
AI just changed how customers find local businesses and it's created a $297 a month service they're saying yes to almost immediately. Because when someone needs a plumber, a dentist, or an HVAC company right now, AI doesn't show them a list. It picks one business and sends them the customer.
It's basically playing favorites now. No democracy, no fair vote, just you win. Everyone else, they're now invisible.
Not second page of Google invisible. I'm talking . And every time that happens, that's a customer going to your client's competitor instead of them.
This isn't random. There's one specific signal that decides who gets picked and once you understand it, you can fix it in a single afternoon and turn it into a recurring service that runs without you. I built three different seven-figure agencies, worked with over 1,500 small businesses, run thousands of campaigns, and today I do it all as a one-person agency with zero employees.
In over 10 years of doing this, I have never seen local businesses this confused about why their phone isn't ringing anymore. And I've never seen a faster yes than when I show them what one of my agencies does, which is exactly what I'm about to show you. So, what changed and why does AI pick one business and skip the next one?
In most cases, AI only recommends one or two businesses. That's it. And the ones that make the cut have one thing in common, reviews.
Specifically, how recent they are. Think about it like this. Imagine you're choosing between two different restaurants.
One's got loads of reviews, but the last one was posted over a year ago. The other one has been getting fresh new reviews every single week. Well, most people would choose the second one with the most recent reviews because recent reviews signal that a business is still active, it's still trusted, it's still worth visiting.
AI sees it the same way. It doesn't just count reviews. It reads them as a signal.
Is this business still active? Is it still trusted? Is it still safe to recommend right now?
Fresh reviews say yes. Old reviews say maybe not or worse, this place might not even be open anymore. And this matters now more than ever because it's not just Google doing this.
It's ChatGPT and Claude and Perplexity and Gemini and Meta AI and every one of them uses these signals to decide which businesses get recommended and which ones just quietly disappear. So, the businesses actively collecting fresh reviews right now, they're the ones that are getting recommended across all of these different platforms.
The business on the other hand that got a pile of reviews two years ago and then just stopped asking, they're getting skipped. They're invisible every single day. And here's the part that most people miss.
This is happening right now. Every single time someone searches for a local business, AI is making that judgment call. Which means while that business owner is sitting there wondering why their phone's gone quiet, their competitor is getting that call instead over and over again.
Not because their competitor's better, not because they're smarter, not because they've got some secret marketing recipe, they just didn't forget to ask for reviews. And that's what the AI trusts.
Now, the great news here is that this is genuinely easy to fix. Here's the system. It's just three steps and you can have the entire thing running for a client inside of a week, sometimes even later that same day.
So, let me walk you through each step now starting with step one, the AI audit. This is how you open the conversation with a potential client. Takes 2 minutes and it closes more business than any pitch you could give.
So, let me tell you exactly who to go after because this matters. The perfect kinds of clients for this offer are local service businesses that have been around for a few years, have real customers who love them, but who stopped actively collecting reviews. These are businesses like plumbers and dentists and HVAC companies, chiropractors, auto shops, law firms, things like that.
The perfect prospect looks like this. Somewhere around 30 to 80 reviews on Google, the last one posted several months ago, ratings sitting around the low to mid fours, like 4.1 to 4.6. The good thing about these kind of businesses though is that they clearly have happy customers.
They just stopped asking for reviews. Right now, AI is quietly skipping them because of this. And finding these kind of clients takes about 5 minutes.
Open Google Maps, search for a type of business in any city and scroll through the results. Let's use HVAC companies in Dallas as an example here. Again, you're looking for listings where the most recent review was posted 3, 6, 9 months ago.
That's your sweet spot. Those business owners are walking around wondering why their phone isn't ringing the way that it used to. You have the answer before you even reach out.
Now, here's how you open the conversation, whether you're reaching out by email, DM, phone, or a Loom video. You open ChatGPT and type find me a their business type in their city who can come out today. For this example, I'll use the same HVAC niches before, but we'll pick a different city.
Let's say San Antonio. So, the prompt becomes find me an HVAC company in San Antonio, Texas that can come out today. Then, you show them what comes back.
Watch what happens. In this case, one business comes up. Sometimes it's two, sometimes a few more.
ChatGPT gives a short explanation of why, but everything else, every single other business in that city just doesn't exist in that answer. Years of hard work reduced to not even mentioned. Now, if their business shows up, good.
You explain what's driving that and tell them that you want to protect it and grow it. On the other hand, if it doesn't, and most of the time it's not going to, you let that moment sit for just a second.
Then you say this. Write this down. That's your competitor getting that call, not you.
I can fix that and once I set it up, the system runs automatically so you never have to think about it again. That's the whole pitch. Just a 2-minute search that shows them the problem with their very own eyes.
There's no proposal, no slide deck, you don't have to have convince anybody. They see it, you offer the fix. So, now let's build it.
Moving on to step two, review velocity. Now, review velocity is really just a fancy pants marketing term that means getting fresh reviews coming in on a regular basis. Not a one-time push that floods the business with 100 reviews all at once, but that this business is still active, it's still winning, and it's still worth recommending right now.
We're going to do this inside HighLevel and go into the client's sub-account. On the left sidebar, you'll see reputation, so we'll click that. Quick note, if you don't have HighLevel yet, the link below this video gets you a free 30-day trial plus all the automations and scripts and resources I use to run my own agencies.
Everything unlocks immediately. From there, we go to settings inside reputation, then click request at the top, and then configure review link, which is going to give you a direct link that you can share so someone can leave a review in just one click. Then, we'll click over to automations.
Now, I've already got this stuff built out inside of my reputation management folder. I've labeled it send review request, so we'll click that. Again, when [clears throat] you start your free trial using the link below, you'll have access to all of this that you can just instantly install into your account.
And what this automation does is send a text to every customer automatically after a job is done. And the first message looks like this.
Hi, contact first name, this is business owner name from business name. Just checking in to make sure everything looks good with the work we did today. Once this is live, every completed job triggers a message automatically.
Your client wakes up to new reviews and new messages without doing a thing. And that's exactly what AI search needs to see. Fresh reviews, regular cadence, proof the business is still running along.
Okay, next up is step number three, the automation. This is about making sure that it keeps running without anyone touching it. Lucky for us, all we have to do to see the rest of the automation is just scroll down a bit and see that right now the automation waits for a response back from the customer or it waits for 2 hours, whichever comes first.
And then it automatically follows up with this message that gives them the review link. And that message looks like this.
Hi, contact first name, business owner name here from business name. Just wanted to say thanks again for the opportunity to work with you. If you have 30 seconds, would you mind sharing your experience in a quick Google review?
It helps other customers know they can trust us. Now, one thing I want to be very clear about. Every customer needs to get the same link, no matter what their experience was.
No filtering, no routing good reviews one way and complaints another. Every customer, same link. That's the only correct way to do this.
Two messages, both automated, the whole thing runs on its own. And here's where it gets really good for client retention. HighLevel just launched a reputation overview dashboard live inside labs right now, which tracks review count and rating trend and recent reviews all in one place.
This is important. Not just for you, but for the client because this is what you show them every month. Here's what that conversation looks like.
You pull this up on a quick call, 5 minutes, maybe 10, definitely not a 90-minute strategy call that could have been an email. You can also pre-record this using screen recording software like Loom and then just send them the link, which is what I do 99 times out of 100.
You show them the review count this month versus last month, the rating trend, then you click into the review request analytics and you show them the actual funnel. How many texts went out, how many were opened, how many clicked the link, how many left a review. Then, you pull up the AI review summary, one click, and HighLevel automatically generates a plain English summary of what customers are actually saying about the business right now.
And then you say something like, this is what's telling AI to recommend you. It's working.
Here's what we're going to do next month to keep it moving. That's your monthly touchpoint. That's why they stay.
That's why this isn't a one-time project. It's a recurring service because the moment they stop, the drip stops and AI starts skipping them again. And that's your $297 a month service.
A system that runs without you, makes the business more visible everywhere that AI search is happening, and comes with a monthly conversation that proves it's working. Here's the math. If this brings in just one extra customer per month, and for most local service businesses, one customer is worth a few hundred dollars minimum, the service has already paid for itself several times over.
That's month one, before month two, before month six. And we're not doing advanced calculus here. This is basic, more calls equals more money.
And here's what makes this different from most agency services. Most things that you could sell take months before a client sees anything. This one on the other hand, they see new reviews inside the first week.
That's when they go from I think this is working to I know this is working. That's the moment they stop thinking about canceling and start asking what else you can do.
Now, I need to be straight with you about something. Most people getting started or trying to grow a new agency are looking for the complicated thing, the elaborate funnel, the big ad campaign, the fancy system that takes months before a client sees anything. This isn't that.
This is simple on purpose. This combination is rare. Simple problem, simple fix, fast results, a price point most clients don't even blink at.
Most services have one or two of those. This has all four, which is exactly why it works and exactly why most people are going to try to overcomplicate it, adding more steps, adding more tools, building some overly complicated system that breaks in 3 days.
So, don't do that. So, here's the question. Do you want to be the person who figures this out after everyone else is already selling it or the one who's signing clients when nobody else even knows this exists yet?
If you want instant access to everything I just showed you, the automations, the scripts, the full agency OS, it's all waiting for you inside a free trial of HighLevel. Link's in the descriptions below. And if you're not quite ready for that yet and want to learn a little more first, I put together a free masterclass right here that walks you through the whole thing step by step.
So, feel free to tap or click that now. I'll see you in there in just a second.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
No intro, no pleasantries — Adam Erhart opens with a single sentence that bundles the problem, the price point, and a social proof claim of fast closes. The neon animation of a customer being routed to one business while a second fades to ghost-grey lands the visual proof before he’s even explained what the service is.
Named ideas worth stealing.
03:48concept
The AI Audit Demo
Open ChatGPT, search for the prospect’s business type in their city, show them live what comes back. If they’re not in it, deliver the scripted close. Closes deals in 2 minutes with no deck.
Steal forany local-service agency offer — adapt the search query to the niche
05:13concept
Review Velocity
A named concept for the steady, regular cadence of fresh reviews that signals to AI platforms that a business is still active and worth recommending. Contrasts with one-time review floods.
Steal fornaming/positioning any reputation management offer — the term itself sells
09:35list
Four-Property Offer Filter
- Simple problem
- Simple fix
- Fast results
- Price point clients don’t even blink at
Adam’s four criteria for a winning agency service. Claims most services hit one or two; this one hits all four.
Steal foroffer evaluation checklist — use it to stress-test any new service before building it
07:57model
The Loom Monthly Report
Pre-record a 5–10 minute screen share (HighLevel dashboard) showing review count trend, rating trend, funnel analytics, AI review summary. Send the link instead of scheduling a call. Closes the monthly retention loop passively.
Steal forany recurring agency service — replaces 90-minute strategy calls with async proof-of-work
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
10:05product
“If you want instant access to everything I just showed you, the automations, the scripts, the full agency OS, it's all waiting for you inside a free trial of HighLevel. Link's in the descriptions below.”
Double CTA — HighLevel affiliate trial (hard ask) followed immediately by free masterclass end-screen card (soft ask). Preceded by a FOMO binary-choice question. Well-executed: the masterclass card gives fence-sitters a lower-commitment path so neither option loses the viewer.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
