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#241 · the highest-ROI skill to learn before AGI

youtube ↗Offers

I've been doing GTM engineering (cold outbound marketing) services and I'm seeing an AI audit as a good front-door offer for boring industries/niches, planning to promote it on LinkedIn. What do you think about AI audits as an offer in general, and what should I charge doing one for an exec at a university or big company?

AI audits are okay to sell, but they're not a strong front-end offer. Think about the sexiest possible outreach: 'Hey, I already made you $10,000 and want to keep making you $10,000/month, I'll take a small percentage, won't take any of your time, and if I don't hit $10,000/month I won't ask for any money at all and will just share my learnings for free' — that's 100% upside, no risk, obviously you say yes. An AI audit is close to the opposite: 'I think I might be able to make you money, but first I need to do an in-depth audit that costs a lot upfront with no clear ROI, and you need to commit real time answering questions from a total stranger and hand over sensitive business details with no guarantee.' Nobody says yes to that as a first offer. What works as a front-end offer is generating leads or dollars directly — once you've crossed that trust hurdle and have someone in your ecosystem, that's when you can upsell an AI audit as a way to find even more opportunity.

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Related answers

youtube ↗Offers

What do you think about AI audits in general and how much should I charge for an executive audit for a university or big company?

AI audits can be sold, but they’re not usually the strongest front‑end offer because you’re asking people to pay for something that’s hard to guarantee a clear ROI. You’re essentially asking a stranger to audit their entire business without any tangible return, which makes it a tough sell. A better front‑end offer is something like generating leads or guaranteeing a specific amount of revenue in a set time frame. Once you’ve earned trust, you can then upsell an AI audit. In practice I often don’t charge for the audit unless it’s a large enterprise project that requires extensive discovery, and even then I usually don’t charge for the discovery phase because I’m more interested in the long‑term relationship than the upfront fee. The audit itself can be offered for free or at a low cost, with the expectation that the client will later purchase higher‑value services.

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youtube ↗Lead Generation

What are your thoughts on offering free AI audits via outreach?

I don’t think free AI audits work as an outreach offer because they lack a clear, tangible ROI for the prospect and involve high friction—asking for an hour‑long deep dive into every facet of their business with no guaranteed payoff. In contrast, my B2B lead‑gen approach asks for only a few minutes of basic info (what they sell, price points, customer lifetime) and then delivers a quantifiable result (e.g., 20 booked appointments in 60 days) or a concrete system (end‑to‑end CRM, YouTube scripts). The audit’s vague deliverable makes it hard to justify the prospect’s time, whereas a lead‑gen promise is specific, measurable, and low‑effort for them to evaluate.

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youtube ↗Sales

Should beginners sell AI audits, and how would you sell them?

I don’t recommend beginners sell AI audits cold because nobody wants to buy just an audit—they want something that delivers ROI. An audit adds an extra step before they see any benefit, so they’d have to pay you for the audit and then pay again to implement your recommendations. Most prefer to skip the audit and pay up front for a full solution that promises immediate improvement. Warm outreach can work for audits, but cold outreach generally fails.

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youtube ↗Cold Email

What cold outreach offer would you use to start an AI automation agency from scratch without an existing audit?

The typical influencer pitch—selling AI operating systems or audits—only works because they already have trust. As a total stranger you need to find a single problem the prospect likely has with a big financial pain point, like wasted spend on lead generation or PPC. Then guarantee you can solve that problem with a monetary reward. If you don't deliver, you either refund them, don't ask for payment, or keep working for free until you achieve the result. The formula I use is: I guarantee 20 booked appointments in 60 days or you don't pay. I repeat that over and over. I never say I'll run an AI audit with vague outcomes; that offers no clear ROI.

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