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.
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.
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.
Nick says Brendan should avoid leading with an audit because it’s unsexy and unbounded. Instead, identify common problems you think businesses face, craft a compelling offer with a strong guarantee around solving those specific problems, and use that to get your foot in the door. Once you have a call, then perform the audit to confirm the needs and tailor the solution. He illustrates this by describing how he scrapes videography and web‑development communities to uncover pain points, packages them into an offer, and sells it, after which audits become easy follow‑ups.
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You actually have a big advantage at your age because you intuitively understand how to reach people online. The biggest bottleneck for tiny web‑design agencies is simply not having enough leads. If you can specialize in lead generation you become far more valuable than any downstream tool. A proposal generator can help, but it’s secondary to getting more leads, so I wouldn’t waste time on free AI audits—they solve problems that come after you have enough business. The core skill you need is outreach. The best way to improve is to just do it a lot: send ten cold emails right now. Go to LinkedIn, find people in your target niche who could use your service, and email them. No template is required—just write a short, honest pitch and hit send from your Gmail. The worst that can happen is nothing, and you’ll learn by doing. Mastering these soft‑skill outreach habits will pay the biggest ROI for the next 20 years.