Guide
How marketing agencies find clients with audits.
Audit-led prospecting is how many agencies get past “we’re all set”: instead of asking for time, they bring something worth the time. Here is the playbook.
By Josh Gabbay, Co-founder & COO at Lexir · Updated · 6 min read
The playbook
- 1Pick a niche and an area you can serve well, for example dentists in one metro.
- 2Build a list of 50 to 200 businesses from the map, directories or your CRM.
- 3Audit every business on the list.
- 4Sort by the gaps you sell: map rankings, reviews, ads, AI visibility or follow-up.
- 5Call or email the businesses with the biggest gaps first, leading with one finding.
- 6Send the audit as a slideshow or PDF after the first conversation.
- 7Re-audit in 90 days to show what changed.
What to say
Lead with one specific, checkable fact: “When someone in your area searches for your main service, three competitors show on the map before you.” Then offer to walk through the rest. The audit carries the pitch; the rep only needs to open it.
Doing this without an analyst
Auditing 100 businesses by hand is a week of work. Lexir audits a pasted list in one go, ranks it by gaps, and builds a slideshow for each business.
Questions
How do marketing agencies get clients?
Referrals, content, paid ads and outbound. Audit-led outbound works well for agencies selling to local businesses because it opens with proof instead of a request for time.
What is indirect lead generation?
Finding clients by auditing businesses that fit your niche and opening with what you found, rather than buying leads or waiting for inbound.
See Lexir on your list.
Book a demo and we'll audit your own prospects, or run a free audit on one business now.