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Audits that sell

⏱ 40 min7 steps

This lesson is for people who sell a service to other businesses, like web design, bookkeeping, marketing or photography. If that's not you, it's still a good way to help a friend's business. A short written audit, three to five things worth fixing with a link for each, is a classic way to start a conversation. Claude does the looking in about 20 minutes, which takes hours by hand. You check its work, and the step keeps you from sending something wrong.

refute To argue that something is wrong, with reasons. All words
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  1. Pick the site you'll audit

    Pick a business small enough that one person could read your report and act on it. Public pages only: its website, its Google listing and its reviews.

    1. Pick one site: your own business, a friend's, or a local business you like. Skip national brands.
    2. If it's a friend's, tell them you're practicing, and ask if they'd like to see what you find.
    3. Write down the business's name, website and town.

    If it's your own business and you want a longer look, "Your business, as a stranger sees it" and "The " go deeper.

    mystery shopper Someone who visits a business as an ordinary customer, to see what a real customer would see. All words
    That's not what I see
    I want to look at their books, their systems or inside their building.
    That's private, so ask first, and get their OK in writing. Until then, stick to what anyone can see from the outside.

  2. Start a new chat and have Claude do the audit

    This has Claude do the looking. It opens the site and the Google listing, reads them the way a new customer would, and gives you its five strongest , each with a link and the words it saw. The rules in the prompt keep it to public pages and away from guesses and scare words.

    Claude reads the pages, but it can't tap anything or see the site on a phone. You'll check that part in the next step.

    1. Open the or claude.ai and start a new chat.
    2. Copy the prompt below.
    I'm practicing a short audit of one small business's public pages. The business: [its name, website and town]. Open its website, and find its Google listing and reviews if you can. Read it the way a first-time customer would. Can they tell what it does and where? Can they find prices or what to expect? Can they see how to call, book or ask a question? Then give me your five strongest findings, numbered. For each one, give me the link and the exact words or thing you saw there, why a customer would care in one line, and one fix in one line. The rules: public pages only. Never guess about their sales, visitors, staff, systems or anything private. If you can't find something, write "couldn't find" instead of guessing. Quote reviews without the reviewer's name. No scare words, no claims about what will happen if they don't act, and no mention of lawsuits, fines or penalties.
    1. Paste it into the chat. Replace the part in square brackets with the business's name, website and town.
    2. Send it.
    prompt What you type to Claude. A good one says what you want, how to work and what never to do. All wordsfinding One thing an audit found, with the link and the words that show it. All wordsClaude app Claude on your phone or computer, where you chat with it by typing. claude.ai is the same thing in a web browser. All words

    You should see:

    Claude shows that it's searching and opening pages, then gives five numbered findings. Each one has a link, what Claude saw there, why it matters and a fix.

    That's not what I see
    Claude answered without looking anything up.
    is built in. If you see a Web search switch under +, turn it on. Then reply: Open the website and search the web for this, and give me a link for each finding.web search Claude looking things up on the internet during a chat. Its answer comes with links to the pages it used. All words
    Claude says it can't open the site.
    Open the home page, select all the words with **Cmd+ACtrl+A** and copy them. Do the same with the contact page. Paste both into the chat in place of the address, and send the prompt again.

  3. Check each finding yourself

    This is your part. Claude can misread a page, or find an old one. Your name goes on the report, so every finding has to be something you can see yourself.

    1. Open each link Claude gave, on your phone if you can.
    2. Find the words or the thing Claude says it saw. Tap the phone number or the booking button if the finding is about them.
    3. Write down the number of any finding you can't see.
    4. Copy the prompt below.
    Drop these findings, because I couldn't see them on the page myself: [their numbers]. Keep the rest as they are.
    1. Paste it into the same chat. Replace the part in square brackets with the numbers you wrote down. If every finding checked out, skip this and go to the next step.
    2. Send it.

    You should see:

    The list again, without the findings you couldn't see.

    That's not what I see
    The page doesn't match what Claude says, or it's already been fixed.
    Drop that finding. A finding counts only if you can see it on the page today.

  4. Ask Claude to argue against every finding

    This is the "refute this" prompt. It asks Claude to try to knock down each finding, so the business owner doesn't do it first. Each finding gets a verdict.

    1. Copy the prompt below.
    Refute this. Argue against each finding as hard as you honestly can. For each one, ask: is the evidence real, and does it show what I say it shows? Is it still true today? Could there be a good reason they do it this way? Would their customers notice or care? Then give each finding one verdict: stands, weaker, or drop, with a one-line reason. Don't soften a verdict to be kind to me.
    1. Paste it into the same chat and send it.
    2. Read each verdict. Expect to lose a favorite finding. Everyone does.

    You should see:

    Each finding with the case against it, then a verdict of stands, weaker or drop, and a reason.

    That's not what I see
    Claude says every finding stands.
    Start a new chat, paste in only the findings and their links, and send the refute prompt again. A fresh chat has no reason to agree with you.

  5. Keep only the findings that survive

    This prompt cuts the list to what held up, and keeps a note of what you dropped and why.

    1. Copy the prompt below.
    Rewrite the list with only the findings marked "stands", plus any "weaker" ones I tell you to keep, reworded so they claim only what the evidence shows. Under the list, write a short section called Dropped, with each dropped finding and the one-line reason.
    1. Paste it into the same chat and send it.

    You should see:

    A shorter list of findings that survived, then a Dropped section with a reason for each.

    That's not what I see
    Hardly anything survived.
    That's the audit working. Two findings you can show are worth more than ten you can't. Three is plenty for a first report.

  6. Have Claude write it up as a one-page report

    This prompt turns what survived into a one-page report written to the owner: what you looked at, what you found, and what you'd fix first. It keeps the same calm rule as the follow-ups in "Quotes that went quiet".

    drafts and sorts; a person approves anything with a price, a date or your name on it.

    1. Copy the prompt below.
    Turn the findings that survived into a one-page report to the owner of [the business's name]. Use three short sections. What I looked at: their public pages, on [today's date], as a first-time customer would. What I found: each finding with its link, what I saw, why a customer would care and one fix. What I'd fix first: the finding that helps their customers most, and why. Write to the owner as "you", friendly and plain, in under 300 words. No scare words, no claims about what will go wrong if they don't act, and no mention of lawsuits, fines or penalties.
    1. Paste it into the same chat. Replace the parts in square brackets with the business's name and today's date.
    2. Send it.
    3. Read it through, and copy it into a note or a document.
    4. If it's your own site, it's your to-do list. Start with the first fix. If it's a friend's, give it to them.

    When you're ready to offer this as a paid service to a business that isn't a friend, add a line at the end with what you'd charge to make the fixes. The lesson "What to charge" helps. Send it yourself, to one business at a time: the owner, or the address on their own Contact page. Say who you are, that you looked only at their public pages, and that they didn't ask for it. If it goes by email, it's a sales email under US law: an honest , a plain line saying it's an offer, your mailing address, and a line saying how to tell you no thanks. If they say no, or don't answer after one , stop. Don't add them to your .

    AI Short for artificial intelligence. Here it means a program like Claude that reads what you write and writes back in plain words. All wordssubject line The short line people see in their inbox before they open an email. All wordsfollow-up A short message you send after a quote or a visit, to check in when you haven't heard back. All wordsnewsletter A regular email for people who signed up to hear about one topic. All words

    You should see:

    A one-page report with three sections, written to the owner, with a link next to each finding.

    That's not what I see
    The report reads like a warning.
    Reply: Make it calmer. Say what I saw and what I'd do. Take out every line about what could go wrong.
    Can I send this to lots of businesses at once?
    No. One business, one message, written for them. A list of addresses copied off websites is a mailing list, and the rules in "Emailing your own customers" apply.

  7. Save the report template and the refute prompt

    This prompt saves the report as a , so every audit runs the same way.

    1. Copy the prompt below.
    Turn this into an audit report template I can use again. Sections, each with blanks: the business and the date; what I looked at; the findings, each with the link, what I saw, why a customer would care and one fix; what I'd fix first; and my price, as FILL IN. At the top, write these rules: Public pages only, unless the owner says OK in writing. Every finding has a link and the words I saw. I check every finding myself. Every finding faces the refute prompt, and what fails is dropped. No scare tactics and no fake urgency. I set the price.
    1. Paste it into the same chat and send it.
    2. Copy it into a note or a document called Audit report template.
    3. Paste the audit prompt from Step 2 and the refute prompt from Step 4 under the template.

    This is the light version, in one chat. If you ever want more, the Connect and automate section's lesson "Agents as a team: , expand, " shows how several agents check each other's work, on ideas. The same pattern works on audit findings. It uses .

    template A starting point with blanks to fill in, so you don't start from nothing every time. All wordsbrainstorm Opening an idea up wide before judging it. Here, it starts with questions, not answers. All wordsvet Check an idea quickly and fairly, the same way every time, to decide whether it's worth more of your time. All wordsClaude Code Claude, working inside Terminal. It can make files and run things on your Mac, with a safety checker watching what it does. All words

    You should see:

    A report template with the rules at the top and blanks for each section.

    That's not what I see

    Nobody has reported a snag on this step yet. Getting stuck is normal. Read the step again one line at a time, and compare your screen with the video.

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Your challenge

Audit your own site or a friend's this week. Keep only the findings you checked yourself and that survived the refute prompt. Then fix one of them, or hand the report to your friend.

Last checked 2026-10-21

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