# Find a "Ghost Town" Google Listing → Fix It for $297/Mo (No Cold Calls)

Channel: Adam Erhart
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTVcZ39C0_A
Duration: 16 min
Language: English
Words: 3554
Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/kTVcZ39C0_A

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[0:00] If you're trying to land your first client or your next one, there's an easier place to start than cold calling strangers. And it's sitting in plain sight on Google Maps. Some perfectly good local businesses look completely abandoned there. Nobody's replied to their reviews in years. Their photos are ancient and their competitors have 10 times more reviews, so customers skip them and the owner has no idea it's happening. I call these ghost town profiles. And the best part is the problem's sitting right there on the screen and the business owner can see it the second you show them and you can charge them $297 a month to fix it. Let

[0:33] me show you a real one. If I search electrician in Tucson, skip past the ads and click more places. Look what comes up. Now, this might be a perfectly good electrician. Great work, fair prices, solid guy, but his Google listing looks abandoned. Like nobody's checked in on it on years, which means potential customers are just scrolling right past it. I learned that the hard way. I remember years ago, I'd just had my first kid and I was desperate to make things work. I was probably making close to a hundred cold calls a day where I was asking complete strangers to trust me before I'd shown them a single useful

[1:05] thing. Well, it didn't work and it wasn't fun, which just so happened to be two of my least favorite things. That's why the method I'm going to show you today works the other way around. You show them the problem before you ever ask for anything. So, when you offer to fix it, it's an easy yes. Since then, I've built three seven-f figureure agencies, worked with over 1500 small businesses, and run thousands of campaigns. And today, I do it all as a

[1:26] oneperson agency with zero employees. So, this isn't something that I just read about somewhere. This is what I actually do every single day. And by the end of this video, you'll have three things. First, a 10-minute way to find these businesses. Then, the exact messages to send word for word. No cold calls or even sales calls required. And then I'm also going to give you the simple 297 a month service that you can deliver today right from your laptop, even if you're brand new, just getting started. So, here's the whole thing in three steps. First, you find the ghost towns using Google Maps. Second, you send them a report that does the selling

[1:59] for you. And third, and this is the part that most people miss, you fix the listing and install a simple system that keeps them paying you month after month instead of just one time. Okay, so let's start with step one, finding them. This works for any local service-based business, but for this example, we're going to use electricians. So, open up Google Maps and search electrician plus your city. I'm using Tucson for this example, so you can follow the exact same search with me. Now, you want to skip the strongest looking listings at the top because we want the ones where the problems are clear and obvious. And

[2:30] here's exactly what you're looking for. You might want to write these down or screenshot them as you go because this is your prospecting checklist. Problem one, a profile that hasn't been touched in years. So, old photos, a description that says basically nothing, missing details, that kind of thing. Problem two, a low review count compared to their competitors. Problem three, no replies from the owner. In fact, this last one is a dead giveaway for a ghost town. Just scroll through their reviews and check the last time the owner responded to a review. If it's been years or they've never done it, you found a ghost town. Now, you don't need

[3:02] to find all three of these problems on the same listing. Two obvious ones are enough. In fact, one is more than enough. I ran this exact search yesterday and found 12 businesses in exactly 3 minutes and 36 seconds. And this was just on the first page. Your city might take a little longer or a little less, but the process is free and you'll know exactly what's wrong with each business before you ever reach out to them. Which means you've now done more research than most agencies do before sending someone the classic cold email message that starts with, "I love what you're doing. Would you like some

[3:31] marketing help?" Terrible. And here's why these Google Map listings matter so much to the business owner. When someone in Tucson or anywhere needs an electrician, they search, they look at the map, and then they tap the listing that looks open, current, and trustworthy. They're not running a full forensic investigation to figure out which electrician is secretly excellent. So, anything that looks like a ghost town just gets skipped, even if that actual electrician is the best one in town. So, you've got your list. Now, you need something to show them because just asking some random person to trust you isn't a very compelling offer. Instead,

[4:04] you're going to hand them a report card. Now, one option here is to just send them the notes that you took while you were checking out their profile. This includes things like their review count compared to their competitors, whether anyone's responding to reviews, that kind of thing. That works and it costs nothing, but there is a better and faster option. Now, you don't have to use it, but if you want to come across as more professional right from the very first message, not to mention being able to automatically generate a report in like 30 seconds or less, instead of typing up notes yourself, this is what I

[4:34] do inside High Level, which is the software I use to run my entire oneperson agency. More on that later. There's a tool called prospecting. I type in electrician Tucson, the same search we just did on maps, and it pulls up the same businesses, except now every one of them has a conversion rate score attached, which tells me exactly how many problems this business has and therefore how likely they are to become a client. Basically, it gives us everything that we just spotted, plus a few gaps that we couldn't see. And all of this is organized into one document

[5:03] with a nice clean number at the top. Let's use this one as an example. Southern Electrical with a 68% conversion score, which means they've got quite a few problems that we could probably help fix. I click add on this Ghost Town listing and it generates the full audit and report for me here. Now, quick heads up. This report has its own score. The conversion score told us how likely they are to become a client. And this audit score, well, this shows us how the business is actually doing compared to how it could be doing. This one scored 46%. And here's the kicker. I didn't write a single word of this

[5:34] report. Now, for this offer, you can safely ignore most of this report. We only really care about the profile and the review sections. The two parts you're actually being paid to fix. Everything else in there is a later conversation, not your job today. Here's the beauty of this, though. That report is your salesperson. It never gets nervous. It never fumbles its words, and it never wonders what to say next. Even better, though, is that a sales pitch is you making claims. Sure, they're probably honest and accurate and defensible claims, but still, it's just you saying things. A report, on the other hand, is the owner looking at

[6:07] evidence about his very own business right there in front of him, packed full of things that he can actually go out and check and verify for himself. Now, real quick here, if you want to generate these exact same reports yourself, here's the fastest way to do it. I've got a link in the description below this video where you can grab an extended 30-day free trial of High Level. And when you start through my link, you'll also unlock my complete agency OS, which has over $10,000 in pre-built funnels and follow-up automations and client outreach scripts and sales scripts and a 90-day launch roadmap. And all of this

[6:38] can be installed into your account with one click. There's also a private community that you're going to get access to and a whole lot more. And the links in the description below. Okay, you've got the ghost town, you've got the report, now the message. Well, you want to send this by email. And if there's no email listed, you can use the contact form on their website. For the subject line, keep it lowercase, just quick question. And if you can find the

[6:59] owner's first name, put that in front. Okay, here's the message. And again, you might want to screenshot this one or write it down. Hi Mike, I was looking at electricians in Tucson on Google and came across your listing. You've got a really solid rating, but I noticed nobody's responding to your recent reviews and the profile doesn't look like it's been updated in a while. that can make it harder for people to find and choose you when they search for an electrician in Tucson. I put together a short report showing a few simple changes that could help. Would it be all right if I sent it over? No charge. It's

[7:28] yours either way. Let me tell you why this works piece by piece. First, it opens with something real. I mean, you actually looked at his profile and you name a strength before you name a problem. Next, it points at specific gaps that he can verify in like 10 seconds. And lastly, and most importantly, it asks permission instead of attaching a sales pitch. Everything in this message is something the owner can check for himself. And the only thing you're asking for is permission to send the proof, which is a way better and way more compelling offer than pretty much every other agency pitch out there that's asking him to hop on a call

[8:00] for 45 minutes so they can talk about synergy. So, when they say, "Sure, send it over." and some will because it cost them nothing. You export the report as a PDF right there from the tool and you send it. Then in the same thread, you reply with this. Here's the report. Your listing scored 46%. The biggest gaps are the unanswered reviews, the outdated profile, and how far behind you are on review count compared to your competitors. I can update the profile, take care of the unanswered reviews, and install a system that automatically asks new customers for reviews. Then I keep it current each month, responding to new

[8:34] reviews and making sure the profile stays up to date. It's $297 a month flat. Take a look through the report and if you'd like me to take care of it, just reply here. And then when they say yes, here's your reply, the third and final message. Perfect. I'll send over a payment link and the two-minute instructions to add me as a manager to your Google profile. Once that's done, I'll start the fixes and send you the before and after. Now, I want you to notice what is not in any of those

[8:59] messages because there's no call. There's no calendar invite. There's no Zoom meeting link where you both pretend to care about what the weather is doing. The whole deal happens in writing in the thread where they already said yes to getting the report. So, if the idea of getting on a sales call makes you want to throw your laptop into the ocean, then I've got good news because there's no sales call here. The entire thing from that first message to the paying client happens over email. Okay, so they

[9:22] said yes, they paid. Well, now what? Well, this is the part where most people panic because a simple job like updating a few photos suddenly feels a whole lot scarier when somebody's actually paying you to do it. I mean, what if you mess something up? Or what if the owner asks you something about how the Google algorithm works? So, let me walk you through the entire service step by step because I promise this is a lot smaller and a lot simpler than you're probably imagining right now. Month one, you fix the listing. The owner adds you as a manager on their Google Business profile. Takes 2 minutes from their

[9:52] phone. You just send them the steps and you never have to ask for their password. Then you go section by section. Fresh photos from their camera roll up, a description that actually says what they do and where in hours, services, links checked and updated. And then the part that makes the biggest visible difference of all. You respond

[10:09] to that backlog of unanswered reviews. So the listing finally looks like somebody's actually home. Doing all of that might take you an hour, two tops. Then you rerun the audit and you can show them how the score moved from, say, 46% before to 78% after. Screenshot both the before and after and then send that to your client. Because people cancel vague marketing services when they're not really sure what's being done and what the results are. But a number that they watched move in the positive direction, it's a lot harder to walk away from. Now, at this point, you might be wondering, if the repair only takes

[10:42] an hour, why would a business keep paying me $297 every single month? Fair question, my friend. But here's the answer. Fixing up the profile is a one-time job. But keeping it active is a forever job. New reviews need replies. New customers need to be asked for reviews. And the moment all of that stops, the listing slowly goes back into that ghost town. That ongoing system is what they're actually paying you for every single month. And the best part is you're about to see how the software does almost all of it for you. You see, business owners don't actually have a review problem. What they have is a

[11:14] remembering problem. The business owner forgets to ask for a review. The front desk forgets to ask. The technician finishes the job and then just leaves. And the customer who was totally happy meant to leave a review but then forgets because life got busy. So the business does great work all week long and Google sees basically none of it. And the fix for a remembering problem isn't more effort from the business owner. It is a system that remembers so they don't have to. So here's how the whole system works. When a job wraps up, the system sends a check-in. Hey Sarah, this is Mike from ABC Electric. Just checking in

[11:46] to make sure everything looks good with the work we did today. There's no request yet and no link either. Then either 2 hours later or after the customer responds, the review request goes out. And to stay compliant with Google's terms of service, we send the same message with the same Google review link to every single customer. And that message looks like this. Hey Sarah, Mike here from ABC Electric. Just wanted to say thanks again for the opportunity. If you have 30 seconds, would you mind sharing your experience in a quick Google review? It helps other homeowners know they can trust us. And if they haven't clicked the link, after a day or

[12:17] two, one gentle reminder goes out that says this. Just a quick follow-up. If you haven't had a chance yet, we'd really appreciate a quick Google review. Then the automation stops. Now, a big question here that pretty much always comes up is how does the system know when a job is actually done? Well, it's actually pretty simple. The business already creates that signal every single day. This could be an invoice going out, a job getting marked as complete and their booking software, whatever they already use. And worst case, if they don't have any of that, and most of them do, the owner can literally just text the system the customer's info, and that

[12:50] text will then kick off the whole sequence. Everything after that is completely automatic. As for replying to these reviews, the system is able to draft a response to every new review, and the owner can approve each one or turn on automatic posting once they're comfortable with the tone. Either way, every single review now gets a response, which makes the listing look active and professionally managed. The exact opposite of what the ghost town looks like. Once this is running, your ongoing work is about 15 to 20 minutes a month per client. Checking new reviews, approving replies, and sending the owner the updated numbers. So, how do you

[13:23] actually make money with this? Well, remember all of this runs inside High Lee. And the plan I'd recommend is the 297 a month unlimited plan, which gives you unlimited client accounts. That means your very first client covers your entire software costs and every client after that is nearly pure profit. Text calls and AI usage add small costs as you grow. So you can build these into your price. But the system itself you build one time and then you offer that exact same system to every single business after that. You're never buying a new tech stack to sign another electrician. And a quick tip for when you're signing up for your free trial,

[13:56] you'll see a few different plan options. You don't need the 497 plan and the 97 plan will technically get you started. But since the trial is free anyway, I just start on the 297 unlimited plan because that's everything you need to run what I've been showing you. And either way, you get full access to my agency OS and all of the businesses that come with it, no matter which plan you pick. And you can always upgrade or downgrade later at any time. Now, before you go find your first ghost town, I've got three warnings I need to share with you. Warning number one, only promise results that you can control. These are

[14:27] things like completing and optimizing the Google business profile, installing the review system, replying to the reviews, and reporting the numbers. On the other hand, Google is the one that controls the final positions in the rankings, and the customer is the one that controls whether or not they leave a review. Warning number two, only do the work they're actually paying you for, at least for now. See, the report might show website problems and SEO problems and a dozen other problems, but they're paying you 2.97 a month to fix

[14:55] the profile and run the review system. That's it. You can offer to fix the other things later after the review system is running and getting results, but for now, don't let a 12-page report guilt you into doing a $5,000 job for $297. And warning number three, this one's the biggest. Don't think you need a whole bunch of clients before this counts as a real business. You don't need 10 clients on day one. You don't even need two. All you need is one local business who's willing to let you try this, even if it's your dentist or your barber or a shop you already walk into every week. Then fix their listing, turn

[15:28] on the review system, and screenshot how their profile looked before versus a month after. That one before and after becomes the proof that you show to the next business and the next one after that. So, if you're ready to start building something of your very own without having to quit your job or turn your life upside down, here's exactly what I'd do right now. Grab the extended free trial through the link below. My complete agency OS comes with it, including every message you wrote down today and a whole lot more to help you get your first or your next client. Then search your city on Google Maps tonight

[15:55] and build your list of 10 ghost towns. But here's the thing. Everything I just showed you today is just one piece of how a oneperson agency actually works. If you want the full picture, how to pick your niche, how to price your services, and how to put everything together, I've put together a complete free master class that I've got linked up right here that's going to walk you

[16:13] through the entire system step by step. So, make sure to tap or click that now and I'll see you in there in just a

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