3d • General Discussion 💬
I walked away from a $5k AI deal last week. On purpose.
A prospect from Australia reached out after seeing my AI sales system work.
They wanted “sales automation.”
They were ready to pay.
But I don’t build first.
I audit first.
And that’s where things changed.
They didn’t have a lead gen problem.
Outbound was running.
Referrals were coming in.
The real issues were:
low close rate
late follow-ups (24–48h)
weak lead quality due to a vague ICP
Classic case of a misdiagnosed bottleneck.
Wrong assumptions.
Wrong decision flow.
Wrong system request.
Instead of sending an invoice, I walked them through:
where revenue was leaking
which systems would not help right now
which decisions needed to be redefined
No tools.
No build.
Just clarity.
They thanked me for not acting like another vendor.
If I had built what they asked for:
I’d get paid
they’d feel “progress” for two weeks
the real problem would stay untouched
Best case: wasted money.
Worst case: failed project, refund, bad review.
Most AI failures come from two things:
fixing the wrong problem
fixing a problem that doesn’t exist
That’s why when founders say:
“We need an AI lead gen system.”
I now ask:
“What’s your current lead volume?”
“What’s your revenue doing?”
Then map the full process.
Because if leads exist and revenue doesn’t move,
lead gen is never the answer.
It’s usually:
a conversion issue
a fulfillment issue
an ICP issue
Sometimes something else entirely.
After failing more than I’d like to admit, one thing became clear:
The real money in AI consulting isn’t building flashy tools.
It’s finding the $100k problem hiding in plain sight
and fixing it with a boring, obvious solution.
That’s what a proper AI audit is for.
walked away from a deal for the same reason?
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I walked away from a $5k AI deal last week. On purpose.
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