KB-015: GHL Prospecting Tool
Purpose: Document how the GHL Prospecting tool works, what the audit reports contain, and how SC uses prospecting to identify and qualify potential clients.
Who This Is For: All Symphony Core team members involved in sales or business development
Quick Answer
GHL Prospecting is a built-in tool that generates audit reports on any business's online presence -- covering their website performance, SEO, Google Business Profile, online reputation, listings accuracy, and tech stack. SC has a Premium subscription ($29/month) that includes AI-powered lead discovery and unlimited manual reports. Use it to find businesses with gaps in their digital presence, then reach out with specific findings to start a sales conversation.
What is GHL Prospecting?
GHL Prospecting is a lead generation and business audit tool built into GoHighLevel. It analyzes a business's public online footprint and produces a structured report highlighting strengths and weaknesses.
Free vs. Premium
| Feature | Free | Premium ($29/month) |
|---|---|---|
| Manual prospect reports | Limited | Unlimited |
| AI Lead Discovery | No | Yes -- auto-discovers businesses matching your criteria |
| Email outreach via Lead Connector | No | Yes |
| Prospect CRM pipeline | Basic | Full pipeline with automation triggers |
| Report depth | Summary only | Full 7-section audit |
SC has Premium. The subscription is active on the primary agency account. Reports are generated from within individual sub-accounts, not at the agency level.
What the Audit Report Contains
Each prospecting audit report covers up to 7 sections. Not all sections apply to every business (e.g., a business without a website will have no Website Performance or SEO data).
| Section | What It Measures | Common Issues Found |
|---|---|---|
| Business Details | Business name, address, phone, website, hours, categories | Inconsistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) across platforms; missing categories |
| Technology Stack | CMS, analytics, marketing tools, chat widgets, scheduling software | No analytics installed; no CRM detected; outdated CMS |
| Google Business Profile (GBP) | Profile completeness, photos, posts, Q&A, attributes | Missing GBP entirely; few photos; no recent posts; incomplete attributes |
| Listings | Directory presence across major platforms (Yelp, BBB, Facebook, etc.) | Missing from key directories; inconsistent information across listings |
| Online Reputation | Review count, average rating, review velocity, response rate | Low review count; poor response rate; declining sentiment |
| Website Performance | Page speed, mobile responsiveness, Core Web Vitals, SSL | Slow load times; not mobile-friendly; no SSL certificate |
| SEO Analysis | Title tags, meta descriptions, headings, keyword presence, schema | Missing meta descriptions; no schema markup; thin content |
Reading the Scores
Each section produces a score (typically 0-100 or a letter grade). The overall score is a weighted composite. Key thresholds:
- 80-100: Strong -- acknowledge strengths, look for gaps elsewhere
- 60-79: Moderate -- specific improvement opportunities exist
- Below 60: Weak -- clear pain points for outreach messaging
How AI Lead Discovery Works
With Premium, you can configure AI Lead Discovery to automatically find businesses that match specific criteria:
- Set target parameters: Industry, location (city/zip/radius), business size
- AI scans public data: Crawls directories, GBP listings, and web presence
- Prospects appear in your queue: Each discovered business gets a preliminary audit
- Review and approve: You decide which prospects to pursue
AI Lead Discovery runs on a recurring basis. New prospects appear in the Prospecting tab as they are found.
Best practice: Review AI-discovered leads weekly. Not every discovered business is a good fit -- filter for businesses that match SC's ideal client profile (local service businesses, professional services, small businesses with 1-50 employees).
How to Create a Manual Prospect Report
Manual reports are useful when you already know a specific business you want to target.
Steps
- Navigate to the sub-account where you want to create the prospect (use
Symphony Core LLCsub-account for SC prospecting) - Go to: Contacts > Prospecting (left sidebar)
- Click: "Add Prospect" or "New Report"
- Enter the business details:
- Business name (required)
- Website URL (required for website/SEO sections)
- City and state (required for GBP/listings sections)
- Phone number (optional but improves accuracy)
- Click: "Generate Report"
- Wait: Report generation takes 30-90 seconds
- Review the report: Check each section for accuracy before using it for outreach
Important Notes
- Reports are generated at the sub-account level, not the agency level
- Each report is tied to a prospect contact record in that sub-account
- You can generate reports for businesses even if they are not yet in your CRM
How to Refresh a Report
Audit data goes stale over time. Website changes, new reviews come in, and listings get updated.
When to Refresh
- Before first outreach: Always refresh if the report is more than 7 days old
- Before a follow-up: Refresh if more than 14 days have passed since the last report
- After a significant event: If the prospect mentions they made changes, refresh to see updated data
How to Refresh
- Open the existing prospect record
- Click "Refresh Report" or "Re-run Audit"
- Wait for the new report to generate
- Compare with the previous report to note improvements or declines
Adding a Prospect to the CRM Pipeline
When a prospect's audit reveals clear opportunities and you want to begin outreach:
- From the Prospecting tab: Click "Add to Pipeline" on the prospect record
- GHL creates an Opportunity in the designated prospecting pipeline
- Source field: Automatically set to "Prospecting" -- do not change this (used for ROI tracking)
- Initial stage: "Report Ready" (the first stage of the Prospecting Pipeline)
What Gets Created
- A Contact record (if one doesn't already exist) with the business details from the audit
- An Opportunity linked to that contact in the Prospecting Pipeline
- The audit report is accessible from the contact record
Sending Email from the Prospecting Tool
GHL Prospecting supports sending outreach emails directly from the tool. These emails are sent via Lead Connector (GHL's built-in email infrastructure), not through Google Workspace.
Why Lead Connector, Not Google Workspace
| Factor | Lead Connector | Google Workspace |
|---|---|---|
| Daily send limits | Higher (hundreds/day) | Low (Gmail: ~500/day, shared across all uses) |
| Deliverability tracking | Built-in open/click tracking | Requires external tools |
| Reply handling | Replies land in GHL conversation tab | Replies go to Gmail inbox |
| CRM integration | Automatic -- logged to contact record | Manual or requires Zapier |
| Risk to primary domain | Separate sending infrastructure | Shares reputation with business email |
Rule: All prospecting outreach must go through Lead Connector. Never use Google Workspace (rohit@symphonycore.com or team@) for cold prospecting email.
Sending Process
- Open the prospect record
- Click "Send Email"
- Select or compose your email (see Prospecting Outreach Email Templates)
- Email sends via Lead Connector
- Activity is logged on the contact record
- Replies appear in the GHL Conversations tab for that sub-account
Workflow Automation Possibilities
GHL workflows can be triggered by prospecting events. These are aspirational -- implement as volume justifies:
| Trigger | Possible Automation |
|---|---|
| Prospect added to pipeline | Auto-assign to team member; send Slack notification |
| Email sent | Start follow-up timer (3-day delay for Follow-Up 1) |
| Email opened | Log engagement; adjust follow-up timing |
| Reply received | Notify team via Slack; move to "Responded" stage |
| No reply after cadence | Move to "Not Ready Now" stage; schedule 60-day re-engagement |
| Opportunity moved to "Qualified" | Create new Opportunity in Sales Pipeline Stage 1 |
For the outreach cadence and pipeline stages, see the Prospecting Pipeline SOP.
Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Audit Report | The multi-section analysis GHL generates for a prospect's online presence |
| Lead Connector | GHL's built-in email/SMS sending infrastructure (separate from Google Workspace) |
| NAP | Name, Address, Phone -- the core business identity fields checked for consistency |
| Prospect | A business that has been audited but not yet contacted or qualified |
| Prospecting Pipeline | The 4-stage pre-sales pipeline that tracks prospects from audit through outreach |
| AI Lead Discovery | Premium feature that automatically finds and audits businesses matching your criteria |
| Core Web Vitals | Google's page experience metrics (LCP, FID, CLS) measured in the Website Performance section |
| Review Velocity | The rate at which a business receives new reviews over time |
| Schema Markup | Structured data on a website that helps search engines understand business information |
Related Documents
- Prospecting Pipeline SOP -- 4-stage pre-sales pipeline definitions and lifecycle management
- Prospecting Audit Accuracy SOP -- Quality control for audit reports before outreach
- Prospecting Outreach Email Templates -- 6 email templates for prospecting cadence
- Prospecting Email Outreach Strategy -- Strategic rationale for outreach approach
- Sales Pipeline SOP -- The 7-stage sales pipeline that receives qualified prospects
- KB-009: Agency Sub-Account Architecture -- Sub-account structure (prospecting runs in a sub-account, not agency level)
- KB-012: Mastering Review Automations -- Related: reputation management context for audit findings
Document History
| Version | Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 2026-03-02 | Initial version documenting GHL Prospecting tool, audit report sections, Lead Connector email, and pipeline integration |
Document Information
- Version: 1.0
- Created: 2026-03-02
- Updated: 2026-03-02
- Location:
06-team-training/platform-training/kb-015-ghl-prospecting-tool.md