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This Might Be the Easiest Way to Sell AI to Businesses Transcript, AI Summary & Key Points

Chris Koerner on The Koerner Office Podcast · Apr 03, 2026 · Education · 15:28 · EN

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00:00 57% of sales goes to whoever responds first. And  that's not my opinion. That's data. As of right now, most small businesses are letting calls go to  voicemail and hoping people call back. Side note, they don't. So, today, I'm going to build an AI  agent that texts back missed calls automatically. It has a full conversation, answers questions, and  books the appointment without your involvement.

00:23 And I'm going to show you how to sell this to  small business owners because statistically speaking, you're probably not a business owner  yourself. So, we're going to figure out how to make money from business owners so we can be  a business owner ourselves. And literally just yesterday, this 16-year-old girl that's in a high  school for entrepreneurs emailed me this and said, "Hey, it works.

00:38 I use ringless voicemail drops to  find a plumber that wants AI integrated into his business." And I got it on my 16th birthday. You  can do it all inside of GoHigh Level. And then I'm going to show you something even more interesting.  You ever heard the phrase dog fooding? aka eating your own dog food, aka using the marketing  technique that you're selling to small business owners to find those exact same small business  owners.

00:57 We're going to be dog fooding today. I'm going to show you how to use this exact same  setup in reverse to find and close small business customers who will pay you to run this for them.  We're going to cover the full build step by step inside GHL, the exact prompt that makes the AI  sound human over text, and how to land clients using ringless voicemail in the same agent.

01:17 And  most importantly, I'm going to share my screen, my phone. I'm going to get a live fish on the  line. I'm going to find a customer by the end of this video, guys. This is a $500 to $2,000  a month per client service. So, let's build it. So, missed call text is not anything new. We're  not inventing it today, but if business owners are using it, and most aren't, it's just a static  one single text.

01:41 Let's say you're a plumber. you miss a call and an automated text goes out to the  person that called you that says, "Hey, sorry I missed your call. Anything I can help you with  or our operating hours are between 9:00 and 5, yada," and then there's no interaction, there's  no engagement. That doesn't really do a lot at all. But we're going to add AI to it.

01:58 We're  going to make it seem very real so that one static text can be converted into a two-way  conversation that books appointments and gets you or business owners more sales. So, we're going  to logo high level right here and we're going to click on automation on the sidebar. We're going  to click this big blue button, create workflow, select from template, and we're going to search  missed call text right there.

02:18 Okay, let me explain to you what you're looking at right here. This  first step is called the trigger. That's what starts this workflow/automation. And in this case,  the trigger is an incoming call. And right here, it shows if the call is busy, has a voicemail,  or no one answers it, then the trigger will be activated. And then the next step right here down  the line down the workflow is slight delay so SMS doesn't feel like a bot.

02:46 We want to give it 1 to  3 minutes before that text goes out so it doesn't feel automated. And then on this third step right  here, we're going to assign it to a user. So if you or the business owner you're working with has  a team, they don't want to be the one that manages this. We can assign it to a user. But I think in  most cases, this won't even be necessary cuz most business owners don't even have employees, believe  it or not.

03:04 This next step adds a contact tag. So, Gohigh Level also functions as a CRM customer  relationship management platform where you basically store all your leads or your contacts,  customers, data, phone numbers, addresses, etc. So, we want to know which of those contacts in our  CRM used this workflow. It's good to know. That way, you can sort by them, you can filter by them,  etc.

03:26 So, we're going to use that to add a contact tag. You can name this whatever you want. I named  it mist- call. And then this step right here turns a text into a lead. Now this is how GoH High Level  categorizes the contact as a lead. And in this same step is also where this text will finally be  sent. So it took about five steps to actually get to the point to where we're sending the first text  to the customer that called.

03:49 And then right here, let's say that the business owner or the employee  wants to take over for the AI at any given point. We set up a push notification to the assigned user  which was assigned right here in step three. So if they want they can take over and start texting  as themsself. And then this last step right here basically does the same thing except through an  SMS and not through a push notification.

04:11 So this has a time delay of 0.2 minutes. That's not long  enough in my opinion. I like to do 1 to 2 minutes. So we'll save that. Okay. Now very important.  This is the most important part. Remember this step right here where you first send the text to  the customer? We're going to delete that. Okay, we're going to replace it with AI. So, we're  going to click the plus.

04:34 We're going to click conversation AI. We want to hit this toggle button  right here, advanced bot configurations. Let's say hypothetically we are doing this as a service.  We're getting paid to do this for a tree trimming business owner. So, this was the generic template  that GoHigh Level gave me. But let's just say I'm going to market this to tree trimming business  owners cuz I own a tree trimming business.

04:56 So I know that industry better than most. So I'm  going to copy this prompt, take it over to Claude or Chat GBT Grock, whatever you use. And  I'm going to say, replace this personality in the conversation AI on go high level with  an AI agent representing Fast Tree Care, a tree trimming company in DFW that is engineered  to book appointments for quotes.

05:13 Okay. About you. You're a friendly assistant for Fast Tree Care.  Objectives: Find out what tree service they need. rules, be warm and casual, talk like a real  person, not a robot, questions to ask, what's going on with your tree, yada yada yada. So, you  don't have to like upload this huge repository of FAQs, just have AI create that knowledge base for  you.

05:32 Now, I'm going to go to Claude. I'm going to take all of this, these additional instructions,  and say, "What you gave me was great. Go ahead and swap out this with something that matches Fast  Tree Cure." This basically just says how to handle the questions and the objectives, how to go in  order, some examples of things that you can say, what types of phrasing to use, etc.

05:54 And then we're  going to leave this last section blank right here. So, we want the bot to wait for a reply for like  24 hours. Okay? And channel is going to be SMS. We'll skip the question if already answered. Now,  what's the max number of responses that we want the bot to give? This is like an insurance policy,  a safeguard against the bot just going crazy and not leaving the person alone.

06:16 I think five is a  good safe number for this. This is the amount of seconds that you want to wait in between each  response. I think 10 is not enough. I'm going to say 35. So question. This is the simplest one  there is. I'm just going to say, "Hey, sorry we missed your call. What's going on with this tree?"  And I'm just now seeing these top two need to be 300 words or less.

06:35 So I'm asking Claude just to  trim it down for me. And same here with this one. trim that down to 213 words with just one prompt.  Okay, so after the conversation AI starts, it's going to send the same push notification  to the same user or business owner in the same SMS so they can take over should they want at  any point. Also, very important, remove your quote marks from this question.

06:58 Trust me, it's  embarrassing. Hey, if you find yourself driving much or working in the yard or doing the dishes,  check out my audio podcast, The Ker Office, cuz you'll see episodes there that don't make it  to YouTube on all podcast platforms. Okay, now we need to add some branches. This is basically an  if this then that scenario. And really what we want to do is log the customer's info once we  get it from them.

07:15 So we're going to click add condition. We're going to call this booked. And  the condition is customer provided their tree service need address and preferred day for the  estimate. Now we're going to do another one called emergency because sometimes here in Texas there  are like ice storms and someone might literally have a huge branch on their roof.

07:35 So we're going  to call this one emergency and the condition will be customer mentioned a tree fill on their house  yada yada and needs immediate help. And then the third and final branch we're going to add is  called unqualified for the times when a customer is asking about something other than tree services  or is outside of our service area. Okay, let's go ahead and submit.

07:57 Okay, so now you will see all  of these different branches. If they time out, aka they never respond, the automation will end.  If they book a time for us to come provide a quote or for the business owner to come do that, we want  it to notify us. So, I'm just going to take this one right here. I'm going to copy it. I'm going to  click controlV. I'm going to paste it and then I'm going to drag it over here.

08:17 I don't need a push  notification and an SMS. An SMS will do it. Same thing over here. If there's an emergency, like a  tree on their house, we're going to copy it. We're going to paste it right there. The text is just  going to say emergency. And then I don't want to be notified. The business owner probably doesn't.  if someone's unqualified. So, we're just going to tag them.

08:35 We're going to copy this tag and we're  going to paste it right here. And the tag that we attach to this user is just going to be cancelled.  If I wanted to waste an extra minute, I would just create a new tag called unqualified, but I'm too  lazy. So, cancel does it. This is it. This is how it works. This is the whole thing. Okay? And  this step right here, this is the meat of it.

08:55 This is where people are going to have full-blown  conversations with our AI agent. And here's the secret beautiful thing of all this. Now that you  have this one workflow, you can copy and paste it over and over and over for multiple customers.  They're not all tree trimmers. Fine. You just swap out the tree trimming info with the plumber  info, the HVAC info, or whatever type of business it is that they own.

09:13 Now, of course, we got to hit  publish and then save. Now, we're going to go back here to the list of workflows, click the three  dots, and click duplicate workflow. And then we're going to call this dog fooding. Okay, so same  trigger. we get an incoming call and I'm going to show you how to generate those incoming calls. We  still want the same delay.

09:32 We still want to assign it to a user. Now, keep in mind this would be me  or my employee, my user, because this is me trying to sell this service to other business owners. And  everything I just showed you, that is something we're building for the business owners that we're  trying to sell this to. We still want to add a tag just to stay organized. And we don't need the  emergency branch anymore because there will be no emergencies.

09:56 So, we're going to delete that. and  we still want to book appointments with them. So, we could talk to them as humans and try to close  them either in person or over the phone. And there's still going to be a lot of people that are  unqualified. They're unwilling to pay or whatever. So, we're going to leave that. But the magic needs  to happen right here.

10:10 So, what I'm doing is I took a screenshot of all this, drug it over to Claude,  and said, "All right, I'm going to use the same workflow to dog food it to try to find business  owners that want this missed call text back feature. So, give me new instructions for this  and just know that the agent is going to act as me as like a sales agent to answer questions for the  business owner and tell them how it will make them more money that it'll cost 500 bucks a month and  if it doesn't pay for itself in the first 90 days,

10:42 then it's free. Okay, you're a friendly assistant  to Chris Kerner. You're texting a business owner who just heard a voicemail from Chris  about an AI powered miscalled textbox system. yada yada yada. And remember, we want  to remove the quotations from these questions. We're going to add one more condition here that  says hot lead. Customer is very interested asking detailed questions or wants to start immediately  without a demo.

11:01 And then again, we're going to send an SMS for that. Now, if you go in here,  these are called conditional tags. This will put in the customer's first name so I know how to  address them if I were to actually call them. So, I'm just saying user first name is a very  hot lead. Contact them here with phone and name. Save. Then we're going to click publish.

11:21 So  every business has two functions. Find customers, fulfill those customers, aka do the service or the  product that you're promising them. We just did both of them with the same workflow. Or at least  we just set up the ability to find the customers. So let's go ahead and do that real quick. Okay.  So who do I text? Well, I went to outscraper.com.

11:43 I typed in treeming businesses in Dallas, Texas.  It gave me this info. And all I care about is the phone number. That's it. But I need to standardize  them. So I'm going to do Crl+ FRL find. I'm going to do plus one space. I'm going to get rid of all  those. Replace it with nothing. And then I'm just going to do a dash. Replace all that with nothing.

12:01 So now I have 181 phone numbers for tree trimming businesses in Dallas, Texas. Okay. Now I'm going  to go file, download, CSV. Okay. Then you can use any number of services for ringless voicemail  drops. I use Slack Broadcast, not an ad. I'm going to go create a new campaign. I'm going to put in  the caller ID. This needs to match what's in goh high level.

12:24 This is the number that the voicemail  is coming from. Also, I haven't even described this yet. A ringless voicemail drop is when you  upload a voicemail to a piece of software like this and you upload a list of phone numbers and it  will send that voicemail to those phone numbers, either cell or landline without their phone  ringing its magic. Sometimes people will see a missed call, sometimes they don't.

12:42 It's kind of  random, but what it is going to do is generate a bunch of calls back to you. Okay, now I'm going  to record a voicemail. So, I'm going to open my voice memos app. You've probably seen it before.  And I'm just going to hit the big red button. Hey, this is Chris Kerner. I'm here in Dallas, Texas,  and I'm looking for a tree trimming business.

12:56 So, please give me a call back. Thanks. Kept it broad.  Kept it vague. We're going to incentivize for a call back here. I'm going to airdrop this to the  MacBook that I'm recording on right now. Upload recording. Boom. It's uploaded. I'm going to  upload my list. Doesn't matter what I name it. 173 numbers. It obviously scrubbed out eight because  they were probably invalid phone numbers.

13:19 We want to send it immediately. And that's it. We're going  to start getting call backs. And then once GoH High Level recognizes that call back, it's going  to text them back and then it's going to start a conversation as long as they text back to my text  back. Also, to sync up your phone number with GoHigh Level, you just do it in the settings. It's  pretty self-explanatory.

13:38 Now, all there is left to do is click submit. All right. And look at this.  You can see they've all gone out. A lot of them failed. Most were successful. And you can see the  carrier that they're on and the phone numbers over here. Now, let's see if we get any uh call backs.  Okay, got one. This is wild. I'm like I'm watching my AI interact with this business owner.

13:57 Says,  "Hey, I know this is random, but I'm using a mis call text back on you right now that will have a  full conversation with you with AI. It feels real, doesn't it? I want to install it for you on your  tree trimming business so you can close more jobs. What questions do you have?" Oh, and it just  says cost. Great question. It is $500 a month, but if it doesn't pay for itself in the first 90  days, then I'll give you all your money back.

14:16 Can we hop on a call so I can explain? It'll only take  a minute. There it is for proof. So, I haven't closed them yet. I don't have money in my pocket  yet from this, but you can see that this works. And literally just yesterday, this 16-year-old  girl that's in a high school for entrepreneurs emailed me this and said, "Hey, it works. I use  ringless voicemail drops to find a plumber that wants AI integrated into his business."

14:37 And I got  it on my 16th birthday. So, that wasn't like the same thing. She wasn't using GoHigh Level at all,  but these principles work. And if you can't tell by now, yes, GoHigh Level is an amazing supporter  of this channel. They usually give 14 days free to use it, but with my link only, you can get 30  days free. And if you end up paying for it, it will support me and my channel.

14:56 So, I'd appreciate  that at the top link in the description below. Go do this. There are 33 million small business  owners in the United States, and basically all of them could use Miss Call Text Back. Now, you  know how to install it, and now you know how to find them with the same thing, miss callback.  Also, I have a community of people building AI businesses that sell into small businesses just  like these.

15:14 It's called Playmakers. You can find us at playmakersai.com. We'd love to have you. If  you like this content, please share with a friend, hit a like or a comment below, and  we'll see you next time on the Kerner

💡 Answer

Sell an AI missed-call text-back agent to small businesses, build it in GoHighLevel, and use the same system with ringless voicemail to find clients.

🧠 AI Summary

An AI-powered missed-call text-back service automatically starts SMS conversations, answers questions, qualifies leads, and books appointments for small businesses. The workflow is built in GoHighLevel, customized for each industry, and can be duplicated across clients. The same system can be used to find clients through ringless voicemail campaigns, creating a dogfooding-based sales process. The service is presented as generating $500 to $2,000 per month per client, with a $500 monthly offer backed by a 90-day payback guarantee.

🔑 Key Points

  • 57% of sales goes to whoever responds first.
  • Most small businesses let calls go to voicemail and do not reliably receive callbacks.
  • AI improves static missed-call texts by creating two-way SMS conversations that answer questions and book appointments.
  • A GoHighLevel workflow can be customized for industries such as tree trimming, plumbing, and HVAC.
  • The workflow includes delayed responses, contact tagging, lead conversion, human takeover notifications, and conditional branches.
  • The same workflow can be duplicated for multiple business customers by replacing the industry-specific information.
  • Ringless voicemail can generate callbacks from prospective business customers, which then enter the AI sales workflow.
  • The service is presented as a $500 to $2,000 per month per client offer.

✅ Actionable items

  • Create a GoHighLevel workflow using an incoming-call trigger for busy calls, voicemails, or unanswered calls.
  • Add a 1 to 3 minute delay before sending the first SMS so the response feels less automated.
  • Assign the workflow to a user, add a contact tag, and convert the text interaction into a lead.
  • Replace the static missed-call text with GoHighLevel Conversation AI.
  • Customize the AI prompt for a specific business, including its personality, objectives, questions, and response phrasing.
  • Set the AI to wait up to 24 hours for a reply, use SMS, limit responses to five, and wait 35 seconds between responses.
  • Create booked, emergency, and unqualified branches based on the information provided by the customer.
  • Notify the business owner when a lead books an estimate or reports an emergency.
  • Duplicate the completed workflow for other clients and replace the industry-specific information.
  • Create a dogfooding version of the workflow that acts as a sales agent for the service.
  • Use Outscraper to collect business phone numbers, standardize the numbers, and download them as a CSV.
  • Upload a voicemail and phone-number list to a ringless voicemail service such as Slack Broadcast.
  • Configure the caller ID to match the phone number connected to GoHighLevel.
  • Use a ringless voicemail callback to start the AI sales conversation with prospective business owners.

💡 Business ideas

Install an AI missed-call text-back agent for small businesses.01:38

Provide an automated SMS agent that responds to missed calls, answers questions, qualifies leads, and books appointments.

For
Small-business owners, including tree trimming, plumbing, and HVAC businesses.
Solves
Missed calls and static automated texts fail to engage prospects or convert them into appointments.
Validate by
Send ringless voicemail drops to business owners and measure callbacks, conversations, interest, and booked sales calls.
  • Fast Tree Care
  • A plumber contacted by a 16-year-old entrepreneur

🏗️ Business models

AI missed-call text-back service02:16

A recurring service that installs and operates an AI SMS agent for small businesses.

  1. Detect a missed, busy, or unanswered incoming call.
  2. Wait before sending an SMS.
  3. Start an AI conversation over SMS.
  4. Answer questions and collect service details.
  5. Book appointments or route emergencies.
  6. Notify the business owner when human intervention is needed.
  • Tree trimming
  • Plumbing
  • HVAC
Dogfooding-based client acquisition09:23

Use the same missed-call text-back system being sold to businesses as an AI sales agent for contacting and qualifying prospective business owners.

  1. Duplicate the client workflow.
  2. Remove the emergency branch.
  3. Rewrite the AI instructions as a sales agent.
  4. Send ringless voicemails to a list of businesses.
  5. Let callbacks enter the AI sales conversation.
  6. Identify hot leads and contact them directly.
  • Tree trimming businesses in Dallas, Texas

💰 Monetization

Monthly recurring service fee $500 to $2,000 per month per client 01:26

Charge businesses to install and operate the AI missed-call text-back system.

  • $500 per month with a promise that the service is free if it does not pay for itself within the first 90 days

📣 Marketing

Sales

  • Offer a short call to explain the service after a prospect asks questions.
  • Use a 90-day payback guarantee in the sales offer.
  • Contact hot leads using their first name, phone number, and name.

Branding

  • Customize the AI agent to represent the specific client business, such as Fast Tree Care.
  • Position the service around closing more jobs and making more money than the monthly cost.

Distribution

  • Send ringless voicemails to cell or landline numbers without ringing the phone.
  • Continue the sales conversation through SMS after a prospect calls back.

Customer acquisition

  • Use ringless voicemail drops to contact lists of small-business owners.
  • Use the AI workflow itself to respond to callbacks and qualify prospects.
  • Flag highly interested prospects as hot leads for direct follow-up.

🔍 SEO & discoverability

Other channels

  • Ringless voicemail campaigns

🧭 Frameworks

Dogfooding00:48
  1. Use the product or marketing system on your own customer-acquisition process.
  2. Adapt the client workflow into a sales-agent workflow.
  3. Contact prospective customers through the same mechanism.
  4. Use the resulting conversations to identify and close customers.
Missed-call AI workflow02:16
  1. Trigger on a missed incoming call.
  2. Delay the initial SMS.
  3. Start an AI conversation.
  4. Collect lead information.
  5. Branch into booked, emergency, or unqualified outcomes.
  6. Notify or tag the appropriate contact.

🧰 Tools & AI usage

  • GoHighLevel — Build and manage the missed-call workflow, CRM records, Conversation AI, tags, notifications, and SMS.02:12
  • Claude — Rewrite and customize the Conversation AI prompt and sales-agent instructions.05:03
  • Chat GBT — Alternative generative AI tool mentioned for creating or adapting the prompt.05:03
  • Grock — Alternative generative AI tool mentioned for creating or adapting the prompt.05:03
  • Outscraper — Find business listings and phone numbers for prospecting.11:42
  • Slack Broadcast — Send ringless voicemail drops to a phone-number list.12:15
  • Voice Memos — Record the voicemail used in the ringless voicemail campaign.12:52

AI is used for

  • Generate customized Conversation AI instructions — Create an industry-specific personality, knowledge base, objectives, questions, phrasing, and sales behavior without manually uploading a large FAQ repository.05:03
  • Operate SMS conversations — Respond to missed-call leads, answer questions, collect service details, qualify contacts, and book appointments.00:18
  • Act as a sales agent — Explain the missed-call text-back service to business owners and identify hot leads.10:16

📊 Numbers mentioned

Growth

  • 57% of sales goes to whoever responds first.
  • 33 million small business owners are in the United States.

Pricing

  • $500 per month
  • Free if the service does not pay for itself within the first 90 days

Revenue

  • $500 to $2,000 per month per client

Traffic

  • 181 phone numbers were collected for tree trimming businesses in Dallas, Texas.
  • 173 numbers were uploaded to the ringless voicemail campaign.
  • Eight numbers were scrubbed out as probably invalid.

⚖️ Advantages, risks & lessons

Advantages

  • The AI agent provides two-way engagement instead of a single static text.
  • The workflow can answer questions, qualify leads, and book appointments without constant owner involvement.
  • One workflow can be duplicated across multiple customers and industries.
  • The same system can support both customer fulfillment and client acquisition.

Risks

  • The AI may continue responding excessively, so a maximum response limit is used as a safeguard.
  • Delayed responses that are too short may feel automated.
  • Some ringless voicemail deliveries fail or use invalid phone numbers.
  • The presenter had not yet closed the demonstrated prospect or received payment at the time of the demonstration.

Lessons

  • Fast responses matter because 57% of sales goes to whoever responds first.
  • Industry-specific prompts make the AI agent more relevant to each business.
  • Human takeover notifications allow owners or employees to intervene.
  • Conditional branches help separate booked leads, emergencies, and unqualified contacts.
  • A product can be used on its own sales process to demonstrate and validate its value.

💬 Quotes

57% of sales goes to whoever responds first.

It establishes the commercial rationale for responding immediately to missed calls.00:00

This is a $500 to $2,000 a month per client service.

It states the presented recurring revenue opportunity.01:26

👤 People & companies

Chris Kerner

Creator of the missed-call text-back service and the AI sales agent used in the dogfooding campaign.

10:25
GoHighLevel

Platform used to build the automation, CRM workflow, Conversation AI agent, contact tags, notifications, and SMS process.

02:12
Fast Tree Care

Tree trimming company used as the example business for the customized AI agent.

05:08
Outscraper

Service used to find tree trimming businesses and their phone numbers.

11:42
Slack Broadcast

Ringless voicemail drop service used to send a voicemail campaign.

12:15

🔗 Links mentioned