The free ChatGPT prospecting prompt I use to research local businesses, build a lead sheet, write personal cold emails, and send follow-ups on a daily schedule.
What if one hour of setup could hand off the most tedious part of your postcard business? Finding businesses, researching the owners, writing cold emails, and following up. That's exactly what I set up with ChatGPT's agent mode, and this post walks you through it step by step, including the free ChatGPT prospecting prompt I use. No catch. I don't make money either way if you use it. I just want you spending your time closing deals instead of copying and pasting email addresses.
Watch: AI Just Put My $10,000/Month 9x12 Postcard Business on Autopilot · Summary and transcript
Here's the thing. If you run the 9x12 Method, you already know where the hours go. Not designing the card. Not printing it. Prospecting. Building lists, looking up owners, writing emails, and remembering who to follow up with on which day.
That's the part this prompt takes off your plate. Once it's running, ChatGPT does five things for you:
Searches the web for businesses in the industry and town you pick, and researches each owner using only public information (their website, community involvement, social media).
Puts everything into a Google Sheet with a status for every contact: new lead, sent, replied, bounced, or opted out.
Writes a personal first email for each business, plus three follow-ups, using what it learned about them.
Sends the emails from your Gmail, but only after you approve them.
Runs on a daily schedule, checks who replied, and sends the next follow-up to everyone who hasn't.
Here's the prompt. Drop your name and email and it shows up right here on the page, ready to copy.
A paid ChatGPT plan with agent mode. Agent mode is what lets ChatGPT browse the web, use your apps, and run tasks on a schedule. When I recorded the video, that was the Plus plan at $20 a month. Check current plans on ChatGPT, because features and prices change.
A Gmail account you'll send from. Set it up before you start. Plenty of operators use a separate address for outreach.
Your business name and a physical mailing address. Cold emails need a real postal address in the footer. More on that below.
One town and one industry. Start narrow. Realtors in one city, roofers in one county, that kind of thing. Our list of the best industries to target is a good place to pick from.
Full transparency: think about it this way. If one sold slot is $500, a monthly plan that saves you hours of list building pays for itself fast. But you decide. The whole walkthrough is free either way.
This takes about an hour the first time, mostly waiting on the agent while it works.
Log into ChatGPT and switch to agent mode.
Open connectors and turn on Gmail, Google Drive, and web search. If you don't see them, click to connect more and sign in. Use the Gmail you want the emails to come from.
Paste in the prompt and customize the town, the industry, and how many businesses to research. Start with 5 so you can watch it work. I've run it with 20 and it handles that fine.
Answer its confirmation questions and let it go. It opens its own browser and you can watch everything it does in real time.
When it asks you to take over, sign in yourself. It will never know your password, and it shouldn't. You type it in, then hand control back.
Give it your business name and mailing address for the email footer.
Review the drafted emails. Every single one. When they look right, approve them and it sends.
Set the schedule to daily at a time you pick (I used 11:30 in the morning). Double-check it says daily, not monthly.
That's it. It is that simple. From then on it logs in every day, checks the sheet, and sends whatever follow-ups are due.
This is the part that surprised me. These don't read like copy-and-paste cold emails, because they aren't.
In my test run on realtors, one email opened by mentioning the agent's local leadership program and volunteer work. That's the kind of detail that makes someone actually read your email, and it would take you an hour per person to dig it up yourself. The agent does it for every contact on the list.
The prompt also tells ChatGPT how to talk about the card: short, conversational, no hype. It pitches the real benefits (about $500 to reach 5,000 local homes, exclusivity in their category if you offer it, a big card people actually keep) and ends with a simple question like "Would you like me to reserve you a spot?" If someone says they're not interested, it thanks them and stops.
Every email still sounds best when it's in your words. Tweak the prompt's tone to match how you talk. Our cold email templates are a good reference for what works.
Cold email is allowed, but it has rules. The FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide says the law covers all commercial email, including business to business, and breaks down what every message needs:
A real physical postal address in the email
A clear way to opt out, and opt-outs honored within 10 business days
Honest subject lines and sender info. No tricks.
The FTC lists penalties of up to $53,088 for each email that breaks the law. So give the agent your real address, keep the opt-out language in the prompt, and never email anyone marked as opted out. The prompt already tracks opt-outs and bounces in the sheet and skips them.
This is general information, not legal advice. If you're not sure how the rules apply to you, do your own homework.
I love this setup, but let's be real about the limits.
It won't close the deal. When someone replies "tell me more," that's you. A quick call or a text and a card mockup closes way better than a robot.
It makes mistakes. It misclicks, it sometimes grabs the wrong email, and it needs you to sign in now and then. Check the sheet every day or two.
It's one channel. Email is great, but the operators who fill cards fastest mix channels. Here's our full list of where to find advertisers, from yard signs to church bulletins.
It's only as good as your follow-up. The money in this business lives in the second, third, and fourth touch. The agent sends them, but you still need a follow-up system for the conversations that come back.
If you'd rather pull your lead lists in bulk, Lead Scout pulls names, emails, phones, and socials by industry and area. It's a paid add-on, and it pairs nicely with the agent writing the emails.
Here's what happens when your personal email lands. The owner reads it, gets curious, and Googles you. If nothing comes up, the curiosity dies.
That's why I put Our Local Spotlight in my signature when I recorded the video. Members get a free pin on the Our Local Spotlight partner map, right next to 400+ other operators, so a business owner who looks you up finds a real listing. Here's how Our Local Spotlight works.
Automate the busywork. Keep the relationships human.
Full transparency: I teach all of this inside the 9x12 Method community, along with the scripts, the templates, and weekly coaching calls. You don't need it to use this prompt. Copy it, customize it, and go.
Yes. The prompt relies on agent mode, which lets ChatGPT browse the web, use Gmail and Google Drive, and run on a schedule. When I recorded the video, that meant the $20 a month Plus plan. Check ChatGPT's current plans, since features change.
Yes. Once you connect Gmail in ChatGPT's connectors and sign in yourself, the agent can draft and send emails from that account. I set mine up so nothing sends until I approve the drafts.
In the US, cold email to businesses is allowed if you follow the CAN-SPAM Act: a real physical mailing address, a clear way to opt out, opt-outs honored within 10 business days, and honest subject lines and sender info. The FTC's compliance guide covers the details. This isn't legal advice.
Start with 5 so you can watch it work and fix anything that looks off. I've run it with 20 without problems. Keep batches small and personal instead of blasting a huge list from a brand new email address.
Enter your name and email in the form on this page and the prompt appears right there, ready to copy. Customize the town, industry, and your details before you run it.
As always, I'm rooting for you. Now go let the robot do the boring part.
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Mitchell Tebo
