You can do so much diligence these days before making any phone calls. A while back I was evaluating a digital marketing agency. Solid reputation, steady revenue, but a premium multiple. Since the data room had contracts, I decided to audit the top 10 clients using public data. I wanted to answer, "is the agency actually (a) delivering what it bills for and (b) doing quality work"? I built a Claude skill to run a 20-point digital marketing health assessment from public data. Google rank, map-pack rank, reviews vs competitors, SEO, AEO, site health, tracking, who owns the domain, email delivery, etc. What I found in 1 hour: Yes, the firm was delivering the work outlined in their contracts for 10/10. But unfortunately the quality was lackluster. 5/10 had serious issues with ranking or performance. In fact their largest client (~10% revenue) barely showed up in local search at all...major churn risk. Don't forget competitors can audit these things too. But more importantly, if client tenure and billings weren't correlated with results, that told me management took their foot off the gas. Or worse, they were coasting because the accounts were driven by seller's relationships, not quality of work. And that matched the story. It wasn't a bad business. But it definitely wasn't worth the price. Next time you want a quick path to some marketing diligence, try the Claude skill for yourself. I've shared it for free at the link below. It works on any website, but is best for businesses with reviews and local profiles like GBP. The skill performs 20 checks across 6 categories via both Claude (12 in python) & Apify (8 paid but super cheap scrapers). I'm sure there's a lot more you can do, but this was enough for me. It checks: 1. Can a customer find you? (SEO, AEO, Local rankings, etc.) 2. Are the reviews strong? (owner reply rate, competitor reviews, GBP, etc.) 3. Is the site credible? (cadence, templates, page credibility, etc.) 4. Does the site work? (page speed, mobile, redirect, DMARC, etc.) 5. Is it using analytics? (ads, trackers, forms, etc.) 6. Who holds the keys? (domain ownership, email sending, vendor tags, etc.) More details here -> redacted