2. The "Trojan Horse" Response Strategy When a prospect says, "We have an agency who looks after that," your response should be enthusiastic validation, followed immediately by a data-driven trap. The Script Framework: Prospect: "Thanks, but we already have an agency that looks after our website and SEO." You: *"That’s fantastic to hear. Most of the mid-sized firms we talk to have an agency, and we actually prefer it because we don’t do monthly marketing, content creation, or social media. The reason I reached out specifically to you is that we ran a standard technical performance scan on your site. Your current agency is doing a great job with design, but they’ve missed the core technical mobile foundations. Your mobile speed is scoring 24 out of 100 on Google’s official index. What that means is you are paying your agency to drive traffic to a site where 30% of mobile users are clicking away before it loads. Even worse, your agency hasn't installed the hidden code required for AI search engines like ChatGPT, meaning you are invisible to the next wave of buyers. We don't want to replace your agency. We want to give you a 1-page technical blueprint that you can hand to them to fix it, or we can deploy the patch for you in a weekend without disturbing their work. Would you be open to seeing the 2-minute video overview of where your site is leaking money?"* 3. Why This Works (Psychology of the Decision Maker) 1. It removes the friction of switching: Firing an agency is a painful, bureaucratic process. By saying "we don't want to replace them," you lower their defensive guard. 2. It creates constructive doubt: Business owners hate being taken advantage of. When you show them an official Google Lighthouse score of 24/100, they realize they are paying their current agency for a broken product. 3. It leverages loss aversion: You are framing the sub-30 score as wasted ad spend and lost market share to AI. 4. How to Handle the Two Scenarios Next Scenario A: They ask you to talk to their agency The owner says, "Can you just email this to our marketing manager/agency?" Your play: Say yes, but keep control. "Absolutely. I’ll send over the diagnostic report. Let’s book a quick 10-minute 3-way call next Tuesday with your agency. I will walk them through the technical blocks so they can implement the fix, or they can approve us to do it for them." (Agencies usually look at your report, realize they don't know how to fix a 24/100 Lighthouse score without rebuilding the whole site, and the client ends up hiring you directly). Scenario B: The owner gets angry at the agency The owner realizes their agency has been asleep at the wheel. Your play: Step in as the savior. "Look, agencies are great at design, but they aren't technical speed engineers. It’s very common. We can step in as a one-off project, optimize the mobile code, inject the AI Schema markup, and hand it back to them. Your current marketing will instantly perform 40% better."