By Kim Leary
The short version
- Word of mouth gets a business so far. Past that point, people who don’t know you need to find you, and trust you, without a personal introduction.
- AI tools can only say what they can find. Businesses built on referrals have usually put very little of what they know in public.
- Being easy to find on Google doesn’t mean AI tools will name you.
- The buyer has made up their mind before you’ve said a word.
- Businesses that grew on relationships often assume the old rules still apply.
- Find out what AI says about you now, then publish the proof it needs to say something better.
You got the introduction. The meeting’s in the diary. What you don’t see is what happens next: your prospect asks ChatGPT or Claude who you are, what you’ve done and how you compare. That’s how buyers use AI to research suppliers now. It’s their due diligence, and it takes two minutes.
If the answer is thin, generic or about someone else, you’ve started the meeting behind.
Why it matters more as you grow
Word of mouth gets a business so far. Past that point, people who don’t know you need to find you, and trust you, without a personal introduction.
One MD put it simply: at our size, relationships work. To get to ten million, there has to be a growth engine feeding the pipeline from elsewhere. And business is trust. The way to build trust with strangers is to be familiar before they meet you.
AI tools are now one of the main places that familiarity comes from.
Why most businesses come up short
AI tools can only say what they can find. Businesses built on referrals have usually put very little of what they know in public.
The case studies live in people’s heads. The results are in proposals nobody else sees. The website says what you do in general terms, and it takes more than two seconds to work out what that is.
So the tools fill the gap with generic descriptions, or with a competitor who has published more.
Ranking on Google won’t cover it
Being easy to find on Google doesn’t mean AI tools will name you.
We’ve measured this. One client sat at position three on Google for a term and was completely absent from the AI answer to the same question. They’re two different systems, deciding two different things.
Sometimes the tools can’t reach you at all. A security setting or firewall rule that blocks AI crawlers is more common than people expect, and usually nobody knew it was switched on.
What it’s costing you
The buyer has made up their mind before you’ve said a word.
What doesn’t fix it
Businesses that grew on relationships often assume the old rules still apply.
“Our clients come through referrals.” They do. And then they check you out with AI before they call.
“We’re not a business people search for.” Your buyers don’t search. They ask. That’s the point.
“You can just pay to be in ChatGPT.” You can’t. Unlike Google, there’s no paid placement in the answer.
“We’ll deal with it in a year or two.” If you start now, the gap is small. In two years it’ll be much bigger.
What fixes it
Find out what AI says about you now, then publish the proof it needs to say something better.
Our AI visibility audit asks ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI answers the questions your buyers ask, and shows you the answers word for word: what they say about you, who they recommend instead and why. Two weeks, £2,800 + VAT.
Then content and campaigns gets your proof into the open: case studies with real numbers, the answers to your buyers’ real questions and the expertise that’s currently stuck in people’s heads. Facts and figures are what AI tools quote.
And if your website doesn’t say what you do within two seconds, web design is where to fix that.
What happens in the audit
Two weeks, fixed price, and it starts with your buyer, not your name.
- A half-day session with you. We work out who your buyer actually is and what they would genuinely ask before a first meeting.
- The research. We put those questions to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI answers, logged out and clean, and record who gets named and which sources get cited.
- The report and the walkthrough. What the tools say today, why, what’s stopping them seeing you, and a list of fixes in priority order. We go through it with you.
Re-run it eight weeks after you’ve acted on it and you can see what moved.
Keep reading
- What does AI think your brand looks like?
- Who’s writing your brand story if you’re not?
- Why pay for marketing that doesn’t sell this month?
Questions about buyers using AI to research suppliers
More and more, often just before a first meeting. They ask who you are, what you’ve done and how you compare.
No. There’s no paid placement. What gets you named is clear, consistent and factual information about you, on your site and elsewhere.
Case studies with real numbers, clear answers to your buyers’ questions and a website that says what you do straight away.
You can, and you should. But it’s shaped by your own chat history, so you’re not seeing what a stranger sees. And your name isn’t the real test. The test is the question your buyer asks, where your name isn’t in it.
The tools will. What they reward won’t: being clear about what you do, being consistent about it, and being mentioned somewhere other than your own website. That’s why an AI visibility audit is worth having even as the tools move.
Free resource
Why your positioning still isn’t working. If your own team can’t say what you do in one line, AI can’t either. Four quick tests to check.
The one thing to do next
AI visibility audit
Find out what AI tells your buyers about you before the meeting, and who it recommends instead. Two weeks, £2,800 + VAT.
