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169    <title>AI In Marketing: When AI gives buyers answers first, here’s how marketers win | MarketingSherpa</title>
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172Be radically clearer to match AI-informed&nbsp;buyers&rsquo;&nbsp;ability to get&nbsp;highly tailored&nbsp;advice&nbsp;for&nbsp;their unique situation.&nbsp;And publish&nbsp;answers,&nbsp;pricing,&nbsp;and&nbsp;information&nbsp;to win the trust of human prospects and their AI agents as they quickly evaluate to see if your offer is&nbsp;a fit.&nbsp;
173
174Get&nbsp;ideas&nbsp;how to do it in&nbsp;this&nbsp;MarketingSherpa&nbsp;article. We share real-world examples for&nbsp;seven key shifts you need to make when buyers use AI before they contact you.&nbsp;" />
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648    <div class="articleStats" style="padding:0;margin:0;text-align:right;width:470px;margin-top:17px;">September 17, 2026</div>
649    <div class="articleNumber" style="display:block; float:none;clear:both;">Article</div>
650    <h1 class="articleTitle">
651      <a href="#">AI In Marketing: When AI gives buyers answers first, here’s how marketers win</a>
652    </h1>
653    <div class="articleFunctions">
654      <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/MarketingSherpaArticles/">RSS</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
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661            <strong>SUMMARY:</strong>
662            <p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{79}" paraid="131740671">What should companies do differently now that customers use AI to research before they buy?&nbsp;</p>
663
664<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{81}" paraid="1477374127">Be radically clearer to match AI-informed&nbsp;buyers&rsquo;&nbsp;ability to get&nbsp;highly tailored&nbsp;advice&nbsp;for&nbsp;their unique situation.&nbsp;And publish&nbsp;answers,&nbsp;pricing,&nbsp;and&nbsp;information&nbsp;to win the trust of human prospects and their AI agents as they quickly evaluate to see if your offer is&nbsp;a fit.&nbsp;</p>
665
666<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{83}" paraid="2095512274">Get&nbsp;ideas&nbsp;how to do it in&nbsp;this&nbsp;MarketingSherpa&nbsp;article. We share real-world examples for&nbsp;seven key shifts you need to make when buyers use AI before they contact you.&nbsp;</p>
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694  by
695  
696  <span class="author"><a href="http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/about/#daniel-burstein-bio" target="_blank">Daniel Burstein</a>, Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute</span>
697  
698</div>
699    <div class="articleContent" >
700      <blockquote class="actionBox">
701<h3>
701Action Box: Transparent Marketing, Part 2: How to earn the trust of a skeptical machine&nbsp;</h3>
702
703<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{89}" paraid="1321940584">In the age of LLMs, this timeless principle is even more important to driving revenue. Join us for a free AI Guild session on&nbsp;Tuesday, October 13th&nbsp;at&nbsp;2:00&nbsp;pm EDT. <a href="https://meclabs.com/transparent" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Register now</a> (from MECLABS AI, MarketingSherpa&rsquo;s parent company). &nbsp;</p>
704</blockquote>
705
706<h2>Shift #1: From&nbsp;focusing&nbsp;on&nbsp;what,&nbsp;to adding in more&nbsp;why&nbsp;</h2>
707
708<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{93}" paraid="548585781">It used to be nice when you knew someone in the industry, right?&nbsp;&lsquo;I need to get some plumbing&nbsp;quotes,&nbsp;and my brother-in-law is a plumber, he lives out of town but at least I can get his advice on these quotes.&rsquo;&nbsp;</p>
709
710<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{95}" paraid="1373514020">Now, everyone knows someone in the industry. And&nbsp;that&nbsp;someone is artificial intelligence.&nbsp;</p>
711
712<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{97}" paraid="229891900">Sure,&nbsp;prospects&nbsp;did&nbsp;plenty of Googling back&nbsp;in the day. Asked&nbsp;other people on forums or social media.&nbsp;Watched&nbsp;YouTube videos.&nbsp;And&nbsp;read magazine reviews in Consumer Reports&nbsp;before the internet existed. So over time, prospects&nbsp;were already&nbsp;becoming&nbsp;more knowledgeable before that first interaction with a brand.&nbsp;</p>
713
714<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{99}" paraid="1402612013">But AI is an entirely different level because the advice&nbsp;your prospects&nbsp;get is so personalized.&nbsp;They&nbsp;can take a picture and ask&nbsp;how a plumber&nbsp;should handle the situation along with a fair&nbsp;cost. Or upload a bunch of insurance quotes in AI and get the exact emails&nbsp;they&nbsp;should&nbsp;use to reply to insurance agents.&nbsp;</p>
715
716<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{102}" paraid="2100187425">This&nbsp;new consumer empowerment&nbsp;necessitates&nbsp;a communication shift with customers to provide more context for your&nbsp;recommendations.&nbsp;You&nbsp;must&nbsp;show buyers exactly how you&nbsp;have&nbsp;defined&nbsp;their goal or problem, what you recommend based on it, and why you are making that recommendation.&nbsp;Here&rsquo;s&nbsp;an example.&nbsp;</p>
717
718<h3><em>Quick Example:&nbsp;Home improvement company&nbsp;provides more evidence and rationale&nbsp;behind their&nbsp;recommendations&nbsp;</em></h3>
719
720<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{106}" paraid="2125145741"><em>BEFORE&nbsp;</em></p>
721
722<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{108}" paraid="1887671285">The team would&nbsp;focus on communicating the problem and then their recommendations to fix the problem.&nbsp;</p>
723
724<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{110}" paraid="201546962"><em>AFTER&nbsp;</em></p>
725
726<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{112}" paraid="1398179061">The team noticed a shift in its ideal customer. &ldquo;I can tell from the conversations with the building owners about the inspection and repairs. They come more prepared and specific&nbsp;regarding&nbsp;the conditions, repairs needed, and recommendations,&rdquo;&nbsp;said Cameron Figgins,&nbsp;owner&nbsp;and president,&nbsp;<a href="https://absolutemaintenanceconsulting.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Absolute Maintenance &amp; Consulting</a>.&nbsp;</p>
727
728<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{114}" paraid="743528203">So now they go into greater detail about the problems they have discovered, showing pictures and moisture data from the inspection.&nbsp;And they also provide&nbsp;more detailed&nbsp;reasons&nbsp;behind their recommendations&nbsp;to help the client understand the&nbsp;scope of the work needed to restore their structure.&nbsp;</p>
729
730<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{116}" paraid="1399534301"><em>RESULTS&nbsp;</em></p>
731
732<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{118}" paraid="1199900890">Since&nbsp;prospects&nbsp;come in better&nbsp;informed from&nbsp;AI to begin with, and get greater detail from the team,&nbsp;they now&nbsp;make the decision to have the work done quicker than they used to. They&nbsp;also&nbsp;have less hesitation and discussion about the cost since they understand the issues.&nbsp;</p>
733
734<h2>Shift #2:&nbsp;From making the customer work to get pricing, to pricing clarity&nbsp;</h2>
735
736<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{122}" paraid="2005479939">There was a time when brands entirely controlled the pricing conversation for the complex sale. And&nbsp;a single rule prevailed &ndash; present value before presenting cost.&nbsp;</p>
737
738<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{124}" paraid="162798746">But times slowly changed as&nbsp;the internet grew&nbsp;and&nbsp;forced&nbsp;the complex&nbsp;sale&nbsp;to move&nbsp;from a dictatorship to a democracy.&nbsp;</p>
739
740<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{126}" paraid="1143725894">&ldquo;One of our first blog articles was &lsquo;How Much Does a Fiberglass Pool Cost?&rsquo;&rdquo; Marcus Sheridan wrote in&nbsp;<a href="https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/marketing/fear-less-marketing/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Is Your Company Embracing &lsquo;Fear-Based&rsquo; or &lsquo;Fear-Less&rsquo; Marketing in 2012 and&nbsp;Beyond?</a>&nbsp;</p>
741
742<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{128}" paraid="1591962450">He continued, &ldquo;Because everyone else in the swimming pool industry (we&rsquo;re talking about thousands of companies here) had not addressed this simple question on their website (again, due to fear), the article immediately ranked number one on Google for the phrase&nbsp;&lsquo;Fiberglass Pool Cost.&rsquo;&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
743
744<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{130}" paraid="2013063004">Sheridan wrote that&nbsp;MarketingSherpa&nbsp;blog post 15 years ago.&nbsp;And since then, AI has only supercharged the democratization of information because it&nbsp;can do a better job than traditional search of bypassing the hype and focusing on specific information.&nbsp;</p>
745
746<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{132}" paraid="1981980785">Making pricing criteria explicit&nbsp;and available in a format that is&nbsp;easily&nbsp;quotable&nbsp;by AI&nbsp;gives artificial intelligence engines the&nbsp;clarity&nbsp;and&nbsp;verification&nbsp;they&nbsp;need to answer user&nbsp;prompts.&nbsp;Here&rsquo;s&nbsp;an example.&nbsp;</p>
747
748<h3><em>Quick Case Study:&nbsp;Employee advocacy software&rsquo;s&nbsp;public pricing&nbsp;helps it&nbsp;get&nbsp;more AI recommendations&nbsp;</em></h3>
749
750<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{136}" paraid="14704431"><em>BEFORE&nbsp;</em></p>
751
752<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{138}" paraid="1774169580">The employee advocacy platform&rsquo;s customers are B2B organizations, mostly SaaS, professional services and consulting, weighted toward mid-market rather than enterprise.&nbsp;Average&nbsp;annual contract value is $5,991.&nbsp;</p>
753
754<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{140}" paraid="616397786">Paid advertising played a key role in the company&rsquo;s marketing strategy.&nbsp;</p>
755
756<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{143}" paraid="514348288">The pricing page&nbsp;had three tiers, with&nbsp;a specific price&nbsp;for&nbsp;each of&nbsp;the lower two tiers, but&nbsp;a&nbsp;&lsquo;book&nbsp;demo&rsquo;&nbsp;subhead&nbsp;for the highest tier. The headline read, &lsquo;Feature-based subscriptions for every organization.&rsquo;&nbsp;</p>
757
758<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{145}" paraid="1120747019"><em>Creative Sample #1: Employee advocacy software&rsquo;s old pricing page&nbsp;</em></p>
759
760<figure align="center"><strong><img alt="HTA7-1" src="https://meclabs-images.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/image_container/image/6128/HTA7-1.png" style="width: 624px; height: 804px;" /></strong></figure>
761
762<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{150}" paraid="2085018517">
762The team asks inbound leads how they heard about the company as the last question in its calls &ndash; &lsquo;with our marketing hat on, please can you tell us exactly how you found us, as it helps us to improve how often we&#39;re discovered?&rsquo;&nbsp;</p>
763
764<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{152}" paraid="1164110202">Across 96 demos from the previous six months, 30% had discovered the company through artificial intelligence. &ldquo;They often narrow down their searches to a specific shortlist, for example,&nbsp;&lsquo;employee advocacy platforms for LinkedIn, for a team of 20 with affordable pricing,&rsquo;&rdquo; said&nbsp;Rob Illidge, CEO,&nbsp;<a href="https://vulse.co/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Vulse</a>.&nbsp;</p>
765
766<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{154}" paraid="625051661"><em>AFTER&nbsp;</em></p>
767
768<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{156}" paraid="1191173875">When they realized the prominent&nbsp;role&nbsp;pricing played in&nbsp;AI recommendations, they&nbsp;added prices&nbsp;to directory listings and&nbsp;redesigned the pricing page.&nbsp;</p>
769
770<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{158}" paraid="417659508">The new&nbsp;pricing page&nbsp;headline read&nbsp;&lsquo;From $6 per user, per month&rsquo; with an &lsquo;EMPLOYEE ADVOCACY PRICING&rsquo; eyebrow above the headline.&nbsp;And the page had a pricing table that broke down per&nbsp;user&nbsp;costs based on the number of seats.&nbsp;</p>
771
772<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{160}" paraid="122350815">They added an FAQ at the bottom of the page,&nbsp;with the first answer restating&nbsp;the entire pricing logic in prose&nbsp;in addition to the visual table on the page that is harder to parse for AI.&nbsp;</p>
773
774<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{162}" paraid="895274835"><em>Creative Sample #2: Employee advocacy software&rsquo;s new pricing page&nbsp;</em></p>
775
776<figure align="center"><strong><img alt="HTA7-2" src="https://meclabs-images.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/image_container/image/6129/HTA7-2.png" style="width: 398px; height: 864px;" /></strong></figure>
777
778<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{167}" paraid="590460643">They also&nbsp;took money away from paid advertising and&nbsp;focused&nbsp;on&nbsp;giving&nbsp;LLMs more clarity.&nbsp;&ldquo;Google Ads and Bing Ads both stopped at around $4,000 per month,&rdquo; he said. The&nbsp;budget&nbsp;reallocation went&nbsp;to:&nbsp;</p>
779
780<ul>
781	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{169}" paraid="1161951893">Comparison pages against named competitors, with honest&nbsp;&lsquo;best for&rsquo;&nbsp;verdicts&hellip;including where&nbsp;Vulse&nbsp;is&nbsp;the wrong choice&nbsp;</li>
782	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{171}" paraid="255258876">Review platform presence, primarily G2&nbsp;</li>
783	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{173}" paraid="1237825697">Third-party listicle and directory placements, pitched editorially rather than paid&nbsp;</li>
784	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{175}" paraid="235070583">Publishing&nbsp;their&nbsp;own research with the&nbsp;methodology&nbsp;attached rather than gating it&nbsp;</li>
785</ul>
786
787<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{177}" paraid="1364962829">&ldquo;G2 reviews roughly doubled, listicle placements landed, and directory listings gained pricing where previously they had none,&rdquo; Illidge explained.&nbsp;</p>
788
789<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{179}" paraid="1711905903"><em>RESULTS&nbsp;</em></p>
790
791<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{181}" paraid="1104679486">Demos increased from 96 to 216 demos over the last six months. And triple the people on those calls said they discovered the company through&nbsp;an LLM.&nbsp;&ldquo;Around 90% had asked ChatGPT or Perplexity&nbsp;[or another LLM]&nbsp;which employee advocacy tools to consider before they contacted us,&rdquo;&nbsp;Illidge said.&nbsp;Here&rsquo;s&nbsp;the&nbsp;inbound&nbsp;lead source breakdown:&nbsp;</p>
792
793<ul>
794	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{183}" paraid="483694968">ChatGPT: 45%&nbsp;</li>
795	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{186}" paraid="2110469512">Perplexity: 15%&nbsp;</li>
796	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{188}" paraid="2101666293">Google Gemini: 12%&nbsp;</li>
797	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{190}" paraid="1871105816">Claude: 10%&nbsp;</li>
798	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{192}" paraid="1088280507">Microsoft Copilot: 8%&nbsp;</li>
799	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{194}" paraid="1299068181">Google&nbsp;search, organic: 4%&nbsp;</li>
800	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{196}" paraid="833406835">LinkedIn organic: 3%&nbsp;</li>
801	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{198}" paraid="60471054">Employee Advocacy Tools listicle: 2%&nbsp;</li>
802	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{200}" paraid="32072494">LinkedIn Tools listicle: 1%&nbsp;</li>
803</ul>
804
805<h2>Shift #3:&nbsp;From&nbsp;keyword-driven content,&nbsp;to question-answering content&nbsp;</h2>
806
807<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{204}" paraid="859291618">For some of the shifts in this article, they&nbsp;didn&rsquo;t&nbsp;come out of nowhere.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s&nbsp;more mashing on the accelerator of where things were already headed than making a U-turn.&nbsp;</p>
808
809<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{206}" paraid="1160797134">
809And this shift is a perfect example.&nbsp;An SEO in the early days might have used keyword stuffing to rank on a search engine (who&nbsp;else&nbsp;remembers&nbsp;a bunch of white-on-white keywords strewn across the bottom of webpages?).&nbsp;</p>
810
811<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{208}" paraid="1013049642">But,&nbsp;search engines had increasingly been tweaking their algorithms to reward long-form, authoritative content.&nbsp;</p>
812
813<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{210}" paraid="1969035366">That approach has&nbsp;greatly accelerated&nbsp;in the age of artificial intelligence.&nbsp;Prospective buyers&nbsp;are able to&nbsp;ask much more detailed questions than were previously allowed in small search boxes.&nbsp;</p>
814
815<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{212}" paraid="1784710485">So&nbsp;content that simply covers a topic&nbsp;generally&nbsp;isn&rsquo;t&nbsp;enough. I called this Book Report SEO content marketing, because this approach usually&nbsp;featured&nbsp;pushing out&nbsp;very generic overview content.&nbsp;</p>
816
817<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{214}" paraid="206864054">Now, you need to be like Comic Book Guy on&nbsp;&ldquo;The Simpsons.&rdquo;&nbsp;Really get in there and get funky with it.&nbsp;</p>
818
819<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{216}" paraid="2095143146">You&nbsp;can&rsquo;t&nbsp;just settle for your industry&rsquo;s version of&nbsp;&lsquo;Peter Parker is a&nbsp;student bitten by a radioactive spider who gets superpowers.&rsquo;&nbsp;</p>
820
821<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{218}" paraid="1301127665">You need relentless specificity. Unapologetic depth.&nbsp;A focus on an ideal customer.&nbsp;And even a viewpoint.&nbsp;</p>
822
823<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{220}" paraid="23597523">&lsquo;As a scholarship student grinding through a work-study night shift, you lack the&nbsp;cushy&nbsp;safety net enjoyed by your more embarrassingly privileged peers.&nbsp;You have&nbsp;zero margin for error.&nbsp;That&rsquo;s&nbsp;Peter Parker: a Queens science kid already lugging around adult consequences before&nbsp;he&rsquo;s&nbsp;even old enough to rent a car. Then a radioactive spider bite hands him the sort of strength and reflexes that lesser minds fantasize about&hellip;until he learns the obvious: power&nbsp;doesn&rsquo;t&nbsp;reduce pressure, it compound-interests it.&nbsp;Now he&nbsp;has to&nbsp;keep his grades high enough to hang onto his Empire State University scholarship&nbsp;while&nbsp;playing&nbsp;unpaid guardian of a city that watches, records, and punishes mistakes with the enthusiasm of an internet comment section.&nbsp;Worst. &ldquo;Upgrade.&rdquo; Ever.&rsquo;&nbsp;</p>
824
825<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{222}" paraid="2097104540">That&rsquo;s&nbsp;an off-the-wall example to get you thinking.&nbsp;In&nbsp;
825reality, in&nbsp;your industry&nbsp;you&nbsp;probably need&nbsp;to publish&nbsp;specific, helpful&nbsp;guidance&hellip;not&nbsp;the hyper-niche&nbsp;elitism paired with acerbic wit Comic Book Guy is known for. I only use&nbsp;Comic Book Guy&nbsp;as a very human (cartoon) example of this shift.&nbsp;</p>
826
827<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{224}" paraid="1540312171">So&nbsp;don&rsquo;t&nbsp;stop&nbsp;at&nbsp;&nbsp;&lsquo;let me&nbsp;tell you about [industry]&rsquo; with your content. Go deep. Get to&nbsp;&lsquo;if you find yourself in&nbsp;these&nbsp;types of&nbsp;situations,&nbsp;here&rsquo;s&nbsp;what you&nbsp;should do next&nbsp;to [solve problem/meet goal].&rsquo;&nbsp;</p>
828
829<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{227}" paraid="157672427">Don&rsquo;t&nbsp;just&nbsp;think in terms of&nbsp;ideal outcomes. Go deeper. How do&nbsp;your ideal customers&nbsp;overcome the&nbsp;constraints that make it hard? What&nbsp;criteria matter most? What&nbsp;options and trade-offs&nbsp;will your ideal customer face?&nbsp;And what are the best&nbsp;next steps for them in this situation (which honestly may, or may not, be hiring your firm)?&nbsp;</p>
830
831<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{229}" paraid="2035033675">Here&rsquo;s&nbsp;an example of getting&nbsp;specific&nbsp;with&nbsp;content.&nbsp;</p>
832
833<h3><em>Quick Case Study:&nbsp;Roofing contractor&nbsp;builds more detailed, granular content to answer prospect questions&nbsp;</em></h3>
834
835<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{233}" paraid="76621505"><em>BEFORE&nbsp;</em></p>
836
837<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{235}" paraid="531169893">&ldquo;Historically, a homeowner might Google&nbsp;&lsquo;roofing company&nbsp;Austin,&rsquo;&nbsp;visit a few websites, read reviews, and call three companies,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Nicholas Riley, owner,&nbsp;<a href="https://driftwoodbuildersroofing.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Driftwood Builders Roofing</a>.&nbsp;</p>
838
839<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{237}" paraid="1573470210">One to two years ago,&nbsp;the questions&nbsp;they&nbsp;would&nbsp;hear from prospects were broad, like:&nbsp;</p>
840
841<ul>
842	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{239}" paraid="972853862">How much does a roof cost?&nbsp;</li>
843	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{241}" paraid="696854132">What shingles do you recommend?&nbsp;</li>
844	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{243}" paraid="227863037">Do you work with insurance?&nbsp;</li>
845	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{245}" paraid="1879670246">Can you&nbsp;come&nbsp;give&nbsp;me an estimate?&nbsp;</li>
846</ul>
847
848<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{247}" paraid="1494958579">Like many contractors,&nbsp;their&nbsp;website encouraged a homeowner to request an estimate.&nbsp;The site had&nbsp;a&nbsp;relatively limited&nbsp;library of educational&nbsp;content.&nbsp;</p>
849
850<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{249}" paraid="1199705034"><em>AFTER&nbsp;</em></p>
851
852<p paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{251}" paraid="1816883070">Now they hear much more specific evaluation questions, like:&nbsp;</p>
853
854<ul>
855	<li paraeid="{6e068b7b-92a1-4b99-9448-197483013e0e}{253}" paraid="1301082682">Will I be able to install a Brava&nbsp;tile roof&nbsp;on my home?&nbsp;</li>
856	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{1}" paraid="859139109">What factors influence the cost of a new roof?&nbsp;</li>
857	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{3}" paraid="595758963">Should I use GAF HDZ or another shingle, and what am I&nbsp;actually getting&nbsp;for the difference in price?&nbsp;</li>
858	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{5}" paraid="1657141147">If my roof has&nbsp;skip&nbsp;sheathing or damaged decking, is insurance supposed to pay to bring it up to code?&nbsp;</li>
859	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{7}" paraid="1173252199">What should I look for in the workmanship warranty versus the&nbsp;manufacturer&nbsp;warranty?&nbsp;</li>
860</ul>
861
862<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{9}" paraid="1413558190">So&nbsp;the&nbsp;team built&nbsp;dozens of location pages, project pages,&nbsp;articles&nbsp;and videos answering&nbsp;very specific&nbsp;homeowner questions.&nbsp;</p>
863
864<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{11}" paraid="1306287949">They&nbsp;created YouTube&nbsp;videos to answer these specific questions, like &lsquo;GAF vs TAMKO Shingles: Which Is Better for Roof Replacement? | Austin Roofer Reveals the Truth.&rsquo; They published these videos in a searchable knowledge center on the roofing company&rsquo;s website.&nbsp;</p>
865
866<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{14}" paraid="1462916079"><em>Creative Sample #3:&nbsp;Knowledge center on roofing service website&nbsp;</em></p>
867
868<figure align="center"><strong><img alt="HTA7-3" src="https://meclabs-images.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/image_container/image/6130/HTA7-3.png" style="width: 510px; height: 864px;" /></strong></figure>
869
870<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{19}" paraid="955641380">They also&nbsp;built in-depth pages to&nbsp;provide&nbsp;information on topics&nbsp;like:&nbsp;</p>
871
872<ul>
873	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{21}
873" paraid="344757264">Price&nbsp;</li>
874	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{23}" paraid="1997801945">Roof lifespan in Austin&nbsp;</li>
875	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{25}" paraid="1456127653">Insurance coverage&nbsp;</li>
876	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{27}" paraid="989896877">Hail damage&nbsp;</li>
877	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{29}" paraid="572576623">GAF vs. TAMKO&nbsp;</li>
878	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{31}" paraid="1616642264">Metal roofing&nbsp;</li>
879	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{33}" paraid="1150897961">Roof ventilation&nbsp;</li>
880	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{35}" paraid="1216264429">Drip edge&nbsp;</li>
881	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{37}" paraid="1082736270">Flashing&nbsp;</li>
882	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{39}" paraid="1815190268">Plywood/decking&nbsp;</li>
883	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{41}" paraid="212565754">Emergency roof leaks&nbsp;</li>
884</ul>
885
886<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{43}" paraid="989746216"><em>Creative Sample #4: Top of&nbsp;very&nbsp;long&nbsp;pricing page&nbsp;for roofing contractor&nbsp;</em></p>
887
888<figure align="center"><strong><img alt="HTA7-4" src="https://meclabs-images.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/image_container/image/6131/HTA7-4.png" style="width: 508px; height: 864px;" /></strong></figure>
889
890<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{45}" paraid="837715795">&nbsp;</p>
891
892<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{48}" paraid="81212056">&ldquo;The goal is not simply to rank for&nbsp;&lsquo;roof replacement cost Austin.&rsquo;&nbsp;It is to answer the exact question a homeowner would otherwise take to ChatGPT,&rdquo; Riley said.&nbsp;</p>
893
894<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{50}" paraid="1275950128">In addition to their own content creation, the team worked to earn third-party media coverage.&nbsp;</p>
895
896<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{52}" paraid="136923712">&ldquo;We have also become much more focused on third-party corroboration,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;For example, Driftwood has now been quoted or featured in a growing number of national and local publications and media outlets.&nbsp;That matters because it gives both search engines and AI systems independent sources that verify who we are and what&nbsp;expertise&nbsp;we have.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
897
898<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{54}" paraid="675258971"><em>RESULTS&nbsp;</em></p>
899
900<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{57}" paraid="1837601327">According to Google Search Console,&nbsp;average&nbsp;position improved from 49.6 to 18.4. The team&nbsp;can&rsquo;t&nbsp;entirely attribute this increase to better answering&nbsp;prospect&rsquo;s more&nbsp;complex&nbsp;questions, because they made other changes at the same time as well, like technical SEO and internal linking.&nbsp;</p>
901
902<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{59}" paraid="1475015583">They&rsquo;ve&nbsp;also noticed the&nbsp;sales&nbsp;conversations are much more&nbsp;advanced,&nbsp;which means they are getting more qualified leads. Instead of talking about a general topic like a standing seam, they talk about specifics like 24-gauge vs. 26-gauge, or Galvalume vs. painted metal.&nbsp;</p>
903
904<h2>Shift #4:&nbsp;From human-only analysis,&nbsp;to AI-assisted analysis&nbsp;</h2>
905
906<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{63}" paraid="1572507231">As&nbsp;I&rsquo;ve&nbsp;discussed in this article, your ideal prospects&rsquo;&nbsp;concerns are becoming more fragmented and&nbsp;more niche&nbsp;as they&nbsp;increasingly get custom advice from artificial intelligence&nbsp;interactions.&nbsp;</p>
907
908<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{65}" paraid="1492430988">Which means, there is an increased&nbsp;need to understand the humans who are your customers at a deeper level than&nbsp;general&nbsp;campaign measurement.&nbsp;</p>
909
910<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{67}" paraid="1871720504">You can call this journey intelligence.&nbsp;You could call it&nbsp;funnel&nbsp;analysis. Or you can simply think of it as&nbsp;having the very human curiosity and compassion to&nbsp;understand your fellow humans very real&nbsp;wants, needs,&nbsp;goals&nbsp;and fears&hellip;
910so you can better serve them.&nbsp;</p>
911
912<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{69}" paraid="969963773">The challenge&nbsp;is,&nbsp;you also have very real&nbsp;human blind spots.&nbsp;</p>
913
914<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{71}" paraid="1302169525">AI-assisted pattern detection&nbsp;can ensure you&nbsp;don&rsquo;t&nbsp;inadvertently overweight the proverbial loudest voice in the room, or highest paid person&rsquo;s opinion. But&nbsp;auditing&nbsp;is&nbsp;key, since&nbsp;artificial intelligence can have its own blind spots and biases&nbsp;as well.&nbsp;</p>
915
916<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{73}" paraid="1182906454">Here&rsquo;s&nbsp;an&nbsp;example&nbsp;where&nbsp;employees are&nbsp;essentially internal&nbsp;buyers.&nbsp;</p>
917
918<h3><em>Quick&nbsp;Example:&nbsp;Professional training and coaching firm&nbsp;used AI to&nbsp;overcome human bias&nbsp;</em></h3>
919
920<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{77}" paraid="1434096312"><em>BEFORE&nbsp;</em></p>
921
922<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{79}" paraid="1215317267">To&nbsp;plan for&nbsp;their AI adoption workshops, the team used a manual process of&nbsp;reviewing&nbsp;survey responses, emails, interviews, and workshop-planning notes.&nbsp;</p>
923
924<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{81}" paraid="797701285">With this&nbsp;approach, they tended to overweight very vivid responses, especially when coming from senior employees.&nbsp;</p>
925
926<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{83}" paraid="1872657880"><em>AFTER&nbsp;</em></p>
927
928<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{85}" paraid="1654098650">&ldquo;A memorable individual request can pull your attention toward a feature or use case. AI becomes more valuable when it shows you that several superficially different complaints are manifestations of the same underlying&nbsp;problem,&rdquo;&nbsp;said Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, CEO,&nbsp;<a href="https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Disaster Avoidance Experts</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
929
930<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{87}" paraid="1846279903">The team&nbsp;gives artificial intelligence de-identified responses and&nbsp;uses AI as a first-pass pattern detector.&nbsp;</p>
931
932<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{89}" paraid="675742298">They&nbsp;ask for the evidence behind each cluster&nbsp;to make sure the AI model&nbsp;isn&rsquo;t&nbsp;grouping&nbsp;two complaints&nbsp;just&nbsp;because the&nbsp;responses&nbsp;use similar words&nbsp;although&nbsp;the underlying business problems&nbsp;were&nbsp;different.&nbsp;&ldquo;For example,&nbsp;&lsquo;reviewing&nbsp;documents&rsquo;&nbsp;can mean clerical extraction in one function and high-stakes professional judgment in another. I override clusters when the operational risk,&nbsp;expertise&nbsp;requirement, or decision authority differs materially,&rdquo;&nbsp;he explained.&nbsp;</p>
933
934<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{91}" paraid="966575432">And then ultimately, a human makes the decision on how the AI analysis will inform the workshop.&nbsp;</p>
935
936<h2>Shift #5:&nbsp;From referrer-based detection,&nbsp;to first-party citation visibility&nbsp;</h2>
937
938<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{95}" paraid="140109519">Twas&nbsp;a time in the olden days&nbsp;when marketers&nbsp;couldn&rsquo;t&nbsp;attribute every dollar they spent on marketing directly to a sale. As John Wanamaker famously said,&nbsp;&quot;Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don&#39;t know which half.&quot;&nbsp;</p>
939
940<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{98}" paraid="318789720">Then modern attribution tracking came along. It was always a myth that we could truly attribute everything, but it sure felt like we could. For example, our&nbsp;MarketingSherpa&nbsp;research&nbsp;has shown that print advertising is the&nbsp;most-trusted&nbsp;advertising channel when customers want to make a purchase decision.&nbsp;So&nbsp;one could easily extrapolate that the trust signals generated by a newspaper or magazine ad gave a boost to digital PPC ads.&nbsp;But how many brands gave print that attribution?&nbsp;</p>
941
942<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{100}" paraid="1206782017">We&rsquo;re&nbsp;still in the early days of artificial intelligence&rsquo;s&nbsp;effect&nbsp;on buyer evaluation.&nbsp;But&nbsp;it&rsquo;s&nbsp;clear that AI&nbsp;doesn&rsquo;t&nbsp;get all the attribution it deserves. For example, an AI chat can then lead a customer to search&nbsp;out&nbsp;a specific store, product, or professional service firm. Yet the analytics may show that as direct.&nbsp;</p>
943
944<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{102}" paraid="447028197">There are (at least) three&nbsp;ways to&nbsp;fine tune your attribution in the AI era. Firstly, customer intimacy.&nbsp;Get outside the platform and&nbsp;actually talk&nbsp;to or email them&nbsp;to better understand their journey.&nbsp;</p>
945
946<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{104}" paraid="1585237502">Put a custom AI agent on your website and analyze those conversations for what they reveal about the buyer&rsquo;s journey.&nbsp;</p>
947
948<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{106}" paraid="622758196">And, of course, constantly evaluate and re-evaluate the platforms you use for attribution, like in our next example.&nbsp;</p>
949
950<h3>Quick&nbsp;Case Study:&nbsp;Marketing services firm&nbsp;updates data sources to better understand upstream AI influence, sees 8x increase in LLM-sourced revenue&nbsp;</h3>
951
952<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{110}" paraid="559150261"><em>BEFORE&nbsp;</em></p>
953
954<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{112}" paraid="150529522">Through 2025,&nbsp;the team relied on&nbsp;Google Analytics&nbsp;4 referral data, filtering session sources for&nbsp;large language&nbsp;model&rsquo;s&nbsp;domains, like&nbsp;chatgpt.com&nbsp;of&nbsp;perplexity.ai.&nbsp;</p>
955
956<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{114}" paraid="2143838072"><em>AFTER&nbsp;</em></p>
957
958<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{116}" paraid="1327359173">&ldquo;In February, Bing Webmaster Tools released its AI performance dashboard, which shows actual citations of your pages inside AI answers, so we finally saw the top of the funnel. And this 
958summer Shopify rolled out the agentic storefront, which gives us attributed orders at the point of sale,&rdquo; said Stefan Chiriacescu, founder &amp; CEO,&nbsp;<a href="https://ecommerce-today.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">eCommerce Today Agency</a>.&nbsp;</p>
959
960<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{118}" paraid="854417614"><em>RESULTS&nbsp;</em></p>
961
962<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{120}" paraid="1454537565">The agency manages marketing for 200 Shopify stores.&nbsp;</p>
963
964<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{122}" paraid="1658982489">Last year, revenue coming from LLMs was under one percent. In the first half of this year, it reached eight percent.&nbsp;</p>
965
966<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{124}" paraid="1299168650">That number comes with two caveats. &ldquo;The&nbsp;eight&nbsp;percent figure comes from progressively better instruments, and if&nbsp;anything&nbsp;the early period was undercounted, not inflated,&rdquo;&nbsp;Chiriacescu&nbsp;said.&nbsp;</p>
967
968<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{126}" paraid="1812831639">Second, even with the updated tracking, the team&nbsp;realizes they still may not be capturing the full impact of AI on moving buyer evaluation upstream. &ldquo;We think the real number is higher, because the LLM is usually just the first step. The purchase decision then runs over several days,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;</p>
969
970<h2>Shift #6:&nbsp;From&nbsp;effort,&nbsp;to outcome&nbsp;</h2>
971
972<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{130}" paraid="1860137464">&ldquo;The basis for your value, and the metric that you charge for it, are not necessarily the same,&rdquo; Flint McGlaughlin, CEO, MECLABS AI, taught in&nbsp;<a href="https://guild.meclabs.com/c/video-library/guild260902" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">The New Economics (And Philosophy) of Value in the AI Era</a>.&nbsp;</p>
973
974<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{132}" paraid="1611288097">Many industries&nbsp;traditionally derived revenue by&nbsp;charging for&nbsp;the effort&nbsp;they performed on behalf of a client using billable hours. The rate of those hours might change based on the seniority of the person working for the client, but the same general principle&nbsp;applied &ndash; we&nbsp;have to&nbsp;charge you this amount of money because we are physically taking the time to do work on your behalf.&nbsp;</p>
975
976<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{134}" paraid="1924476782">But with the rise of AI, the&nbsp;perception&nbsp;of the value of work has changed.&nbsp;What would previously take hours or days can now happen near instantaneously.&nbsp;And a novice customer may not be able to tell the difference in value of the two outputs.&nbsp;</p>
977
978<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{136}" paraid="1750096568">Or they may regard that the professional services output is better, but&nbsp;the AI output is good enough&hellip;especially when considering the huge price difference.&nbsp;</p>
979
980<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{139}" paraid="120452774">So&nbsp;
980you may need to shift how you&nbsp;charge&nbsp;your clients.&nbsp;Here&rsquo;s&nbsp;an example.&nbsp;</p>
981
982<h3><em>Quick Case Study:&nbsp;IT services consultant&nbsp;moves from hourly rates to fixed fee based on outcome&nbsp;</em></h3>
983
984<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{143}" paraid="1919774031"><em>BEFORE&nbsp;</em></p>
985
986<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{145}" paraid="1959510920">Two years ago, buyers wanted to see the demo and asked questions like&nbsp;&lsquo;What are your blended hourly rates across these roles?&rsquo;&nbsp;</p>
987
988<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{147}" paraid="1970741529">&ldquo;We led the way everyone in the professional services industry led: headcount deployment plans, capacity modeling, timesheets, and rate cards,&rdquo; explained&nbsp;Peter Grant, CEO and&nbsp;co-founder,&nbsp;<a href="https://goweaver.ai/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Weaver</a>.&nbsp;</p>
989
990<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{149}" paraid="621091801"><em>AFTER&nbsp;</em></p>
991
992<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{151}" paraid="1686187830">Today,&nbsp;prospects&nbsp;want to&nbsp;understand the long-term economics, and ask questions like&nbsp;&lsquo;What are we actually getting back per dollar of AI compute spend, measured continuously?&rsquo;&nbsp;</p>
993
994<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{153}" paraid="1278041058">So now the team leads with&nbsp;outcome-based pricing models, transparent token-cost tracking, and governance frameworks.&nbsp;&ldquo;We tie our price to the outcome rather than the effort,&rdquo; Grant said.&nbsp;</p>
995
996<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{155}" paraid="570023874">What this looks like in practice is a&nbsp;fixed fee&nbsp;for a&nbsp;fixed scope&nbsp;on a&nbsp;fixed timeline&nbsp;with a return that was&nbsp;modeled&nbsp;before&nbsp;anything is&nbsp;built.&nbsp;</p>
997
998<h2>Shift #7: From exclusivity against competitors, to exclusivity against&nbsp;artificial intelligence&nbsp;</h2>
999
1000<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{159}" paraid="1082771004">At MECLABS (MarketingSherpa&rsquo;s&nbsp;parent company),&nbsp;we&rsquo;ve&nbsp;always&nbsp;taught&nbsp;that exclusivity was a key&nbsp;component&nbsp;of an effective value proposition.&nbsp;</p>
1001
1002<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{161}" paraid="1927092675">That exclusivity used to focus on your competitors. Previously&nbsp;I&rsquo;ve&nbsp;written about&nbsp;<a href="https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/marketing/competition-types-to-watch/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">the&nbsp;three types of competitors to keep an eye on</a>.&nbsp;I originally wrote this blog post because&nbsp;I found that&nbsp;some brands&nbsp;were myopically focused on direct competitors and could overlook threats to their value prop.&nbsp;</p>
1003
1004<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{163}" paraid="452178865">Today,&nbsp;I think it&nbsp;makes sense to&nbsp;add a fourth&nbsp;competitor&nbsp;for many products&nbsp;and services&nbsp;that can come out of nowhere to eat your lunch&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;artificial intelligence. Whether you make software&nbsp;or sell services,&nbsp;many customers now perceive that they can do it themselves with&nbsp;AI.&nbsp;</p>
1005
1006<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{165}" paraid="1815143944">When conducting competitive research, look for:&nbsp;</p>
1007
1008<ul>
1009	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{167}" paraid="1823645224">Direct Competitors&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Perform the same job for the&nbsp;ideal&nbsp;customer&nbsp;in the same way&nbsp;with the same revenue model&nbsp;</li>
1010	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{169}" paraid="1688268560">Indirect Competitors&nbsp;&ndash; Perform the same job for the ideal customer with a different revenue model&nbsp;or form factor&nbsp;</li>
1011	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{171}" paraid="1258469420">Replacement Competitors &ndash;&nbsp;Performs a similar&nbsp;job for the ideal customer that serves the same&nbsp;general&nbsp;need, customer pays with the same time and/or money&nbsp;</li>
1012	<li paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{173}" paraid="488978109">Artificial Intelligence Competitors &ndash; The ideal customer can perform the same or a similar job&nbsp;that serves the same&nbsp;need themselves&nbsp;with the&nbsp;assistance&nbsp;of AI.&nbsp;</li>
1013</ul>
1014
1015<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{175}" paraid="749857194">Types of competitors, updated for the year 2026&nbsp;</p>
1016
1017<figure align="center"><strong><img alt="HTA7-5" src="https://meclabs-images.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/image_container/image/6132/HTA7-5.png" style="width: 624px; height: 418px;" /></strong></figure>
1018
1019<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{181}" paraid="493441600">I&rsquo;ll&nbsp;illustrate this with an example.&nbsp;Let&rsquo;s&nbsp;say&nbsp;your&nbsp;brand is a premium streaming music platform. A direct competitor would be another streaming platform. An indirect competitor might be satellite radio.&nbsp;A replacement competitor might be&nbsp;vinyl records of compact discs (both are making a comeback). An AI competitor could be a platform that&nbsp;allows&nbsp;people to generate their own songs with prompts.&nbsp;</p>
1020
1021<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{183}" paraid="1751755386">Here&rsquo;s&nbsp;a real-world example of how these types of competitors can sneak up on you if&nbsp;you&rsquo;re&nbsp;not careful.&nbsp;</p>
1022
1023<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{185}" paraid="178479096">&ldquo;We had an 80-something&nbsp;share&nbsp;at the time, and we&nbsp;didn&#39;t&nbsp;want to lose&nbsp;a point or a 10th of a point of share to Powerade. And we measured it weekly. And it was just very,&nbsp;
1023very, very focused,&rdquo;&nbsp;Derek Detenber told me about his time at Gatorade, in&nbsp;<a href="https://marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/consumer-retail-brands" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">World-Class Consumer &amp; Retail Brands: What right do we have as a brand to be in that business? (Podcast Episode #15)</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
1024
1025<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{187}" paraid="638810487">&ldquo;We weren&#39;t losing share to Powerade, but our business was slowing down.&rdquo;&nbsp;He continued, &ldquo;And you look around and you have all of a sudden you have all of these smallish new brands that are out there,&nbsp;VitaminWater&nbsp;probably being the most prominent&hellip; they were stealing the occasions that, frankly, Gatorade and Powerade didn&#39;t really have the right to win.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
1026
1027<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{189}" paraid="1254103991">In this case, a replacement competitor &ndash; enhanced&nbsp;vitamin water &ndash; snuck up and took away sales from sports drinks.&nbsp;</p>
1028
1029<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{191}" paraid="529644942">AI could do the same thing&nbsp;to&nbsp;your business.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
1030
1031<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{193}" paraid="1587101066">So&nbsp;when you craft your value prop, make sure it includes exclusivity&nbsp;against AI if AI is a potential competitor. For example, there is a lot of talk about artificial intelligence hurting SaaS sales because companies can easily build their own software. In this case, a SaaS brand may want to&nbsp;message the security its software offers versus homegrown, AI-built softw
1031are.&nbsp;</p>
1032
1033<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{195}" paraid="546840109">In some cases where AI has an undeniable appeal (because of 24/7 access or&nbsp;lower cost) you may want to match those features and bring in exclusivity&nbsp;by leveraging&nbsp;your custom methodology, niche experience, and intellectual property to train your&nbsp;own, custom-built AI agent.&nbsp;</p>
1034
1035<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{197}" paraid="1588222398">Your AI agent can&nbsp;meet them early in the funnel when they are using AI and bring them on a journey of conclusions that leads them to hire the humans in your professional services firm. Which ties into our&nbsp;final action&nbsp;box.&nbsp;</p>
1036
1037<blockquote class="actionBox">
1038<h3>Action Box: Grow your client base with an intelligent intake agent&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>
1039
1040<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{201}" paraid="2129541454">Enter your website URL and<a href="https://easyagentbuilder.meclabsai.com/profservices?=content" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">&nbsp;Easy Agent Builder&nbsp;</a>will email&nbsp;you&nbsp;a custom, ready-to-embed intake/sales chat agent trained on your site.&nbsp;You&rsquo;ll&nbsp;get $100 free credits to use it. No credit card&nbsp;required (from MECLABS AI, MarketingSherpa&rsquo;s parent company). &nbsp;</p>
1041</blockquote>
1042
1043<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{203}" paraid="832584748"><em>This article was distributed through the <a href="https://www.marketingsherpa.com/newsletters" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">free MarketingSherpa email newsletter</a>. &nbsp;</em></p>
1044
1045<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{205}" paraid="1284829871"><strong>Related resources&nbsp;</strong></p>
1046
1047<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{207}" paraid="154076661"><a href="https://marketingsherpa.com/article/how-to/large-language-models" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">MarketingSherpa&rsquo;s&nbsp;entity-and-evidence framework</a>&nbsp;</p>
1048
1049<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{209}" paraid="597012625"><a href="https://marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/AI" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">AI Marketing Tools: How marketers are using artificial intelligence to help their campaigns right now</a>&nbsp;</p>
1050
1051<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{211}" paraid="111926962"><a href="https://marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/artificial-intelligence" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Benefits of AI in Marketing: How do the views about artificial intelligence in marketing differ between leaders and practitioners? [chart]</a>&nbsp;</p>
1052
1053<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{213}" paraid="572806125"><strong>AI&nbsp;transparency&nbsp;</strong></p>
1054
1055<p paraeid="{eb4e8862-d39f-4eda-929a-8c878a1a0177}{215}" paraid="1993037282">This is a human-conceived and -written article,&nbsp;assisted&nbsp;by AI. <a href="https://meclabsai.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">MECLABS&nbsp;AI</a> was used to review source pitches for artificial intelligence usage,&nbsp;evaluate the credibility of potential sources,&nbsp;craft follow-up questions to sources, brainstorm the steps&nbsp;and advice in&nbsp;this article,&nbsp;create Open Graph and CMS thumbnail images,&nbsp;and&nbsp;provide&nbsp;copy-edit suggestions for the article.&nbsp;</p>
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