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Industry · B2B SaaS & Technology
Buyers ask an assistant for a shortlist. Be on it.
How do B2B buyers choose a software vendor now?Copy answer
Buyers now ask an AI assistant to shortlist vendors before they ever open a comparison site, then check the sources it cites: comparison pages, review sites, trade press and pricing. What decides it is comparison and proof. For most software companies, deals are won or lost on that shortlist, the pricing question and how quickly a demo or trial request gets a reply.
Pick your category for the version written for your buyers: what they ask, where they check, and the three places a good product usually loses the shortlist.
01 · Pick your category
Eight categories. Eight different buyers.
Each playbook follows one kind of buyer from the first prompt to the demo or trial, then lays out the five moves we'd make first. Every one is free to read.
Win the 'best tool for X process' comparisons where evaluation actually starts.
Read the playbook DevTools & API platformsDocumentation is your best-ranking asset — treat it as a marketing surface, not an afterthought.
Read the playbook Fintech SaaSBalance compliance review against publishing speed, or the challenger gets cited first.
Read the playbook HR & payroll techOwn the regional compliance questions buyers search before they ever compare vendors.
Read the playbook CybersecurityBuyers verify claims across independent sources — one unsupported assertion loses the shortlist.
Read the playbook MarTechYou are selling to the most sceptical audience online. Show the mechanism, not the promise.
Read the playbook Vertical SaaSNarrow category, low volume, high value. Every one of those few queries has to convert.
Read the playbook IT services & MSPsLocal plus capability beats national generalists on the searches that actually close.
Read the playbook02 · How buyers choose
Shortlisted by an assistant, decided on comparison and proof.
Software buyers rarely start on a vendor's site. They ask an assistant for options, read the comparison pages and review sites it cites, look for pricing they can take to finance, and request two or three demos or trials. Whoever is named, can be checked and replies first usually sets the terms of the evaluation.
The three moves we'd make first
Software buyers check claims, so we only publish what can be supported: comparisons stated fairly, customer results shown with their method, and security, compliance and integration statements approved by your team. Where your market has advertising or financial promotion rules, we work within them.
03 · Where we start
The services SaaS teams need first.
Most SaaS companies need these four working together before anything else. Each category playbook adds what its buyers need on top.
AEO and GEO — the work that gets your brand named inside ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, not just ranked beneath them.
Read more Content MarketingEditorial, video and design produced with AI leverage and human judgement — quotable by readers and answer engines.
Read more Digital PREarned citations on the publications, datasets and expert sources that search engines and AI models already trust.
Read more SEO ServicesTechnical, on-page and off-page SEO built on entity and topic architecture — so you rank in Google and get retrieved by AI answer engines from the same work.
Read moreIncluded with every plan
A free 5-page website for SaaS companies.
Assistants and buyers cite pages they can read. Yours comes with schema, a sitemap and llms.txt from day one, so there is something worth quoting.
- 5 pages, your choiceHome, About, Services, Key service, Contact
- Live in 48 hoursFrom the launch checklist
- AI-readableSchema, sitemap and llms.txt built in
- Yours to keepDomain and hosting in your name
Free with any monthly plan from $499. Domain, hosting and paid tools are bought by you and stay in your name; shops and booking systems are quoted separately. The 48-hour clock starts once your plan is active and the launch checklist is done.
Questions SaaS teams ask
Straight answers, no sales script.
If yours isn't here, a 30-minute call is the fastest route. No pitch, no deck.
Book a 30-minute callHow do we know whether AI assistants recommend us?
We run a fixed set of around 50 buying prompts across five AI engines, record whether you're named, in what position and which sources are cited, and repeat it every sprint. It's a sample rather than a census, but it shows where you stand against named competitors and whether that's moving.
Which playbook should I read first?
The one for your category. If you sell across several, start with the segment that brings the highest contract values, then the one with the most demo requests. The free AI visibility check shows where the biggest gap is.
Do you work with product-led and sales-led companies?
Both. Sales-led companies usually leak at demo requests and security reviews; product-led ones leak at trials that never activate. The shortlist, comparison and pricing work is the same; the follow-up is built for how you sell.
Will you publish comparison pages that name our competitors?
Only fair ones. Comparisons state facts you can support, say where the other product is the better fit and are kept current. One-sided pages tend to be ignored by buyers and assistants alike, and they create reputational risk.
How long before a software company notices a difference?
Demo routing and trial follow-up fixes can show within weeks because they fix leaks in existing demand. Being named in AI shortlists and comparison searches usually takes a few months, longer in crowded categories. We don't guarantee rankings, mentions or deals.
Is the website really free?
Yes. Every monthly plan includes a free 5-page website for your business — fast, AI-readable and yours to keep. It goes live within 48 hours once your plan is active and the launch checklist is done. Your domain, hosting and any paid tools sit outside the offer and stay in your name; online shops and booking systems are quoted separately. What's included
Free · one business day
Ask an assistant for your category and see who it names.
We'll run 50 buying prompts across five AI engines, review your comparison, pricing and category pages, and time how fast a demo request gets answered — then send what we found. You keep the findings either way.
- Reply in 1 business dayFrom a strategist, not a bot
- Free 5-page websiteIncluded with any plan
- Never sold or sharedYour details stay with us
Prefer a call? Book an AI growth call
Social presence
Software buyers check the people behind the product: founders and engineers on LinkedIn, walkthroughs on YouTube, release threads on X. Social is where your claims get tested.
Social Media Marketing