Thursday Brief: You’re not showing up where it counts |
This week’s signals point to a shift most teams still underestimate: buyers are not just changing how they evaluate vendors — they’re changing where they start, what they trust, and how they build a shortlist. New G2 research says 51% of B2B software buyers now start with AI chatbots more often than Google, and 69% say AI guidance led them to choose a different vendor than they originally planned.
At the same time, Demand Gen Report surfaced a DerivateX study showing that many B2B SaaS brands are effectively invisible to AI-assisted buyers. And while that’s happening, Microsoft is making it easier for startups to plug into an existing trust and distribution engine through Marketplace and IP co-sell. That’s the disconnect. |
Most GTM teams are still optimizing for campaigns, clicks, and conversion paths they can measure. Buyers are forming preferences earlier, in AI interfaces, marketplaces, and recommendation layers that most teams still treat as secondary. If you’re not visible where research begins (or if you’re relying on buyers to find you the old way), you’re losing before the pipeline even exists. |
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Where do you think your company is most invisible right now? |
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#1: New G2 Research: Half of B2B Software Buyers Now Start Their Research With AI Chatbots |
🤖 AI is now deciding the shortlist
The biggest shift in this week’s lineup is not tactical — it’s behavioral. G2’s latest research says 51% of B2B software buyers now start their research with AI chatbots more often than Google, up from 29% in April 2025.
Even more significantly, 69% chose a different vendor than they initially planned based on AI chatbot guidance, and 45% say citations from software review sites are the most confidence-inspiring signal in an AI-generated response. That means AI is not just answering questions. It is actively shaping vendor consideration, redirecting shortlist decisions, and influencing who gets trusted first. |
The GTM implication is bigger than “optimize for AI visibility.” Buyers are outsourcing part of the early evaluation to systems that compress research into a few cited answers. If your company is not surfaced, mentioned, or reinforced by the sources that those systems trust, you may never make the shortlist.
For example, a buyer asking an AI tool for “best CRM for a 50-person SaaS company” may get a recommendation set shaped by review-site citations and answer-ready content long before that buyer ever visits a vendor homepage. 🎯 Why this matters for GTM teams
You’re no longer competing only for clicks. You’re competing for inclusion in the answer layer that now influences shortlist formation. 🛠️ What to do |
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Audit how your brand appears in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity for your core category queries.
- Strengthen the sources AI appears to trust most — especially review sites, comparison pages, and clear answer-style content.
- Rewrite high-intent pages so they answer buyer questions directly instead of forcing visitors to dig for meaning.
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#2: DerivateX Study Finds B2B SaaS Companies are Invisible to AI-Assisted Buyers |
👻 Most SaaS companies can’t exist in AI search
If the G2 study shows where buyers are starting, the DerivateX finding shows who is missing from the conversation. Demand Gen Report’s coverage of the study makes the problem plain: many B2B SaaS companies are effectively invisible to AI-assisted buyers.
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That turns AI visibility from an experimental SEO topic into a commercial problem. If buyers are using AI to narrow the field, and your company is absent from those responses, you are not just underperforming in search — you are disappearing from consideration entirely. Most teams still think of discovery as a website problem, but AI-assisted buying breaks that assumption. A buyer can ask for “best ABM platform for enterprise expansion” or “tools like Gong for mid-market teams” and get a shortlist without ever touching a search result.
If your brand is not being pulled into those answers (because your content is weak, your review presence is thin, or your category language is inconsistent), you can be a legitimate option and still lose visibility. That is a pipeline problem upstream of the funnel. 🎯 Why this matters for marketing teams
You can keep improving conversion rates and still miss the bigger problem: buyers may never discover you in the first place. 🛠️ What to do Change your approach from traditional SEO to answer engine optimization (AEO). |
- Treat AI visibility as a core discovery motion, not a side project.
- Make sure your product positioning is consistent across your site, review platforms, and third-party mentions.
- Build content around the actual phrases buyers use when they ask AI for recommendations, comparisons, and alternatives.
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#3: A Faster Go-to-Market Path for Startups: Intellectual Property co-sell at Microsoft for Startups |
🚀 The fastest GTM isn’t built; it’s borrowed
Microsoft’s new IP co-sell acceleration program for startups is a different kind of signal, but an important one. The company says approved startups can be sold through Microsoft’s commercial channels, listed in Microsoft Marketplace, and included by Microsoft sellers in customer solutions.
It also frames two specific commercial advantages: startups can sell into a pre-committed Azure budget, which helps remove the “no budget” objection, and they can work side-by-side with Microsoft’s own sales teams as an extension of their GTM motion. Microsoft also emphasizes that Marketplace reduces friction because enterprise buyers already trust the channel and know how to buy through it.
The bigger lesson is that GTM is no longer just about generating demand from scratch. More companies are trying to plug into existing trust layers — marketplaces, ecosystems, and partner channels where buyers already feel comfortable evaluating and purchasing.
A concrete example: instead of asking a startup to win an enterprise buyer from a cold outbound sequence, Microsoft is giving it a path to show up inside a buying environment that already has procurement familiarity, security expectations, and budget alignment built in. That shortens the distance between discovery and purchase. |
🎯 Why this matters for sales teams A pipeline is not just built through prospecting. It is increasingly accessed through trusted channels that remove friction before the first call happens. 🛠️ What to do |
- Review which ecosystems, marketplaces, or partner channels your buyers already trust.
- Treat co-sell and channel partnerships as a primary GTM lever if you sell into enterprise or budget-controlled environments.
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Reframe partnerships from “nice to have” to “shortest path to buyer trust.”
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🎯 This week’s signals all point to the same shift: |
- Buyers are starting earlier — and somewhere new.
- Visibility now determines whether you’re even considered.
- And trusted channels are becoming as important as owned channels.
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If your company is not visible where that “why” starts — inside AI answers, trusted review layers, or established buying ecosystems — everything downstream gets harder. Rather than initiating more activity, you need to establish better architecture to fix it.
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Enjoyed this issue?
We break down how buyers actually move and what top teams do differently. If you’re rethinking your funnel or pipeline, catch up with our past issues. |
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Bianca has spent the past four years helping businesses strengthen relationships and boost performance through strategic sales and customer engagement initiatives. Drawing on her experience in field sales and territory management, she transforms real-world expertise into actionable insights that drive growth and foster lasting client partnerships. |
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