How to Get ChatGPT to Recommend Your Business

A billion-dollar brand. A beautiful website. Years of SEO investment. And AI could still recommend your competitor. In my presentation at IDEA eBiz, I explain how AI is changing the B2B buyer journey—and why manufacturers and distributors need to rethink how their products get discovered, recommended, and purchased. I’m Jeanette Abrahamsen, Ph.D., VP of Marketing at Trade Hounds. My background spans journalism, academic research, and marketing, and I love exploring the gap between what businesses think customers want and what buyers actually tell us. For this session, I bring together research from the Trade Hounds skilled trades community, surveys of electrical contractors and distributors, and industry findings to explore a question every B2B marketer should be asking: When buyers ask AI for a recommendation, are you part of the answer? IN THIS PRESENTATION • AI visibility: Why ranking on Google doesn’t guarantee a mention in ChatGPT or other AI answers. • Product discovery: How social media, peer recommendations, and digital communities shape buying decisions. • Product data: Why missing images, incomplete specifications, and inconsistent descriptions can make products harder to find and evaluate. • Search intent: How to reach customers who can describe their problem but don’t know your product’s name. • Zero-click marketing: What happens when your content influences a purchase without generating a website visit. • Marketing measurement: How to assess impact when the buyer journey becomes harder to track. • Agentic commerce: What changes as AI moves from answering questions to taking action. • B2B purchasing: How AI-assisted ordering and better availability information can reduce friction. ONE FINDING THAT MAY SURPRISE YOU In our survey of more than 200 electrical contractors and distributors, buyers ranked availability as the most important purchasing factor. Sellers believed price was the primary driver. That disconnect matters. Cutting your price may not solve the problem that’s costing you the sale. We also found that nearly 90% of surveyed distributors receive handwritten material lists at least monthly. While the industry prepares for AI agents, many customers are still ordering from scribbles on cardboard. Businesses have to serve both. This session connects B2B marketing strategy, AI search visibility, social commerce, product information, and the real-world buying expectations of the next generation of tradespeople. READ MY RELATED ARTICLES AI Product Discovery: How AI Is Changing B2B Buying https://www.tradehounds.com/news/ai-p... AI-Powered B2B Purchasing: Building Better Buying Experiences https://www.tradehounds.com/news/ai-p... CONNECT WITH ME Explore my work and speaking: https://www.jeanetteabrahamsen.com Find more Trade Hounds research: https://www.tradehounds.com/news Subscribe for more presentations and conversations about marketing, AI, social media, storytelling, and buyer behavior. #B2BMarketing #AIVisibility #MarketingStrategy Shoutout to my team: Claire Mercier, Sonu Trivedi and Lauren Siegal