AI search mentions your competitors and not you

A eight-step play for a generative search (GEO) agency. It starts from ChatGPT, stacks Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Firecrawl on top, and ends in a message to the head of marketing that is useful before anyone replies.

Deploy in Glider

Installs this workflow, five project tables and a draft campaign. Source access and any external outputs are checked before research.

Category: Software, web and AI
Sources: 4
Steps: 8

The workflow

TriggerChatGPTAnswers and citations for buyer questions
Evidence
PerplexityAnswers and citations Google AI ModeAI Mode answers FirecrawlThe pages competitors get cited for
Artifact
What you hand overA visibility audit: forty buyer questions, who got cited, which pages they cite, and the three pages to write.
Contact
GliderFinds the head of marketing, with a verified work email and a phone
Message
Send itFrom your own mailboxes, evidence attached

Why it earns attention

Buyers now ask AI assistants which vendor to choose. Counting who gets cited for the questions their buyers ask is hard for a marketing lead to ignore.

The play in eight steps

01
Ask the questions buyers ask
ChatGPT
What you pull
Answers to forty questions a buyer in their category asks, with every company and page cited.
Why it matters
This is where buyers now start. Being absent here is invisible in their analytics.
Example
"Best inventory software for a 3-warehouse distributor" · 4 competitors named · client not named
02
Repeat on Perplexity
Perplexity
What you pull
The same forty questions with their citations.
Why it matters
Different engines cite differently. Two confirm a pattern.
Example
Competitors cited 12 times · client cited once
03
Repeat on Google
Google AI Mode
What you pull
AI Mode answers to the same questions, with cited sources.
Why it matters
Google is still where most searches happen. Its answer shapes the shortlist.
Example
Competitors cited 9 times · client cited once
04
See what gets cited
Firecrawl
What you pull
The pages that were cited: type, length and the questions they answer.
Why it matters
It tells you what to write. Usually it is comparison and how-to pages the client lacks.
Example
Most cited: comparison pages and pricing explainers · client has neither
05
Build the audit
Your artifact
What you build
The forty questions, the citations by company, the pages cited, and the three pages that would change the count.
Why it works
It gives the head of marketing a number and a plan in one place.
Example
Competitors 31 · client 2 · 3 pages to write
06
Check before you send
Answers vary between runs. Run each question more than once and report counts, not a single screenshot.
07
Find the head of marketing in Glider
Glider
Search for
Head of marketingHead of contentSEO leadVP growth
Why them
The head of marketing owns pipeline from search. Content will write the pages.
What you get
A work email and a direct phone, with the email verified before it goes into a sequence.
08
Send the evidence, then run the first test
To: the head of marketingEvery line comes from a step above
We asked ChatGPT,¹ Perplexity² and Google AI Mode forty questions your buyers ask. Competitors were cited 31 times; you were cited twice.³ Most citations go to comparison pages and pricing explainers, which you don't have.⁴ Here are the questions, the cited pages, and the three pages that would change it.⁵ Want the audit?
- Facts from the data (the number is the step)
- What you built for them
- One small ask
Why it works
The count is about their market and is new information. The three pages make it a plan, not just a scare.
First test
Ten companies in one category with the same question set.
Success looks like
Four calls out of twenty, and one engagement.