You're spending $5-15K a month on marketing, but your pipeline is down.

The problem isn't the economy.

It's that buyers are using AI to research vendors.

Traditional marketing doesn't reach them anymore.

Hi, I’m David Lee.

I‘m a former HubSpot full-service marketing agency owner. For years, I sold the standard $5K-20K monthly retainers.

  • SEO for traffic

  • Paid ads for leads

  • Blogs for engagement

  • Email campaigns for nurture

  • Social media for reach

The full attention economy playbook.

All of that worked great until buyers stopped searching with Google and started to use AI instead.

And that is when I realized that most marketing strategies are optimizing for the wrong thing.

More About My Background

Have you noticed that your marketing stopped working?

You're spending $5,000 to $15,000 per month on marketing. Maybe more. But pipeline is thinner than last year. Lead quality is down.

The campaigns that used to work don't anymore.

Maybe your agency told you the problem is AI visibility.

Get more citations in AI tools. Optimize for AI search. Show up in ChatGPT and Perplexity results.

You might have already invested in that strategy.

But the pipeline is still declining.

AI has fundamentally changed buyer behavior.

Forrester research shows that 89% of B2B buyers now use AI in their buying process and the traditional search-to-click path has collapsed.

Buyers aren't searching Google or clicking blue links anymore. They're delegating the research to AI.

They tell AI who they are, what their problem is, and what they need in a solution. Then they ask AI to go find vendors, analyze them, and create a shortlist.

All of this happens inside AI conversations.

Which means that when buyers research, they don't see:

  • Your Google ads

  • Your SEO rankings

  • Your blog posts

  • Your social media

Instead, AI is doing the heavy lifting.

But your traditional marketing playbook was built to reach buyers who search and click.

Most companies and agencies are adapting by applying that old playbook to AI.

They're optimizing for AI citations, getting mentioned in AI Overview, tracking visibility in ChatGPT and Perplexity.

It's logical: they're taking what worked for search engines and applying it to AI Search.

But citations measure visibility which gets you branding and awareness, which works great in the attention economy.

But today, buyers bypass Google search and instead turn to AI to create their shortlist.

And, if AI can't find clear information about what you do, who you serve, and why clients choose you—in the language buyers use, you won't make the shortlist.

No matter how many citations you have.

The 3 Buyer Jobs Framework™

The distinction between visibility and shortlisting is the foundation of understanding how AI-driven buyers actually behave.

When buyers need to hire someone to solve a business problem, they complete three specific jobs.

Job 1 is Find Vendors.

Buyers describe their problem and ask AI to identify potential solutions. AI then searches directories, websites, and media mentions to build an initial list. This job happens entirely inside AI, before buyers ever visit a website.

Job 2 is Create Shortlist.

Buyers provide their specific requirements and ask AI to evaluate which vendors are the best fit. AI analyzes vendor websites and third-party sources like reviews, case studies, and media mentions, then matches solutions to requirements and ranks by fit. This job also happens entirely inside AI.

Job 3 is Validate Vendors.

Only after AI creates the shortlist do buyers engage directly with top vendors through demos, site visits, and stakeholder meetings. This is the only job that happens in your sales process, and by the time it happens, the shortlist is already set.

The AI Shortlist Audit shows you where your company is failing at Job 1 and Job 2, the two jobs that happen invisibly inside AI before buyers ever contact you.

The AI Shortlist Audit

The AI Shortlist Audit is a two-week diagnostic that reveals how AI actually discovers, evaluates, and recommends your company when buyers ask for vendor shortlists.

The audit is built around five authentic buyer prompts tailored specifically to your company, your buyers, and how they actually describe their problems. I test how AI responds to these prompts the same way a real buyer would, then show you exactly where the gaps are and what information AI needs to recommend you.

The audit delivers your AI Shortlist Score (0-100 across six factors and the three buyer jobs), a gap analysis showing where AI can't find the information it needs, and the top three quick wins prioritized by impact and effort.

The process starts with a two-hour discovery interview where I learn how your buyers describe their problems, what your actual value proposition is, and why clients choose you over alternatives. I use this to create five buyer prompts specific to your business.

I then spend the week testing how AI tools discover, evaluate, and recommend your company versus competitors using those prompts, scoring you across the six AI Shortlist Factors.

In week two, I deliver your complete audit with score, gap analysis, and prioritized actions in a one-hour meeting.

I'm a strategy consultant. I don't do implementation work and have no retainers to sell. The audit is pure diagnostic work that stands alone.

After that, you decide how to move forward. Use your internal team, work with your current agency, or ask me for specialist referrals based on what you need. My recommendations are based on fit. I don't accept referral fees.

Pricing and Timeline

The audit fee is $10,000. Your time commitment is three hours: two hours for discovery and one hour for delivery. Timeline is two weeks from discovery interview to final delivery.

This audit is designed for $2-20M B2B companies where the CEO or sales leader is directly involved in go-to-market decisions.

Want to Understand the Framework first?

Start with a free workshop.

Register for the Workshop

Ready to see where you stand?

Start with a 30 min discussion.

Start my AI Shortlist Audit

FAQ

  • I have an economics degree from UCLA and an MBA from USC.

    I ran a marketing agency for 10 years.

    Most people analyzing this are either marketers focused on tactics or consultants without agency experience. I've been on both sides—running campaigns and advising on strategy.

    I'm a business consultant, not an agency owner. I don't have staff, retainers, or implementation services to sell. Just independent diagnosis.

  • You can.

    Ask ChatGPT to find vendors for the problems you solve and see what it tells you.

    But then you're left figuring out: What did I just learn? What's missing? What matters most?

    The audit gives you:

    • Five buyer prompts tailored to how your actual buyers describe their problems

    • Systematic analysis across all six factors that determine shortlist placement

    • A scored report showing exactly where the gaps are and what to fix first

    You're not paying for the framework. You're paying for the diagnosis.

  • They can tell you about AI citations, visibility, and share of voice.

    Many agencies are now offering AI audits focused on exactly that.

    But the AI Shortlist Audit measures something different: whether AI can match your capabilities to buyer requirements and explain why you're a fit.

    That's not a marketing metric. It's a sales qualification happening invisibly before buyers contact you.

    Most agencies aren't set up to diagnose that because they're focused on driving traffic and generating leads, which happens after shortlists are already formed.

  • You get the diagnosis. You decide what to do with it.

    You can fix the gaps with your internal team, have your current agency implement the changes, or bring in specialists for specific pieces.

    I don't do implementation work and I don't have retainers to sell. The audit stands alone. If you want referrals to people who can execute the fixes, I can provide them—but I don't take referral fees.

    You own the decision about what happens next.

  • I don't know. That's not what the audit tells you.

    The audit shows you what gaps are keeping you off shortlists and what to fix first. Whether you can handle those fixes internally or need outside help depends on your team's capabilities.

    The real question isn't "what will the fixes cost?"

    The real question is: "Where should I stop wasting budget and where should I start spending it?"

    You're already spending $60-180K/year on marketing. The audit shows you which of that spend is aimed at tactics buyers stopped using—and where to reallocate it to actually get on shortlists.

    It's not about finding new budget. It's about reallocating the budget you're already wasting.

    The audit tells you WHAT to fix and WHY it matters. The costs depend on whether your team can execute or you need outside help.

  • Research shows that 89% of buyers are using AI in their purchasing process, even if you haven’t seen evidence of it yet.

    Buyers using AI for research is invisible to you.

    Buyers don't tell you "I found you through ChatGPT" the same way they used to say "I found you through Google search."

    The real question is: Can you afford to assume your buyers haven't changed how they research?

    If you're wrong, you're spending $60-180K/year on marketing that's not reaching them. The audit tells you whether you're visible to AI-driven buyers or not.

    Better to know now than keep spending blind.