A CEO client of mine received an urgent request from his sales rep: Meet with a major prospect on Friday. By Thursday, the prospect had canceled.
The reason? They looked at the CEO’s LinkedIn profile and decided he didn’t seem serious about business. They went with a competitor instead.
He called me because he never wanted that to happen again.
This wasn’t about credentials or capability. The CEO’s company could have delivered exceptional results. But his passive LinkedIn presence cost him the deal before the conversation even started.
The new buyer research reality
Your prospects aren’t starting their research by asking for referrals. They’re asking AI. ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, LinkedIn’s AI tools. These systems are the new first point of contact for business discovery. And they can only recommend what they can find.
When a prospect asks an AI system, “Who are the leading firms in Baton Rouge for X?” these tools do more than just scan your website. They evaluate your leadership team’s LinkedIn profiles, their published content, their participation in professional conversations, and the substance of their expertise demonstrations.
One of my professional services clients now gets 75% of their business through ChatGPT recommendations. This inflection point happened this year. Their competitors with weak digital presence have become systematically invisible.
What AI is actually evaluating
AI systems read everything with expert-level comprehension and evaluate whether your executives demonstrate genuine expertise.
My client that captures 75% of their business through AI recommendations didn’t get there by accident. Their leadership team creates content that speaks to informed audiences. Their LinkedIn profiles showcase specific accomplishments and outcomes. They actively participate in industry conversations, publish substantive articles and engage with expert-level discussions.
The AI reads all of it. Profile content. Comment quality. Published articles. Engagement patterns. It’s building a comprehensive assessment of whether your executives are active players in their field or passive observers.
What AI knows about your competitors
Ask ChatGPT to describe your top competitor’s expertise and value proposition. Then ask about your company.
The difference reveals your vulnerability. AI can articulate your competitor’s strengths in detail because their executives have created a digital record of active expertise. Your company might get a generic description—if you’re mentioned at all.
When prospects use AI to create short lists or evaluate capabilities, you’re either in the consideration set or you don’t exist. And when they look at your CEO’s profile to assess credibility, they’re deciding whether you’re serious about business.
The regional business challenge
Local businesses face particular vulnerability. You’ve built reputations through community relationships and word of mouth. These can be invisible to AI systems. If AI excludes you from consideration, those relationships never influence decisions.
IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE
The solution requires your leadership team to establish comprehensive digital presence:
Profile substance
LinkedIn profiles must showcase specific outcomes and accomplishments, not generic responsibilities. Both your prospects and AI evaluate this content to assess executive credibility.
Expert-level content
Create content that speaks to informed audiences. AI rewards substance over simplification.
Active participation
Engage in industry conversations with thoughtful commentary. Publish articles. Demonstrate you’re a player and that you have something to add to the conversation.
The time investment is manageable, as little as 15 minutes daily across your leadership team. But the approach must be systematic and substantive. Superficial activity doesn’t register with AI systems designed to evaluate genuine expertise.
The urgency is real
The inflection point is happening now. Companies building AI-discoverable authority are capturing business that competitors with weak digital presence never see.
This is about competitive viability. Your expertise and reputation don’t matter if AI systems can’t find evidence you exist, or if prospects look at your profile and decide you’re not serious.
The question isn’t whether AI influences business development in your market.
It already does.
The question is whether your leadership team will be impossible to ignore when it happens.
