The new decision maker

A few weeks back I watched a colleague at an event, who is always glued to her phone like it’s a pacemaker, search for a plumber.  

She didn’t Google “plumber near me.” She didn’t post in a neighborhood Facebook group and asked for recommendations. She opened ChatGPT and typed: “Who’s the best plumber in my zip code that won’t rip me off?” Then she called the first of a list of companies it gave her to call and booked the appointment. No three quotes. No scrolling. No checking references. One answer, one decision. SOLD. 

Welcome to the new AI world of marketing

Sadly, that is exactly what’s happening to YOUR business right now, and it’s changing the entire game of marketing AND selling. And honestly, not for the better. 

For decades, a search-optimized website with a solid Google Business Profile worked as one of the best assets in your marketing arsenal. A prospect typed “IT support company near me,” got a list of blue hyperlinks and started the process of evaluation.  

Your job as an MSP was to claw your way onto the top of that list of SERPs (search engine results pages) and hang onto it for dear life. Next, your website would carry the prospect over the line to booking an appointment. While flawed, it was still driven by a human, your prospect, actually taking time to REVIEW your website, message, and online reputation. 

Whelp, that new client faucet just got shut off by the utility company… and they didn’t give you any notice it was going to happen.  

Here’s some stats you need to know: 

• Roughly 79% of B2B buyers now use AI tools to find a vendor. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews are now the new standard for how to research companies and choose who to buy from. 

• 68% of Google searches now end in ZERO clicks. The buyer asks the question, the machine spits back an answer, and the search is over before a single website gets visited. Read this again: They never see your site. They don’t read your reviews, your StoryBrand copy so carefully crafted or the amazing list of “what we do better” you spend YEARS being able to say.  

• AI citations and SEO rankings are no longer the same thing. A recent study found that nearly 30% of domains cited by Google’s AI Overviews weren’t even on the first page of search results.  

Most significant is how your prospects are using AI. They’re no longer asking AI for suggestions. They’re asking AI which MSP to choose. If you make the short list, they’re asking AI to evaluate your proposal against your competition, and allowing it to make the final decision even though it wasn’t in the room to hear your full presentation. It’s the new key decision maker in your sales process that you haven’t even prepared for. 

To make matters worse, most people don’t verify anything AI tells them. They just go with whatever it says.  

Last month, I had a colleague prompt ChatGPT: “Who’s the top marketing consultant in the industry for MSPs?” 

I had him do it under his account because I didn’t want it coming from my account where it might try to appease me (mirror, mirror on the wall…). The answer was a list of people who do marketing but failed to name one key person: Yours Truly. 

Some on the list I’ve never even heard of. And two haven’t been active in the MSP industry for over a decade. I know them and can say that with confidence. Now you could say that I’m being “sour grapes” about the answer and you might argue that my marketing is failing to be positioned for AI, but that’s not the point. 

How can it make a list of “top marketing consultants for MSPs” and NOT at least have me on the list? That’s a failing of the engine, not my marketing. I quite literally built the largest marketing firm and peer group in our industry, a fact we didn’t keep hidden. Yes, the marketing content and TMT site is a lot different, and my new site RobinRobins.com is new, but there’s history… and as I said, two of the people on the list aren’t even active in the MSP space anymore. 

Further, the AI didn’t come back and say, “Well, here’s what I think based on the algorithms.” When we challenged the answer, it said, “Your question exposes a weakness in the original list.” Ya think? It went on to cite some weak sauce about how it came to the answer, but it was really, really flimsy. 

Here’s the KEY POINT: Your prospects and customers are now using this to evaluate YOU.  

When a business owner who meets your ideal client profile, the one who should be a slam dunk for what you do, opens ChatGPT and types “who’s the best IT company near me for my company and situation.” Does your name come back? Or does the bot hand them a competitor with half of your credentials and a heck of a lot less expertise while you sit there, invisible, wondering why the phone’s gone quiet? 

I know this is happening to a LOT of MSPs with real, authentic credentials and expertise who genuinely deserve to be on the list… but aren’t.  

The answer isn’t “pump out more content,” particularly if it’s AI generated without personal input. The very same AI that’s stealing your shot at being found, is also flooding the world with infinite, free, frictionless marketing garbage and useless, basic content. Your prospects are drowning in it.  

Joining this tsunami of automated content, fake testimonials, AI-generated “experts,” deep-faked videos and spam is NOT the answer.  

The MSPs who win this, will do it in the same way trusted advisors have always won— by being the obvious, undeniable, impossible-to-fake authority in their market. REAL service. REAL value delivered. TRUE professionalism, experience, and ability to deliver. Clients so thrilled they stay and refer like crazy, becoming raving fans who tell everyone else about you. 

That’s the new playbook now

You don’t beat AI search by gaming it. You beat it by becoming so visibly, verifiably credible that both the algorithm AND the human on the other end have no choice but to point at you. Celebrity. Authority. Trust. “CAT” or “meow mix.” The same three things I’ve been preaching for years, except now they’re not a nice-to-have. They’re the essential oxygen you need to keep your MSP breathing. 

Here’s your homework:  

• First, get a colleague to open their ChatGPT (not yours) and ask it, in plain English, for the best MSP in your city for your ideal client. See what comes back. If it’s not you, that’s your wake-up call, not your eulogy.  

• Second, count your real, named, verifiable proof—case studies with numbers, reviews with full names, press mentions, your own published material, awards and a well-honed, evidence-based USP. If you have none of these, you have a credibility problem, not a marketing problem. Start building an airtight case as to why your clients should trust you. 

• Third, pick ONE authority asset, a book of client success stories, a real review campaign, a piece of published expertise, and build it this month. Not someday. This month. START. Publish it in YOUR voice.  

• Fourth, initiate more trust-based marketing strategies. Strategic partnerships (or JVs) are hyper critical and still the single most powerful marketing strategy I can recommend. So are networking events, trade shows, direct mail with phone follow-up, referral campaigns and in-person workshops. These build trust faster than anything you can do online.  

• Fifth, clarify a specific client you want to focus on, build that list and continually deliver value-based educational direct response marketing (E.D.R.) that positions you as THE expert in your space.  

The marketing you grew up with is dead and the eulogy’s been written. The only question left is whether the machine introduces YOU to your next client,or incorrectly introduces them to the guy down the street with half your credentials because he’s hacked the AI algorithm. 

Related:  Why your AI initiatives aren’t delivering ROI—and how to fix it