Check what AI assistants say about your category

What it does

More buyers now ask an AI assistant before they talk to a salesperson: “what’s the best tool for this?”, “what are the alternatives to that?”, “how do I fix this problem?”. If you’re not in the answer, you’re not on the shortlist. You can’t see those conversations, but you can ask the same questions yourself every month, and see who gets named and which pages get cited.

What you need

• ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude. The free versions work
• The questions buyers ask you on sales calls
• A spreadsheet

How it works

1. 1

   Write 10 to 20 buyer questions

   In their words, taken from sales calls and replies. Mix questions about the problem, the category and your competitors, not just your own name.

   Questions to start from: swap in your own

   What's the best [CATEGORY] for [SEGMENT]?
   What are the alternatives to [COMPETITOR]?
   [COMPETITOR] vs [YOUR COMPANY]
   How do I [THE JOB YOUR PRODUCT DOES] without [THE PAIN]?
   Is [YOUR COMPANY] any good?
   What does [CATEGORY] cost for a company with [SIZE]?
   Which [CATEGORY] works with [A TOOL THEY USE]?

2. 2

   Ask every assistant, in a fresh chat

   A new chat each time, with no custom instructions, and logged out where you can, so your own history doesn’t shape the answer.

3. 3

   Log every answer

   Google Sheets: paste into A1 as the header row

   Month	Assistant	Question	Are we named?	Position	What it says about us	Competitors named	Pages it cites

4. 4

   Read the citations

   The pages an assistant cites are the ones shaping its answer. If they’re review sites, comparison posts or forum threads, that’s where you need to be mentioned. If they’re your competitors’ pages, you need a better page of your own: write a page AI assistants can quote.

5. 5

   Fix one thing a month

   A page that answers a question you’re missing from, a correction to something wrong it says about you, or a listing on a site that keeps getting cited. Then ask the same questions next month and compare.

What good looks like

A monthly log that shows, question by question, whether the assistants name you, what they say, and which pages they trust, plus one fix a month aimed at the gaps.

Mistakes to skip

• Asking once and drawing a conclusion. Answers change between runs and between months, so look for patterns.
• Asking from your own account with years of history. Use a fresh chat.
• Only checking your company’s name. Buyers ask about the problem, not about you.