How consultancies win client enquiries from AI search
Prospects now ask AI assistants for a shortlist of consultancies, and check referrals the same way. How to get named for your practice areas and described accurately.
SEO
Rank on Google
Blue links, snippets and maps — and the base layer AI reads from.
AEO
Named by assistants
Cited in the answers ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot give.
GEO
Synthesised by AI
The source Google AI Overviews and Gemini build their answer from.
One shared foundation: crawlable, structured, trustworthy content — run as a single program.
Consultancies have always grown on referrals. That hasn't stopped, but the path has changed. A prospect hears your name, then asks an assistant about you before calling. Or they ask the assistant for firms in a practice area and never hear your name at all. Both moments now decide whether you get the work.
Make each practice area findable
Assistants recommend firms for specific needs, such as "operations consultants for mid-size food manufacturers in the Midwest". A single "Services" page listing everything rarely wins those questions. Give each practice area its own page that says who it's for, what you do, how an engagement runs and what results look like.
Show the people
Consultancies sell expertise, and expertise belongs to people. Profile your partners and senior consultants with real names, backgrounds, sectors and published work. Keep their LinkedIn profiles consistent with your site. Assistants answering "who are the experts in X" draw on exactly this.
Publish thinking that others cite
- Short, specific pieces on problems your clients have, with your view and your reasoning.
- Data from your own work, anonymised, that nobody else has.
- Talks, podcasts and articles in industry publications, which assistants treat as independent proof.
Be listed where clients look
Industry directories, association member lists and review platforms all feed assistant answers. Check which ones assistants cite for your practice areas and make sure your profile there is complete.
Survive the referral check
Ask assistants directly about your firm every month. Is the description right? Are the practice areas current? Are former partners still listed? Correct anything outdated at the source, because a referred prospect who gets a confused answer may not call.
A practice area page outline
- 1One sentence: who you help with this, and the outcome.
- 2The problems clients usually come with.
- 3How an engagement runs, with typical length.
- 4Who leads the work, with links to their profiles.
- 5One or two short client examples, with permission.
- 6How fees work.
- 7Common questions, answered briefly.
Each section answers a question prospects ask assistants, which is why this structure tends to be cited.
We work with professional services firms on exactly this. See GEO for consultancies and professional services.
Frequently asked questions
- How does a consultancy get leads from ChatGPT?
- By having a clear page for each practice area, named experts with real credentials, published thinking others cite, and complete profiles on the directories assistants read.
- We rely on referrals. Why does AI matter?
- Referred prospects increasingly check a firm with an assistant before calling. An inaccurate or thin answer can stop a referral from turning into a meeting.
- Should each practice area have its own page?
- Yes. Assistants answer specific questions, and a focused page for each practice area is much more likely to be cited than a general services page.
AI VisibilityAEOGEO
M
Magathi
AI Visibility specialist at Edthi · SEO, AEO & GEO
Leads AI Visibility programs at Edthi, helping companies get found and recommended across Google and the AI engines. Writes about how AI search actually decides who to cite.
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