Key takeaways
- Buyers complete 70 to 80 percent of the purchase before contacting a vendor, and 94 percent rank a shortlist first.
- 89 percent of B2B buyers used generative AI during a purchase; AI answers cite only two to seven sources.
- Ranking for your own company name is being named, not found. Engineers search by asset, condition and consequence.
- AI citations overlap with Google's top ten only about 11 percent of the time, so AI visibility needs its own work.
- Fix in order: ICP, messaging, technical site health, citable pages, email deliverability. Then measure non-branded terms and AI citation share.
Why referral pipelines stall, even at good companies
Referral pipelines stall because buyers now finish 70 to 80 percent of the decision before contacting anyone, so the vendor they call is the one they found during research.
Most industrial field service companies grew the same way: a founder with a reputation, a few plant managers who trusted them, and a trade-show calendar that refilled the pipeline each year. It works until the market changes how it buys. And the market has changed.
Forrester’s research puts buyers 70 to 80 percent of the way through a purchase before they contact any vendor [1]. 6sense found that buyers have mostly or fully defined their requirements 83 percent of the time before speaking to sales, and that 94 percent of buying groups rank their shortlist before making contact [2]. Gartner measured the time buyers spend meeting with suppliers at about 17 percent of the total buying process [3].
70–80%
of the buying journey is complete before a vendor is contacted. Forrester, via ClickMinded
94%
of buying groups rank their shortlist before reaching out. 6sense, via Corporate Visions
17%
of buying time is spent with suppliers. Gartner, via Omnibound
For a field service company, that means the reliability engineer with a failing asset has usually chosen two or three vendors to call before anyone picks up the phone. If you weren’t visible during that research, the referral you were counting on never happens. Nothing about your work changed. The way buyers find work did.
Where industrial buyers look now
Industrial buyers search by asset, condition and consequence, and increasingly ask AI assistants for a shortlist. 89 percent of B2B buyers used generative AI in a purchase.
Two places, and the second is growing fast.
Search, for the problem rather than the company
Engineers search the way they think: by asset, condition and consequence. “Heat exchanger tube leak repair during turnaround” is a search. “Industrial services company near me” mostly isn’t. Companies that rank for their own name and little else are visible only to people who already know them.
AI assistants, for a shortlist
Forrester found 89 percent of B2B buyers used generative AI in at least one phase of a purchase [4]. Responsive’s 2025 report found 48 percent of US B2B buyers now use generative AI to discover vendors [5]. When buyers meet Google’s AI Overviews, they don’t stop there: TrustRadius found 72 percent encountered them during research and 90 percent of those clicked through to a cited source [2].
AI answers are also narrow. Research summarized by SproutWorth found large language models cite only two to seven sources per answer [6]. Being one of them matters far more than ranking eighth on a results page ever did.
Named versus found. A company is named when it appears for searches that include its own name. It is found when it appears for searches and AI answers about the problem it solves. Most industrial field service companies are named. Very few are found.
Why this isn't the SEO you remember
AI citations overlap with Google’s top ten only about 11 percent of the time, so being cited needs answer-first, well-sourced pages, not just rankings.
Classic SEO and AI visibility overlap, but less than most agencies assume. Ahrefs measured citation overlap between AI assistants and the Google and Bing top ten at about 11 percent across 15,000 long-tail prompts [4]. A page can rank well and never be cited, or be cited without ranking.
What AI engines reward is specific and learnable:
- Answer first. Roughly 44 percent of ChatGPT citations come from the first 30 percent of a page [4]. The answer belongs at the top, not after the preamble.
- Verifiable claims. Pages with three to five outbound links to primary sources are cited 18 to 25 percent more often than pages with none [7]. Unsupported marketing claims get skipped.
- Consistency across the web. Engines favor facts that agree across independent sources and skip brands whose details conflict [5].
- Technical specificity. Content written to the asset, the operating environment and the failure mode is what an engineer’s question actually matches.
The five fixes, in the order that works
Fix in order: decide who you’re for, say what you do in the buyer’s terms, repair the technical site, make pages citable, then get email into the inbox.
This is the sequence we install in the first month of a Commercial Foundation. Each step depends on the one before it.
- Decide who you’re for. An ICP matrix that names facility types, asset classes and the triggers that create work, such as turnarounds, compliance findings and failure events. Without it, every page is written for everyone and found by no one.
- Say what you do in the buyer’s terms. Messaging built on defensible claims about assets, conditions and methods. Not “trusted partner.” Not “solutions.”
- Fix the technical plumbing. Crawl errors, duplicate pages, missing schema, and template leftovers that tell search engines and AI assistants the site isn’t maintained.
- Make the pages citable. One page per problem you solve, answer first, specific numbers, sources linked, FAQ at the end.
- Get your email into the inbox. Being found generates replies. Authenticated and warmed sending domains make sure those replies, and your outreach, land.
How to measure whether you're being found
Track non-branded terms on page one and the share of relevant AI answers that cite you. Branded traffic measures reputation, not whether you’re found.
Measure
What it tells you
What to ignore
Non-branded terms on page one
Whether engineers who don’t know you can find you
Branded traffic, which measures reputation
AI citation share
How often assistants name you for relevant questions
Total AI mentions, which include your own name
Inbox placement
Whether your email reaches the people who replied
Open rates, which are unreliable since 2021
Meetings from inbound
Whether being found turns into conversations
Form fills from job seekers and vendors
Track the first two monthly. They move slowly, then all at once.
What to do first
Get a baseline before spending. A five-minute assessment shows whether visibility is the constraint or whether the gap is in pipeline or process.
Before spending anything, get a baseline. Find out whether your constraint is visibility at all, or whether it’s the pipeline process or the way deals are tracked. Companies often buy visibility work when the real gap is somewhere else. A five-minute assessment tells you which, and the answer decides where the first dollar goes.
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean for an industrial field service company to be “found”?
It means a plant, reliability or maintenance engineer who searches for the problem you solve, or asks an AI assistant about it, sees your company before your competitors, without already knowing your name. Ranking for your own company name is being named, not found.
It means a plant, reliability or maintenance engineer who searches for the problem you solve, or asks an AI assistant about it, sees your company before your competitors, without already knowing your name. Ranking for your own company name is being named, not found.
How much of the buying decision happens before a buyer contacts a vendor?
Forrester puts it at 70 to 80 percent of the journey. 6sense found buyers have mostly or fully defined requirements 83 percent of the time before first contact, and 94 percent of buying groups rank their shortlist before reaching out.
Forrester puts it at 70 to 80 percent of the journey. 6sense found buyers have mostly or fully defined requirements 83 percent of the time before first contact, and 94 percent of buying groups rank their shortlist before reaching out.
Do technical buyers really use AI assistants to research vendors?
Yes. Forrester found 89 percent of B2B buyers used generative AI in at least one phase of a purchase, and Responsive found 48 percent of US B2B buyers use it to discover vendors. TrustRadius found 72 percent encountered Google AI Overviews during research and 90 percent of those clicked a cited source.
Yes. Forrester found 89 percent of B2B buyers used generative AI in at least one phase of a purchase, and Responsive found 48 percent of US B2B buyers use it to discover vendors. TrustRadius found 72 percent encountered Google AI Overviews during research and 90 percent of those clicked a cited source.
Is AI search visibility the same as SEO?
No. Ahrefs measured only about 11 percent overlap between the sources AI assistants cite and the top ten results on Google and Bing. The two require related but different work: clear, factual, well-sourced pages that answer the question an engineer actually asks.
No. Ahrefs measured only about 11 percent overlap between the sources AI assistants cite and the top ten results on Google and Bing. The two require related but different work: clear, factual, well-sourced pages that answer the question an engineer actually asks.
What should an industrial company measure?
Two numbers: how many non-branded terms you rank on page one for, and the share of relevant AI assistant answers that cite you. Branded traffic measures reputation. Those two measure whether you’re being found.
Two numbers: how many non-branded terms you rank on page one for, and the share of relevant AI assistant answers that cite you. Branded traffic measures reputation. Those two measure whether you’re being found.
Where should a company start?
With a baseline. The free P.R.O. Index takes five minutes and shows where you sit on Performance, meaning whether you’re found, before any spending decision.
With a baseline. The free P.R.O. Index takes five minutes and shows where you sit on Performance, meaning whether you’re found, before any spending decision.
Related reading
Find out whether visibility is your constraint
The P.R.O. Index is 21 questions and about five minutes. You get a score across Performance, Ramp and Output, and our read on which one to fix first.
Sources
- 1. https://www.clickminded.com/b2b-marketing-statistics/
- 2. https://corporatevisions.com/?p=38655
- 3. https://omnibound.ai/blog/b2b-buying-statistics
- 4. https://www.elitecontentmarketer.com/geo-aeo-statistics
- 5. https://discoveredlabs.com/blog/generative-engine-optimization-how-to-master-ai-search-for-visibility
- 6. https://www.sproutworth.com/generative-engine-optimization/
- 7. https://dupple.com/learn/ai-search-visibility-chatgpt-perplexity
Wesley Cowley, Founder and CEO, FieldForge Partners
Wesley spent 15 years as a mechanical engineer in field operations, then held VP and SVP commercial roles inside PE-owned industrial platforms through multiple sponsor cycles. FieldForge installs commercial systems for industrial field service companies and benchmarks commercial maturity across PE portfolios. More about Wesley.