Your buyers stopped Googling. You just haven't felt it yet, and that's the whole problem.
Here's how hiring works now. Someone with a budget opens ChatGPT or Perplexity and types “who should we hire to help with this.” They get three or four names. They call those names. That's it. That's the shortlist.
If you're not on it, here's exactly what happens to you: nothing. No missed call. No form you didn't get. No “thanks but we went another way.”
Every other kind of lost business announces itself. Lose a bid, you get a no. Miss a call, your phone tells you. This one is silent. The referral goes to someone else, and you find out never.
Here's a real one
In an audit this summer I asked AI the way a buyer would: “Who should advise our global mobility team on AI?” It named EY. KPMG. Deloitte. Vialto. A software platform.
Zero independent consultants. Not one.
Read that gap again, because it cuts both ways. If you're an independent, you're not losing the shortlist to the big firms. You're not on it at all. And the entire space between “hire a giant firm” and “buy software” is sitting there unclaimed. Nobody is beating you. The category is empty.
Your quick win (60 seconds)
Run the test for your own field. Fresh chat, and type the need, not your name: “Who should I hire to help with [the thing you do]?”
Read the names. Screenshot them. That screenshot is the only honest picture you have of where you stand. And it tells you which situation you're in: losing to the names on the list, or looking at an empty category nobody has claimed yet.
Janet V.