How We Work

Buyers are researching your category right now, using AI tools. The AI decides who gets named, how vendors are compared, and who makes the shortlist.

That decision happens before a buyer visits your site, reads your content, or speaks to your sales team.

For content-led B2B organisations, where authority, expertise and audience drive commercial growth, this isn't a marginal shift. It's a fundamental change in how demand is created and how buyers decide who to consider.

We call this layer The Selection Layer: where B2B brands get included, positioned, preferred and chosen in AI-driven buying. It has four layers, each of which can be measured and engineered.

We work through it in three stages: diagnose where you stand, engineer the signals that change it, and keep the position defended over time.

Every engagement starts with a single question: where do you stand right now?

○ STAGES

Three stages. One outcome: get selected.

Three sequential stages, applied to the four layers.

Diagnose establishes where you stand and what's driving it.
Engineer changes it.
Optimise keeps it defended as AI answers move.

DIAGNOSE
ENGINEER
OPTIMISE

1. Diagnose: Your Selection Position

Establish exactly where you stand in AI-driven buyer research, and what's causing it, before you change anything.

The AI Shortlist Scan is where every engagement begins. Before positioning can be improved, signals can be engineered, or pipeline can be built, you need a precise picture of your current position in The Selection Layer, based on evidence, not assumption.

The Scan analyses the four layers:

Inclusion - where and whether your brand appears in AI-generated buyer research in your category
Positioning - how you're described, compared and framed by AI tools evaluating your market
Preference - whether AI is prioritising you over competitors, and what's driving that prioritisation
Selection - whether your post-AI buyer experience reinforces or contradicts the AI framing

For each layer we establish two things: where you stand, and why. That means identifying the specific content, language and authority signals driving competitor inclusion ahead of you, and the structural gaps between how AI currently interprets your brand and how it needs to interpret it to select you consistently.

Your Scan report covers:

Your Shortlist Rate, how often you're in the recommended set, not just the answer, and how it compares with your Inclusion rate
How you're framed when you do appear, and where it's inaccurate
What the models believe about you, and which sources each belief comes from
Whether the buyer's post-AI check confirms or contradicts what AI said
Where the gap sits between you and the competitors winning selection
The top five changes ranked by impact

£1,995 · seven days · 60-minute walkthrough · money-back guarantee.

Most B2B brands are losing selection position to competitors they consider peers, not because those competitors are stronger, but because their signals are better structured for AI evaluation. The Scan replaces assumption with evidence, and gives the Sprint a precise target to work from.

START YOUR SHORTLIST SCAN

Buyers arriving from AI-driven research are lower in volume but more informed, pre-qualified and closer to a decision. That makes selection position disproportionately valuable, provided the buyer's check on what AI told them holds up when they arrive.

The objective:
Selection Position → Demand Signals → Qualified Pipeline → Predictable Revenue

This is commercial growth, engineered for AI-driven buying.

Not a content strategy. Not a traffic plan.

○ WHO FOR

Who this is for

Decoding Growth works with B2B SaaS and technology vendors whose buyers research the category, compare options and form shortlists with AI tools before they ever reach a website or a sales team. Based in the UK, working with clients across the UK, US and Europe.

If AI doesn't include you, misreads your positioning or prefers a competitor, pipeline erodes invisibly. The symptoms show up as falling inbound and unexplained losses, long before anyone can tell you the cause.

The person who feels it first usually owns the number: a CMO, marketing director, CRO or founder who can see demand softening and can't see why.

Typically you already have:

Established authority and subject-matter expertise
Content capability and a publishing rhythm
Revenue accountability

And what's usually missing:

A clear, evidenced picture of where you stand when AI builds the shortlist
Content and positioning signals structured for selection, not just visibility
A post-AI buyer experience that confirms the recommendation instead of contradicting it
Any line of sight from AI-shaped discovery to pipeline

This isn't the right fit if:

Your buyers don't yet research with AI. Some regulated and consumer-adjacent categories still don't
You want an execution retainer. We direct the Sprint; your team does the work
You want more traffic. We work on whether you're chosen, not how many people arrive

If you recognise the gap, you're the fit. This is for teams ready to engineer selection position, not just watch what's happening to their search traffic.

○ THE OUTCOME

What changes when the three stages are in place

When the three stages are in place:

Your brand appears consistently in the AI-generated research that shapes buyer decisions in your category
AI tools frame you accurately and prefer you against competitors
Your content is structured so AI can interpret, compare and surface it
Buyers arriving from AI find an experience that confirms, not contradicts, what AI said about you
Your position is measured every quarter and defended as answers move
AI-shaped discovery shows up in pipeline you can see

This isn't a positioning exercise or a content programme. It's a shift in commercial influence at the point where buyer shortlists are formed.

The brands that get selected will shape their categories. The rest will lose pipeline without understanding why.

○ THE ENGAGEMENT

Scan, Sprint, Benchmark

Three stages, in sequence. Every engagement starts with the Scan; the Sprint and the Benchmark are scoped from it.

Diagnose your position /
AI Shortlist Scan

A decision-grade diagnostic of how AI is representing your brand across all four layers, with the top five changes ranked by impact. Delivered in seven days with a 60-minute walkthrough.

£1,995. Money-back guarantee.

START THE SCAN

Engineer the signals /
Selection Engineering Sprint

Six weeks, one-to-one, fixed scope. We direct, your team executes: the top five actions, the sources that decide your category, the coverage that gets you cited. Ends with your first benchmark.

From £15,000. Scoped from your Scan.

HOW THE SPRINT WORKS →

Optimise and defend /
Quarterly Benchmark

Your prompt set re-run every quarter, scored against a fixed baseline, with a movement report: what improved, what slipped, what to defend next.

Available after your Scan or Sprint. Twelve-month term, four runs a year.

Ask about it at your Scan walkthrough.

○ QUESTIONS

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to start with the Scan?

Yes. Every engagement begins with the AI Shortlist Scan, because everything that follows is scoped from it. The Sprint's top five actions come from your Scan findings, and the Quarterly Benchmark re-runs your Scan prompt set. Starting anywhere else would mean engineering without evidence, which is the thing we exist to replace.

How long does the whole process take?

The Scan is delivered in seven days. The Sprint runs six weeks and ends with your first benchmark. After that, the Quarterly Benchmark runs four times a year on a twelve-month term. From first contact to your first measured movement report is therefore around eight weeks, with the Scan alone answering "where do we stand?" inside the first.

Who does the work in the Sprint?

We direct; your team executes. The proposal states the split before anything starts. Decoding Growth sets the priorities, specifies each change, runs the weekly working session and measures the result. Your content, web and marketing people make the changes to your site, profiles and sources, because they own them and they'll be maintaining them after we've gone.

What does the Scan actually measure?

Whether you're in the AI-generated answer, how you're framed when you appear, whether you're recommended, and whether your site confirms what AI said. Four layers, around thirty real buyer prompts, five platforms, repeat-tested over a window so a single unusual answer can't swing the result. You get your Shortlist Rate alongside your Inclusion rate, which is the difference between being mentioned and being selected.

Which AI platforms do you cover?

ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude. The same five across the Scan, the Sprint's end-of-sprint re-run and the Quarterly Benchmark, so movement is always measured against the same set.

Is this an AI visibility or GEO service?

No. Visibility tells you whether you're mentioned; we tell you whether you're selected, and what to fix first. There's no execution retainer to protect, so the diagnosis isn't shaped by what we'd like to sell you afterwards. If more traffic is what you want, an SEO or GEO agency is the better fit and we'll say so.

How do you know whether it worked?

By re-running the same prompts and reporting the movement. The Sprint ends with a re-run of your Scan prompt set and a movement report, your benchmark zero, so improvement is measured rather than asserted. Each quarterly run after that shows what improved, what slipped, and what to defend next, against a fixed baseline.

What if the Scan shows we're already well positioned?

Then you know, with evidence, and the Scan has paid for itself; the guarantee covers the rest. The Quarterly Benchmark is the logical next step, because a good position is exactly the kind that erodes unnoticed.

What does it cost?

The AI Shortlist Scan is £1,995, delivered in seven days with a 60-minute walkthrough and a money-back guarantee. The Selection Engineering Sprint is fixed scope from £15,000, scoped from your Scan. The Quarterly Benchmark is available after a Scan or Sprint on a twelve-month term; we'll share pricing at your Scan walkthrough.

Do you work with companies outside the UK?

Yes. Decoding Growth is based in the UK and works with clients across the UK, US and Europe. The platforms and the buyer behaviour don't respect borders; the prompt set is written for your market.

○ NEXT STEP

Start with the Scan

Every engagement begins with the AI Shortlist Scan: a fast, decision-grade analysis of your current position in The Selection Layer.

Before anything else, you need to know where you stand.