Your best engagements came from referrals. A former client trusted you, mentioned your firm to a peer, and a new mandate followed.
That still happens. But a growing share of buyers now do something else first: they ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude which firm to hire for their exact problem. The AI answers with two or three names, and explains why.
When a buyer asks about what your firm does best, is your firm one of those names?
Quick answer: AI visibility and GEO for consultants
For a consulting firm, AI visibility works like a referral engine at scale. When a buyer asks an AI engine "which firm would you recommend for [your specialty]", your firm is either in the answer or out of the conversation. Three things decide the outcome: specific positioning (not "management consulting", but "operations consulting for mid-market e-commerce"), published content that proves expertise, and mentions on the sites AI engines quote (trade media, rankings, directories). Track your AI visibility on the questions buyers ask when they are ready to hire, country by country, to see where your firm is named and where competitors are named instead.
The new referral engine is AI
Consulting has always been sold on trust. Buyers hire firms they believe can solve their problem, which is why referrals convert so well: someone they trust vouches for you.
AI recommendations work the same way. When ChatGPT says "For supply chain consulting, you could consider [firm] because they specialize in mid-market e-commerce", that sentence carries weight. The buyer did not find you through an ad or a cold email. An assistant they use every day told them you were worth a call.
It is a warm introduction, repeated for every buyer who asks a similar question. And it is happening now, whether your firm is in the answer or not.
Why you're probably invisible
Look at how most consulting firms describe themselves online. "We help organizations grow through strategy, transformation and operational excellence." That sentence fits hundreds of firms. An AI engine has no reason to pick yours over any of them.
The expertise is real, but it lives in client work under NDA, in proposals and in steering committees. None of it is public. The last published insight dates from two years ago. The partners are known in their circles, yet absent from the rankings and trade articles AI engines read before answering.
AI does not ignore your firm. It simply has nothing to work with.
The specificity trap
"Management consulting" is a category. "Operations consulting for mid-market e-commerce scaling past 50 employees" is a recommendation.
Many firms resist narrowing their positioning because it feels limiting. What about the clients outside that niche? But here is what actually happens: when your positioning is specific, AI knows exactly when to recommend you. When it is generic, AI has no reason to pick you over equally generic alternatives.
The firm that owns "supply chain optimization for mid-market e-commerce" gets named for that question. The firm that does "business consulting" gets named for nothing in particular.
You can serve several practices. Each one needs its own clear page, matching a real question buyers ask.
What makes AI recommend consultants
Content that demonstrates expertise, not just claims it. "We help companies with their supply chain" is a claim. An in-depth guide on "How mid-market e-commerce brands should restructure fulfillment past 10,000 orders a month" demonstrates expertise. When a buyer asks a question in your domain, AI engines look for pages that answer it with authority. If your firm wrote that page, it can be cited. One substantial, useful page per practice does more than a stream of short posts.
Mentions on the sites AI engines quote. AI engines trust what others say about you more than what you say about yourself. Before answering "best supply chain consultants for e-commerce", they read a short list of pages: trade media, "top firms" rankings, directories, comparison articles. Being quoted there is often what separates a firm that is named from one that is absent.
Consistency everywhere AI looks. Your positioning should read the same on your website, your partners' LinkedIn profiles, your guest articles and your directory listings. If the site says "e-commerce operations" and the partner profiles say "helping companies grow", AI cannot tell what to recommend you for.
The questions that turn into clients
Some questions are curiosity. Others are buying signals.
"Best [specialty] consulting firm" is a buyer comparing options. "Who should we hire for [problem you solve]" is a buyer with a budget. "[Specialty] consultants for [industry] in [country]" is a buyer who has already decided to hire and is building a shortlist.
These are the questions to track. "What is change management" is not: someone asking that is researching, not hiring.
Country matters more than it looks. ChatGPT does not recommend the same firms in France and in the United Kingdom, and a firm active in three countries can be visible in one and absent in the other two. Mentionable asks each question from the country it belongs to, in its language, and shows the difference country by country.
The person asking matters too. A CFO and an HR director can ask the same question and get different firms. With personas, you track the same question as several buyer profiles, and it still counts as one question in your plan.
How Mentionable covers the 3 levers for a consulting firm
Most firms have a marketing or business development lead, not an SEO. Mentionable is built for that team: it measures, tells you what to do, and does a large part of the work.
Measure. Mentionable asks your questions every day to the AI engines you choose among ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overview, and records whether your firm is cited. You see the results by question, by AI engine and by country, next to the competing firms cited in your place and the sites the AI engines quote to build their answers. Getting started takes your URL: Mentionable reads your site, asks about your business goals and suggests the questions to track.
Improve your site. The Action Plan turns the gaps into one ordered list over 6 months: blocking fixes, pages to create or rewrite, sources to get. A page to create arrives drafted from the pages AI engines cite on that question, in your firm's voice, with the facts only you know highlighted rather than invented. Your consultants review and publish.
Get mentions. From the Influence plan, Mentionable runs outreach campaigns to the sites AI engines cite where competing firms appear and yours does not: it finds the contact, writes a personal message, sends the follow-ups and sorts the replies. Your team handles the agreements.
To report it to the partners, the weekly email lists the mentions won and lost, and the Progress page measures each action on the questions it targets, over the 4 weeks before and after. When a number puzzles you, the AI assistant built into the dashboard explains it in plain words and takes you to the page that shows it.
Which plan fits a consulting firm?
Three complete plans, with unlimited users on each.
| Plan | Price per month | Questions tracked daily | AI engines | Countries | Articles per month | Outreach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presence | 249 € | 50 | up to 3 | 1 | 4 | Not included |
| Influence | 449 € | 100 | up to 4 | 2 | 8 | 200 sites per month |
| Reference | 799 € | 150 | All tracked engines | 3 | 15 | 500 sites per month |
Prices exclude VAT. A firm with several brands or many countries can size a custom setup.
If your partners would rather delegate the work, Mentionable Agency goes further than the tool: its team builds the strategy, writes and gets the links with its own methods, and Mentionable measures your visibility before, during and after.
Where to start
Start the 7-day free trial, no credit card. Enter your firm's website, keep the questions that match how your clients buy, and see where you stand.
You may find your firm already named on some questions without knowing it. You will probably find others where a competitor wins mandates you never saw. Either way, you will know where to act first.
Want to be listed as a GEO consultant?
If you advise clients on AI visibility yourself, Mentionable maintains a curated directory of GEO agencies and independent consultants. Experts who run client projects on Mentionable can apply to be listed. We meet every applicant before approval, and selection is on approach, not on volume or commission. If you manage AI visibility for several clients, take a look at Mentionable for agencies, with multi-client tracking and white-label reports.