Positioning & Messaging
How clearly the market understands what you do, who you serve, and why you are different.
The Outside-In Analysis
Your buyers are asking AI who to hire.
If you are not on the shortlist, you are not in the game. Ignite XDS shows you how your company appears at the exact moment a buyer asks AI for options.
The Outside-In Analysis
See what AI says about you.
We study your company the way your buyers and the machines do, then show you exactly where you are missing from the conversation — and what it is costing.
Request My Analysis- AI search
- Competitors
- Buyer journey
- Quick wins
No cost. No prep. Yours to keep.
The Real Filter
It is not about how good your company is.
AI does not recommend the best company to a buyer who is browsing. It recommends the most machine-understandable one.
Right now:
- Most companies do not appear in AI-generated recommendations at all
- The majority of searches end without a single click
- Buyers are deciding before they ever reach your website
That means your reputation, your reviews, and your history may not even be part of the decision anymore.
The Zero-Click Shift
The machine is choosing who gets considered.
AI returns two to five options. That is the decision. If your competitor is listed, they win the consideration set. Buyers do not dig deeper — they go with what shows up.
80%+
Of searches now end without a click
45%
Use AI for local discovery
Up from 6% a year earlier — a 7.5x acceleration in a single year
88%
Of “near me” searches happen on a mobile device
4.4x
Higher conversion from AI-referred visitors
Published industry research, 2024–2026. Full citations travel with your analysis.
Where It Leaks
This is where visibility gets lost, and revenue goes with it.
Discovery has moved toward zero-click search, which makes digital visibility a revenue issue rather than a marketing one. Almost every company we analyze has the same three problems:
- Key information still lives in PDFs, where AI cannot read it
- Offers and events sit inside image flyers, so they never surface
- Whole service lines and locations are buried where nothing can find them
Meanwhile competitors win with less history and fewer locations, because their AI search infrastructure is easier to understand. This is not about who is better. It is about who is more detectable.
You can be the number one company in your market and still be invisible to AI.
What We Review
Six lenses on how your company shows up.
Digital & AI Visibility
Whether you appear in search and AI-generated answers for the queries your buyers actually use.
Competitive Landscape
How you compare to the companies a buyer sees right next to you.
Customer Journey
Where the path from discovery to purchase creates friction, confusion, or drop-off.
Digital Experience
Whether your website and content build confidence or quietly erode it.
Proof & Credibility
Whether buyers can find the evidence they need to trust you before a conversation.
What You Receive
We show you how your brand actually appears to buyers, AI, and search.
Before we ever talk to you, we analyze your company the same way your customers and AI do. The analysis reveals:
- Where you show up, and where you do not, in AI search
- How you compare to competitors in the queries buyers actually use
- Which customer types can find you, and which cannot
- The specific gaps costing you visibility and revenue
- The fastest opportunities to fix it
AI does not reward the best company. It rewards the clearest signal. We help you build that signal across every location and every line of business, so the right buyers find you first.
What it is worth
- 01A five-figure piece of work
- 02No cost to you
- 03Yours to keep, whether or not we work together
Why Analysis Comes Before Discovery
Most firms start Discovery by asking leadership to explain the business. We do not.
Instead of starting with assumptions, we lead with a grounded conversation built on real data. Leadership can validate and correct it immediately, which makes Discovery far more focused and far less expensive.
- 1
Eliminate false assumptions early
- 2
Reduce wasted Discovery cycles
- 3
Prevent misaligned investments
- 4
Surface leverage before capital is deployed
In some cases it tells everyone not to move forward. That clarity is just as valuable.
If the Findings Resonate
Flight Plan: Strategic Alignment Sessions
$1,000 per session. One to three sessions.
These are structured working sessions where we validate the outside-in findings together, refine assumptions, and align leadership on what is accurate, what is incomplete, and what needs correcting.
You are not committing to a long-term engagement. You are committing to clarity. At the end of each session, you decide whether to continue.
Some clients complete one session. Others complete all three. The structure protects both sides.
What these sessions accomplish
- 01Pressure-test the analysis against internal reality
- 02Clarify strategic positioning
- 03Identify immediate leverage points
- 04Determine whether a deeper partnership makes sense
From a Client
I had a chance to review the analysis you sent over… pretty eye-opening. Just when I feel like I'm doing something right, I'm like, ‘Alright… we have some work to do.’
Start Here
See what your customers, and AI, actually see.
No prep required. No internal data needed. Send us the basics and we will get started. The analysis is free and yours to keep, whether or not we work together.
Questions
Frequently asked.
Is this a sales pitch?
No. It is an outside-in read on how your company shows up to the market. There is no obligation to go further.
What does it cost?
The initial Outside-In Analysis is our starting point with a new company and is offered at no cost. Deeper Discovery is scoped to the business.
How long does it take?
We can typically turn around an initial outside-in read within a couple of weeks, depending on the complexity of the business.
What do we need to provide?
Very little to start. We begin from what the market can already see. We only ask for internal context once we move into Discovery.
Is it right for our industry?
The method is industry-agnostic. We work across industrial and manufacturing, distribution, commercial services and trades, and restaurant groups, among others.
Begin the Outside-In Analysis.
See what the market already knows about your company — before you spend another dollar trying to change it.