By Alex Price | June 12, 2025 | Generative Engine Optimisation | 4 min read
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are fundamentally reshaping how B2B buyers research and evaluate B2B software vendors. Traditional keyword based search is no longer the only gateway to discovery. Increasingly, buyers are turning to AI assistants for answers to their most pressing questions - not just for initial top of funnel research, but across the entire modern AI assisted buyer journey.
So prompt visibility is becoming as important as search visibility has been for a long time. For B2B software companies, it’s not just about ranking on Google anymore. It’s about being the answer when a buyer types a high intent question into an LLM.
But what kinds of prompts should you actually be aiming to appear in? How do you know which ones matter across the buyer journey? And what can you do to make sure your brand is part of those conversations?
Why prompt visibility matters for B2B software marketers
Enterprise software buying journeys can be long, complex, and often involve multiple stakeholders across technical, commercial, and executive functions. These buyers aren’t typing “CRM software” into Google and clicking the first few links anymore. They’re asking AI tools nuanced questions like:
- “What’s the best CRM for a fast-growing B2B sales team?”
- “How does HubSpot compare to Salesforce for integrations?”
- “What are the hidden costs of switching marketing automation tools?”
They might also include details of their company size, team size and other company information - B2B buyers know that the more information they provide in a search, the more contextual, personalised results they are likely to get back.
These prompts are replacing many of the early and mid stage searches that marketers used to target with blog content and SEO optimised landing pages. And because LLMs often return a smaller number of high confidence results compared to the traditional search results page, the cost of not appearing in those answers is growing.
Prompt visibility influences brand awareness, authority, and even conversion outcomes. It can shape a buyer’s shortlist before they ever visit your website.
The role of audience intelligence
To build an effective prompt strategy, you can’t just guess what buyers might be asking. You need a deep, structured understanding of your ideal customers: who they are, what they care about, and how they think and speak. What their pain points are.
This is where audience intelligence becomes critical.
Different roles ask different questions. A CTO evaluating a data platform might focus on architecture and compliance. A RevOps lead might be interested in integrations, reporting, and ease of deployment. A procurement manager could be looking for value, contract flexibility, and proof of ROI.
That means your prompt strategy must be segmented and persona aware. The more granular your understanding of your ICPs (Ideal Customer Profiles), personas, pain points and use cases, the more accurately you can anticipate the prompts they’re putting into tools like ChatGPT.
At FirstMotion, we use our own audience intelligence technology platform, ContextualJourney™ to help us guide this work. With millions of B2B buyer data points, intent data, enrichment and AI integrations, it enables us to ‘prompt mine’ highly effectively as a generative engine optimisation agency.
Deep audience intelligence is the foundation for any generative optimisation or AI search visibility strategy.
Mapping prompts to the B2B buying journey
One of the most effective ways to plan your prompt targeting is to structure it around the B2B buying journey. This helps you ensure you’re visible not just when someone is learning, but when they’re evaluating, comparing and deciding.
At FirstMotion, we use a process that translates traditional SEO keyword research into prompt archetypes tailored to each stage of the funnel. Here’s a simplified view:
Top of Funnel (Awareness & Exploration)
These prompts reflect early stage curiosity or problem awareness.
- “What are the best tools for managing spend in a SaaS business?”
- “Alternatives to [Vendor] for procurement software”
- “How can marketing teams measure content ROI?”
Middle of Funnel (Consideration & Evaluation)
Here, buyers are starting to compare vendors and shortlist options.
- “[Product] vs [competitor] comparison”
- “Best [category] platforms for [sector] companies”
- “Must have features in [category] software”
Bottom of Funnel (Decision Support & Objection Handling)
These prompts signal serious buying intent and final-stage decision support.
- “Customer reviews of [product] for global teams”
- “Common problems during [vendor] implementation”
- “Is [tool] worth it for companies under 500 employees in [sector]?”
Each of these prompt types maps to a specific kind of buyer intent. There are more opportunities than ever to be present and to have some kind of influence.
Measuring prompt performance
Tracking prompt visibility is still in its early days, but it’s evolving fast. We use a range of tools and data sources to help marketers measure which prompts they’re showing up in, how frequently they’re being mentioned across different LLMs, and how competitors are performing.
We recommend building a Prompt Map - a working database of high value prompts segmented by buyer stage and persona. Then, track where and how your brand appears, and use this insight to shape content creation, improve prompt conditioning, and even influence how your brand is described on third party sources. Peec AI is our preferred analytics and visibility platform.
Scoring prompt visibility is also a valuable way to demonstrate progress and ROI in an AI first go-to-market motion.
Prompt visibility isn’t just a technical challenge - it’s a strategic opportunity.
For B2B software companies, appearing in the right prompts means being present at the precise moments buyers are shaping their understanding of a category, evaluating vendors, or trying to make a final decision.
If you want to win in this new landscape, start with audience intelligence. Understand who your buyers are, what they ask, and how they think. Then, work systematically to translate those insights into a prompt strategy that ensures your brand is part of the conversation.
About the Author:
Alex Price is founder of FirstMotion. He previously built and sold a B2B digital agency, founded FINITE (a marketing community for software CMOs), and now helps B2B software companies build AI search visibility strategies at scale.