Your buyers ask AI who to pick. Make sure it’s you.
Gets you selected acrossChatGPTClaudeGeminiPerplexity
RocMode shows you whether AI picks you or your rival, finds the work that changes it, builds that work, and sends it to you to approve. Then it proves what moved.
We ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your buyers ask, and show where they pick you and who they pick instead. Free, no login. What’s the Score? Or sign up free and try everything for 14 days.
RocMode · Live read · Monday by Nine (example)
Asking ChatGPTBefore
The AI marketing and sales platform
Marketing and sales, rebuilt for the age of AI.
Your website in. A whole marketing and sales team’s work out. RocMode learns your brand from your site, then does the work: strategy, website, ads, social, PR, partners, email, design, and the deck that wins the deal. You approve every piece.
Other tools do one job. This does all of them, as one story.
Other AI guesses. This works from your facts and proof.
Other tools stop at the post. This follows it to the signed deal, and learns what won.
How it works
KnowWhere you really standActWhat to fix firstCreateWe build the work. You approve itProveDid it move?
Know · Step 1 of 10
It gets you. It gets your customers. It connects the dots.
Everything about your brand, your buyers and your rivals, sorted and connected.
Then it works out what to say, where, when and why. It’s the brain behind every step.
Builds: Customers · Offerings · Rivals · Proof
RocMode · BrandGraph · sample data
Following one momentCISO · Comparing · “Who’s the best managed security provider for a hospital group?”Moment found
Brand core3 found
Voice3 found
Visual identity3 found
Products and services3 found
Pricing3 found
Personas and markets3 found
Pains, gains, jobs3 found
Journeys and objections3 found
Proof and trust3 found
Content3 found
Competitors and partners3 found
Team2 found
Halvard Security35 facts
Two hospital case studies/partners
FactClaimProofAI-suggestedExample: Halvard Security, an invented managed security provider.
Reading halvardsecurity.com.au, socials, reviews and listings…
Halvard SecurityBrandGraph
12areas, all connected
3personas
15moments
6rivals
Sample data
Your customers
Customers
›
Personas
›
Journeys
›
Pains, jobs, objections
›
Moments
What you sell
Products and services
›
Offerings
›
Value proposition
›
Differentiation
Your rivals
Competitors
›
Industry
›
Expectations
›
Gaps to exploit
Moments + offerings
Opportunities
›
Campaigns
›
Ads
›
Sales
Content gaps
›
Content
›
Website
So it knows
What to say.Where. When. Why.
Moment foundCISO · Comparing · “Who’s the best managed security provider for a hospital group?”
Know · Step 2 of 10
Your strategy, from everything it knows.
Positioning built from your offerings and the gaps your rivals leave.
Claims you can’t back get cut before anyone sees them.
Seen isn’t selected. AI picks the brands it can tell apart.
Every era of marketing had its visibility number, and AI mentions are just the newest. Most AI tools still sell you visibility. But being mentioned isn’t being chosen, and for the first time you can measure the pick itself.
BroadcastAwareness
Media buyingReach
SearchRankings
SocialFollowers
AIMentions
What countsSelected
What AI made cheap
Making things.
Posts, pages, ads and reports in minutes
Anyone with a login can do it
Your competitors have the same tools
Sell on volume and you compete on price.
What AI made measurable
Being chosen.
Brand ABrand BYouBrand CBrand D
Buyers ask AI who to pick, and it names a few brands
You can ask the same questions and see who’s named
So you can see, moment by moment, where you win and lose
Compete on this and you compete on results.
See it on your brand
See how often AI picks you. Free.
We ask the AI assistants your buyers use the questions they really ask, many times each, at every step of their journey. Then we show where you’re picked, where you’re passed over, and who wins instead.
Your free Selectability Score asks the AI assistants the questions your buyers ask, without your name in them. You see who gets picked, at which moment, and the three gaps to fix first.
An event puts buyers in a room with you, and with each other, at a moment a page can't settle.
Some questions are decided by people, face to face. "Do we need outside help at all?" is one an owner asks other owners over dinner, not an assistant. "What do people I trust say about them?" is answered best by hearing those people in person. An event is the only build where Kestrel can be in that room.
Marketers rate events highly: in the Content Marketing Institute's 2025 survey of 980 B2B marketers, in-person events topped the channels said to produce the best results, at 52% (CMI). That's marketers' own opinion, not a measure of buyers. It's a reason to run events well, not to run more of them.
This build is in the Direct category: a person, live. It covers the events Kestrel hosts, the ones it attends, and the ones where it speaks. Its rule is the same as every build's: an event exists because a moment needs a room. A stand at a trade show because competitors have one isn't a reason.
In RocMode: events in the Direct studio. Sample data.
The footprint, and what it reads from the chain
Events lead 2 cells and 2 moments, both the owner's:
Moment
Who
Their question
Options
Owner
"Do we need outside help at all?"
Checking
Owner
"What do people I trust say about them?"
And support three more cells (12 moments): the COO's trigger for each of the seven problems (where a talk on flat output reaches COOs in the room), the plant manager's framing ("will they just tell us what we already know?", answered by seeing Kestrel's people on a floor), and the COO's checking by sector (where a client speaking at an event is the reference).
The owner is the person this build exists for. Owners decide in owner-led firms, and they trust other owners more than any firm. Of all Kestrel's choosers, they're the hardest to reach any other way: they don't read guides, rarely search, and ask their peers.
What it reads, and never rewrites:
From
It takes
Brand Strategy
The owner as a chooser, with their jobs and fears
Credentials
Every claim a speaker may make, and every client who's agreed to speak
Customers
The clients who'll speak, host or attend: the community and the results reviews
Partners and channels
The associations and accountants who fill rooms with owners
Content
The benchmark, which gives every talk a finding to present
Its slice of the Score, and its own audit
Kestrel today
Known
Found
Quality
Moment score
Owner · options (out in the market)
12
10
29
3
Owner · checking (inside a deal)
Open
Open
61
61
The two moments tell the whole story. Inside a deal, when an owner hears from people they trust, Kestrel scores 61: owners who talk to Kestrel's clients like what they hear. Out in the market, when an owner wonders whether to bring anyone in at all, Kestrel scores 3: it's named in one association directory, and nowhere owners actually talk.
The audit.
Event
What Kestrel does
What it produced last year
The annual manufacturing trade show
A stand, two partners for three days
140 badge scans; 3 fit calls; 0 reviews
Two industry conferences
Attended; no speaking
Business cards; nothing traced
Association events
Member of one association; doesn't attend
Nothing
Hosted events
None
—
Client events
None
—
The trade show cost the most and produced the least. The rooms where owners actually decide, small, peer-led, often hosted by an association or an accountant, Kestrel has never been in.
Step 1: the shape, the category's calendar
The shape is the events the category already runs, by type and by who's in the room.
Event type
Who's in the room
In Kestrel's category
Kestrel today
Trade shows
Everyone, briefly; mostly buyers of equipment
One major show a year
A stand
Industry conferences
COOs, improvement leads, consultants
Two a year
Attends
Association events
Owners, COOs, by sector
Four associations, three or four events each
Not attending
Peer round tables
Owners, 10 to 20 at a time
Run by associations, accountants and banks
Never
Plant visits
Plant managers, improvement leads
Hosted by manufacturers, sometimes by programmes
Never
Webinars
Anyone, at a distance
Common; mostly unwatched
None
Client and alumni events
Past clients
Large firms only
None
The calendar is set by the category, not by Kestrel: trade-show season, budget season, the associations' annual dinners. The question for each is the same: who is in that room, at which moment, and is Kestrel the best answer to their question there?
Step 2: coverage, one conversation per moment a room decides better than a page
The coverage unit is a conversation: who needs to hear whom, about what, at which moment. For each of the five cells events lead or support, ask whether a room would answer the question better than anything Kestrel could publish.
Moment
Who needs to hear
From whom
About what
Better in a room?
Owner · options
Owners
Another owner who used outside help
Whether it was worth it, and what it cost them in disruption
Yes: peers, in private
Owner · checking
Owners weighing Kestrel
Kestrel's client owners
What working with Kestrel was really like
Yes
COO · trigger (7 problems)
COOs
A COO and a Kestrel engineer, together
What flat output, rising costs and the rest usually come from
Partly: a talk reaches the room; the guide reaches everyone else
Plant manager · framing
Plant managers
Kestrel's engineers, on a floor
Whether outsiders find anything they don't already know
Yes: seeing it on a floor
COO · checking, by sector
COOs in a sector
A client COO from the same sector
Their results, and how the review ran
Yes, if the speaker is from their sector
Four conversations need a room; one needs a room and a page. That gives three event formats: the owners' round table, the open plant visit, and a talk with a client at events the category already runs.
Step 3: gaps, biases and jobs
Moment
Stage
Bias
The job
Owner · options
Known, Found
We follow others
Two owners' round tables a year, co-hosted with an association, with a client owner as the speaker
Owner · checking
Believed
Familiar feels safe
Invite owners in live deals to the next round table, to hear from a client owner in person
COO · trigger
Known
Familiar feels safe
Replace the trade-show stand with a talk: a client COO and Kestrel's head of delivery on the benchmark's finding
Plant manager · framing
Believed
We follow others
Open plant visits, hosted by a client: half a day on a floor where a review ran, for plant managers and improvement leads
COO · checking, by sector
Believed
We follow others
At each sector association's annual event, a client COO from that sector speaking
After every event
Bought
A hard choice stalls
A personal follow-up within 48 hours, from the person who met them, with the one thing they asked about
One pattern: in every job, a client or a peer does most of the talking. Kestrel hosts, invites, prepares and follows up. Clients and peers do the talking.
Step 4: reconcile, the events plan
Event
Format
How often
Moments
Signals
Priority
Owners' round table
12 to 16 owners, dinner, one client owner speaking, co-hosted with an association or an accountant
Twice a year
Owner options, owner checking
Coverage, strategy
P1
Talks at sector association events
A client COO and Kestrel's head of delivery, 30 minutes, on the benchmark
Four a year, one per sector
COO trigger, COO checking by sector
Canon, coverage
P1
Open plant visit
Half a day at a client's plant, 10 to 15 plant managers and improvement leads
Twice a year
Plant manager framing; improvement lead checking
Coverage, strategy
P2
Trade show
A talk on the main stage, not a stand
Once a year
COO trigger
Canon
P3
Improvement leads' community
Run by Customers; Events helps with the room
Twice a year
Improvement lead extend
Coverage
Customers'
Rejected, with reasons:
The trade-show stand. 140 badge scans, three fit calls, no reviews. The same money funds both round tables.
Webinars. No moment asks for them. The benchmark is presented once a year, recorded, and that recording is enough.
A large annual client event. Owners want one peer in a small room, not a conference.
Sponsoring conference dinners without speaking. It buys a logo on a menu. That's advertising's nod, not this build.
The anatomy library
Event asset
Parts, in order
Length
The invitation
The question the evening answers, in the guest's words · Who's speaking, and why they're worth hearing · Who else is coming (by role, never by name without permission) · Date, place, length · How to say yes
Under 150 words
The run of show
Welcome, 5 minutes, by the co-host · The speaker, 20 minutes: their problem, what they did, what it cost, what they'd do differently · Questions, 30 minutes · Dinner, unstructured · Close, one line
Two to three hours
The speaker brief
Who's in the room, and what they're wondering · What the speaker might cover · What they shouldn't be asked to say · Timing
One page
The talk (association events)
The finding, with its number · The client's story: the problem, the floor, the result · What to check this week · One slide of method
30 minutes, 10 slides at most
The plant visit
What the host plant changed · Walk the line with the host's plant manager · Questions on the floor · Coffee, one question each: what would you check first in your plant?
Half a day
The follow-up
Thanks, and the one thing they asked about · The smallest next step, if any · An easy no
Under 100 words, within 48 hours
Three rules hold for every event:
No selling in the room. Kestrel's partners host and listen. The next step comes in the follow-up, and only if the guest asked a question that leads there.
Speakers say what happened, including what went wrong. A peer is believed because of the part that went wrong.
Every guest is followed up by the person who met them, within 48 hours, about what they actually asked.
Briefs
EVENT Owners' round table, March
MOMENTS Owner · options: "Do we need outside help at all?"
Owner · checking: "What do people I trust say about them?"
CO-HOST The metal and engineering association
SPEAKER A client owner: managing director of a 230-person fabricator
GUESTS 14 owners: 9 from the association's list, 3 from accountants'
introductions, 2 in live deals with Kestrel
KESTREL Jo Brady and the managing partner: host, listen, no pitch
THE QUESTION "When does an owner need outside help, and when not?"
FOLLOW-UP Within 48 hours, from whoever sat with each guest
MEASURE Guests who ask for a conversation within a month; owners in
live
deals who move forward
The finished example: the owners' round table, written in full
The invitation, the speaker's brief, and one follow-up, for the March round table. The association, the speaker, the guests and Kestrel are invented.
1. The invitation, sent by the association's chair, co-signed by Kestrel's managing partner.
Subject: When does an owner need outside help? Dinner with owners of engineering firms, 12 March
Dear Graham,
Every owner I talk to has asked themselves the same question at some point: are our problems ones we can fix ourselves, or do we need someone from outside?
On 12 March, Helen Dorsey, managing director of a 230-person fabrication business, will tell a small group of owners how she answered it: what she tried first, why she brought someone in, what it cost her in time and disruption, and what she'd do differently.
It's dinner for 14 owners of manufacturing businesses, from 6pm to 9pm, at the association's rooms. No presentations beyond Helen's 20 minutes, and nothing will be sold. Kestrel Advisory, who worked with Helen's business, is hosting with us.
If you'd like to come, reply to this email. Places are limited.
Margaret Kaye, chair, Metal and Engineering Association
2. The speaker brief, for Helen Dorsey.
Who'll be there: 14 owners of engineering and fabrication businesses, 80 to 400 staff. Most have never hired an operations consultant. Two are talking to Kestrel now. What they're wondering: whether outside help is worth the disruption; whether a smaller firm can be trusted with their people; what it really cost. What you might cover: what you tried first; why you brought someone in; the first two weeks on the floor, including what your people thought; what changed, in your figures; what you'd do differently. What we won't ask you to do: recommend Kestrel. Tell it as it was. If you'd use someone else next time, say so. Timing: 20 minutes after the welcome, then questions for as long as people want.
3. A follow-up, from Jo Brady to an owner who sat at her table, 36 hours later.
Subject: The changeover question you asked Helen
Graham, good to meet you on Tuesday. You asked Helen how long it took her team to get changeovers down, and whether it held. The short answer from her plant: about four weeks to halve them, and it's held for two years because her own team runs the routine.
If it's useful, I'd be glad to show you how she measured it before deciding anything, so you can check your own lines first. If not, I hope to see you at the next one.
Jo Brady, Kestrel Advisory
What to notice. The invitation is signed by the association, about the guest's question, and says plainly that nothing will be sold. The speaker brief tells a client not to recommend Kestrel, which is why the owners will believe her. The follow-up answers the one thing that owner asked, offers a way to check for himself, and makes saying no easy. One evening; two a year.
Templates
The events calendar (one row per event)
Date
Event
Format
Moments
Co-host
Speaker
Guests (by role)
Kestrel attendees
Follow-ups done in 48 h
Outcomes at 30 days
The event brief
EVENT [name, date]
MOMENTS [chooser · step, and their question]
CO-HOST [association, accountant, client]
SPEAKER [who, and why the room will believe them]
GUESTS [how many, by role, from where]
KESTREL [who attends, and their job in the room]
THE QUESTION [the one the evening answers]
FOLLOW-UP [who, within 48 hours]
MEASURE [what should happen within 30 days]
The guest log (one row per guest)
Guest
Role, company
Who met them
What they asked
Follow-up sent
Next step
In the campaign plan
Events are occasions: dated, and shared by the category. The Campaign Engine builds around them, and this build makes sure each occasion has a room where a moment is decided.
Occasion
Campaign
The event
What other builds bring
The benchmark's release (Q2)
The annual benchmark
Talks at the four sector associations
Content: the sector cuts; PR: the trade coverage; Email: invitations to the list
Budget season (Q3)
Board season; "Before you buy another line"
The trade show's main-stage talk
Advertising: the COO's trigger; the pitch: the kit
Spring and autumn
Owners' round tables
Two dinners
Partners: the associations and accountants fill the room; Customers: the speaker
Twice a year
Plant visits
Half a day at a client's plant
Customers: the host; Content: the guide the visitors take away
Running it
Who owns what. At Kestrel, the marketing lead owns the events calendar and the logistics; the managing partner owns the round tables and the relationships with co-hosts; the head of delivery owns the talks and the plant visits. Every partner who attends owns the follow-ups for the guests they met.
When
What happens
Eight weeks before
Co-host and speaker confirmed; the speaker brief agreed
Four weeks before
Invitations from the co-host; guests confirmed by role
The day before
The guest list read by everyone attending: who's coming, which moment they're in, what they might ask
Within 48 hours after
Every follow-up sent, by the person who met the guest
30 days after
Outcomes logged: conversations, fit calls, deals moved
Yearly
The calendar against the moments; anything that produced nothing for a year is dropped
The speaker's thanks. A client who speaks gives up an evening and some privacy. Thank them in writing from the managing partner, send them the evening's questions, and don't ask again for a year.
Common mistakes
The mistake
The stage it breaks
The bias it ignores
At Kestrel
Instead
A stand because competitors have one
Known
We follow others
140 badge scans, 3 fit calls
Be where the moment is decided, not where the crowd is
Counting badge scans
All, unseen
Good enough beats best
"Great show, 140 leads"
Count conversations that moved a moment
Kestrel doing the talking
Believed
We follow others
Partners presenting the firm
Clients and peers speak; Kestrel hosts
Selling in the room
Preferred
Losses loom larger
A pitch over dessert
No selling; the follow-up offers one small step
Following up a week later, with a brochure
Bought
A hard choice stalls
A generic "thanks for visiting our stand" email
Within 48 hours, about what they asked
The wrong room
Known
Familiar feels safe
Conferences full of consultants
Rooms full of the people who decide: owners, COOs
Webinars nobody asked for
Answered
Good enough beats best
Not yet, and rightly
Record the one presentation that's worth it
Asking clients to speak too often
Believed
Losses loom larger
—
Once a year per client, and thank them properly
The bias to watch in the team: the spotlight effect. Teams think a stand or a logo makes them noticed. Buyers remember the one conversation that answered their question, and who was in the room when it happened.
The business check and the measures
Revenue: owner-led firms are a buying path Kestrel serves, and owners are the hardest chooser to reach. The round tables are worth the partners' evenings.
One truth: speakers say what happened; Kestrel's people say only what Credentials can sign.
The proof is real: every client speaker has a confirmed result. No one speaks before their 90-day check.
Capacity: each round table takes two partners for an evening and about 15 hours of preparation and follow-up. The trade-show stand took 60.
Measure
What it tells you
Stage
Guests who ask for a conversation within 30 days
Whether the room moved the owner's options moment
Found
Owners in live deals who move forward after a round table
Whether hearing a peer settles checking
Believed
Follow-ups sent within 48 hours
Whether the team does the part that matters
Bought
Plant-visit guests whose plants become fit calls
Whether seeing it on a floor answers the plant manager
Believed
Cost per conversation that moved a moment
Whether an event earns its place against the others
All
The Loop for this build
After each event, and each half-year across all of them, the Loop (step 11) asks: did the conversations in the room move the moments they were for?
What the Loop finds
What it means
What changes
Guests enjoy it, nobody asks for a conversation
The question wasn't theirs, or the follow-up missed
Ask guests what they'd want next time; check the follow-ups
Owners in live deals don't move after a round table
The speaker didn't match their situation
Match speakers by size and sector
One format produces most outcomes
The others are weaker rooms
Move effort to it; drop the weakest
Co-hosts keen to repeat
The exchange is working
Make it a fixture on their calendar
What Kestrel's first year would look for. Two round tables with 12 or more owners each, and at least two owners asking for a conversation from each. Owner checking moments moving forward in live deals after a guest heard a client speak. And the trade-show budget, moved to rooms that produce conversations, with the same or less spent.
Shapes by business type
Business type
Typical mode
The events that usually matter most
B2B professional services
Committee or owner-led
Peer round tables, talks with clients at association events, site visits
B2B software
Committee
User conferences, customer advisory boards, workshops for one buying group, live demos at the category's main event
Considered consumer (finance, health, education)
Considered personal
Open days, seminars, one-to-one consultations
Ecommerce
Quick choice or habitual
Pop-ups, launches, sampling; rarely decisive on their own
Local services
Owner-led or considered personal
Local shows, community events, workshops in the shop or on site
Marketplaces
Varies on each side
Seller meet-ups and training days; rarely buyer events
Feeling a bit overwhelmed?
You should be, a little. One firm: a calendar set by the category, two round tables a year with a co-host and a client speaker, four talks, two plant visits, a brief for each, a guest list read the night before, a follow-up within 48 hours for every guest, and outcomes logged a month later. Most firms book a stand, count badge scans, and send everyone the same brochure a week later.
RocMode does part of the heavy lifting:
Campaigns timed to your category's key dates. RocMode's campaign concepts are built around your category's calendar, so the occasions events serve are in the plan from the start.
The people in the room, and their questions. Your choosers and their moments, mapped from what's known about your brand, so every event starts from who needs to hear what.
