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.
Partners and channels reach the buyers who already trust someone else, through that someone.
Some buyers are hard to reach directly, and harder to persuade. An investor's operating partner doesn't search for consultants; they ask the transaction adviser who did the deal, or the lender who financed it, or a portfolio COO they trust. An owner asks their accountant. Procurement checks the panel the government programme approved. In each case, the buyer's question goes to someone who already has their trust, and that person names a firm, or doesn't.
This is the Partnered category: someone else's voice or audience, by agreement. It differs from PR and reviews in one word: agreement. A reference is freely given. A partner has a reason to recommend you that both sides understand, and the buyer should be able to understand it too.
For Kestrel, this build is small in moments and large in value: it leads the investor's path, where one relationship can bring a portfolio.
The Partnered category's four nods live here: affiliates (paid referral arrangements, rarely right for professional services), marketplaces (directories where buyers compare and book), associations (industry bodies whose member lists and events reach the category) and employee advocacy (Kestrel's own people, speaking in their own names).
In RocMode: the Partnered studio. Sample data.
The footprint, and what it reads from the chain
Partners and channels lead 3 cells and 3 moments, the investor's whole path outside the deal:
Moment
Who
Their question
Trigger
Investor
"The value-creation plan needs margin within 18 months."
Options
Investor
"Which firms deliver operations value quickly?"
Extend and refer
Investor
"Can we use them across the portfolio?"
It supports four more: the COO's options (where an automation integrator or equipment supplier can say "fix the line first"), procurement's comparing (where approved-supplier panels decide who can be compared at all), and the investor's comparing and checking.
Three moments led and ten supported, out of 149. But the investor moments carry an outsized prize. One operating partner with a portfolio of eight manufacturers is eight potential clients, each with a COO who'll take the call because their investor made it.
What it reads, and never rewrites:
From
It takes
Brand Strategy
The segments: investor-owned manufacturers are the second segment
GTM Strategy
The investor-led buying path and its motion
Credentials
The claims a partner may repeat, word for word
The pitch
The investor pack, which partners forward
PR and reviews
References a partner can offer their clients
Its slice of the Score, and its own audit
This build's slice of the Selectability Score is the gate at the investor's moments: Known and Found, through someone the investor already trusts.
Kestrel today
Known
Found
Quality
Moment score
Investor · trigger
6
5
27
1.5
Investor · options
6
0
12
0
Investor · extend (inside a deal)
Open
Open
35
35
The single point of Found comes from one adviser's list, which names Kestrel among a dozen firms. Investors don't find Kestrel because nobody they trust is pointing at it.
The audit.
Possible partner
Who they reach
Kestrel today
Private equity operating partners
Portfolio COOs and boards
No relationships; one past client was investor-owned
Transaction advisers and lenders
Investors in the first 100 days after a deal
Named on one adviser's list, unprompted
Accountants to mid-sized manufacturers
Owners and finance directors
Two partners know one firm socially
Automation integrators and equipment suppliers
COOs weighing a new line
None; seen as competitors
Government productivity programmes
Owners; procurement
Not on the approved panel
The four sector associations
Every chooser in the sector
Member of one, inactive
None of these relationships has an owner, a reason for the partner, or a record of what it produced.
Step 1: the shape, the partner tiers the category runs on
The shape is the partner types the category already uses, sorted into tiers by how closely the partner works with you.
Tier
What it means
Partner types in Kestrel's category
Canon?
Referral partners
They introduce; you sell and deliver
Transaction advisers, lenders, accountants
Yes: most firms have a few
Strategic partners
They bring you into their own client work, by agreement
Government productivity programmes; approved-supplier panels
Yes, for public and large buyers
Associations (nod)
Their members, their events, their lists
The four sector associations
Yes
Marketplaces (nod)
Buyers compare and book
Consultant directories
Rarely decisive in this category
Affiliates (nod)
Paid per referral
Rare; seen as a conflict by buyers
No
Every partnership is an exchange. The partner gets something they value: a better outcome for their own client, a reason to stay in touch, their own reputation enhanced. If you can't say what the partner gets, there is no partnership, only a list of people you hope will mention you.
Affiliates, as a nod. For professional services, paying per referral turns a trusted recommendation into a commission the buyer may never be told about. If you pay, say so to the buyer. Kestrel doesn't pay.
Step 2: coverage, one partner per audience you can't reach yourself
The coverage unit is an audience you can't reach well on your own, and the partner who already has its trust. For each of the seven cells this build leads or supports, name the chooser, who they ask, and what that person would need to recommend Kestrel.
Moment
Chooser
Who they ask
What the partner would need
Trigger
Investor
Their own operating team; the transaction adviser
Evidence that operations reviews move margin inside a hold period
Options
Investor
Operating partners at other funds; advisers; lenders
A firm they can name without risk to their own reputation
Comparing
Investor
Portfolio COOs
Portfolio cases, in board terms
Checking
Investor
Another operating partner
A reference (with PR and reviews)
Extend and refer
Investor
Their own portfolio
A way to roll out across companies without a new tender each time
Options
COO (7 problems)
Automation integrators; equipment suppliers
A reason to say "fix the line first": a better installation later, a client who trusts them more
Comparing
Procurement
The approved panel
Kestrel on it
Four partner types cover all seven: operating partners and their funds, transaction advisers and lenders, automation integrators, and approved-supplier panels. Accountants and associations add reach to owners, in support of Events.
Step 3: gaps, biases and jobs
Moment
Stage
Bias
The job
Investor · trigger
Known
Familiar feels safe
Be known to three operating partners as the firm for margin in the first 18 months, through one portfolio case and the benchmark's investor cut
Investor · options
Found
We follow others
Be on the shortlist transaction advisers and lenders hand to new owners in the first 100 days
Investor · comparing and checking
Believed
We follow others
Portfolio cases in board terms; an operating partner as a reference
Investor · extend
Bought
A hard choice stalls
A portfolio framework: one agreement, a fixed price per plant, start inside 100 days
COO · options
Preferred
Losses loom larger
One automation integrator who refers "fix the line first" cases, and to whom Kestrel refers clients who do need new equipment
Procurement · comparing
Bought
A hard choice stalls
A place on the government productivity programme's approved panel
One rule follows from the exchange: refer back. Kestrel finds plants that do need new equipment, or a finance review, or a new hire. A partner who receives good work from Kestrel sends good work back.
Step 4: reconcile, the partner plan
Partner
Tier
What they get
What Kestrel gets
Moments
Priority
Three PE operating teams
Strategic
Margin found inside the hold period; board reporting in their terms; a portfolio framework
Introductions to portfolio COOs; references
Investor trigger, options, extend
P1
Two transaction advisers, one lender
Referral
A firm to name in the first 100 days that makes them look good
Introductions to new owners
Investor options
P1
The government productivity programme
Panel
A delivery partner that reports results their way
Eligibility; procurement's comparison
Procurement comparing; owner options
P2
One automation integrator
Referral, both ways
Clients sent to them who do need equipment; better-prepared installations
"Fix the line first" referrals
COO options
P2
The four sector associations (nod)
Association
Speakers, benchmark data for members
Member lists, events, newsletters
Owner options; triggers (with Events)
P2
Accountants to manufacturers
Referral
A firm to name when a client's margins fall
Introductions to owners and finance directors
Owner and finance director triggers (support)
P3
Six partner groups, about a dozen relationships. Each has an owner at Kestrel, an agreement in writing (even if it's a one-page letter), and a review twice a year.
Rejected, with reasons:
Referral fees. See the affiliates nod. Buyers trust a recommendation less when they learn it was paid, and they usually learn.
White-label work for large consultancies. It earns fees and builds someone else's name at Kestrel's moments.
A listing on every consultant marketplace (nod). Marketplaces aren't where Kestrel's buyers choose. One correct listing on the two that assistants cite is enough, and that's Being named's job.
Partnerships with equipment makers who'd want Kestrel to recommend their machines. It breaks the reason to choose Kestrel: an independent view of the line.
The anatomy library
Asset
Parts, in order
Length
The partner one-pager (for the partner)
Who Kestrel helps, and who it doesn't · When to introduce us, in their client's words · What their client will get, and how fast · What the partner gets · Who to call
One page
The introduction note (the partner forwards it)
The entity line · Why this client, now, in the partner's terms · One relevant case · The smallest next step
Under 120 words
The partner agreement
What each side does · What each side gets · What's never done (fees, exclusivity, recommending products) · How it's reviewed
One page
The portfolio framework (investors)
One agreement for the portfolio · Fixed price per plant, and the way out · Start inside 100 days · Board reporting format
Two pages
The referral-back note
Who Kestrel is sending, and why · What the client needs from them · What Kestrel found that's relevant
Half a page
The partner review (twice a year)
Introductions each way, and what happened · What their clients said · What to change · Continue or end
One page
Three rules hold for every partnership:
The buyer always knows the relationship. "We work with Kestrel" is said out loud.
The partner repeats only signed claims. The one-pager is the only thing they need, and it comes from Credentials.
It runs both ways, or it ends. A partnership with introductions in one direction only is a favour, and favours run out.
Briefs
PARTNER Northgate Capital, operating team (invented)
TIER Strategic
OWNER Jo Brady, partner
WHO THEY REACH 8 portfolio manufacturers, 120 to 450 staff; COOs and boards
THEIR QUESTION "Which firms deliver operations value quickly?"
WHAT THEY GET Margin found inside the hold period; reporting in value-
creation
terms; one framework instead of eight procurements
WHAT WE GET Introductions to portfolio COOs; an operating partner
reference
CLAIMS THEY MAY USE Fixed price; six weeks; the way out; start inside 100
days;
Brennock and Calloway cases
NEVER Fees; exclusivity; Kestrel recommending their other suppliers
REVIEW March and September
MEASURE Introductions, reviews started, portfolio companies served
The finished example: the investor channel, written in full
Three assets for one strategic partner: the one-pager the operating team keeps, the note they forward to a portfolio COO, and the framework that lets the portfolio buy without eight procurements. Northgate, its portfolio and its people are invented; so is Kestrel.
1. The partner one-pager, for Northgate's operating team.
Kestrel Advisory: margin from the lines you already own, inside the hold period
Who we help. Manufacturers with 100 to 500 staff in food and drink, packaging, metal and engineering, and plastics and rubber, where output is flat or costs are rising. Who we don't: businesses whose problem is demand, not capacity. We'll say so on the first call.
When to introduce us. When a portfolio company's value-creation plan needs operating margin within 18 months, and the first instinct is new equipment or a large programme.
What your company gets. A fixed-price, six-week review on the floor, starting inside your first 100 days. If it doesn't find more than it costs, they don't go ahead. Calloway Foods, an investor-owned business of 310 staff, cut scrap on its main filling line from 4.1% to 2.6%, confirmed by its finance director.
What you get. Findings reported in value-creation terms, monthly, for your board pack; one framework for the whole portfolio.
Call: Jo Brady, partner, Kestrel Advisory.
2. The introduction note, written by Kestrel, forwarded by Northgate's operating partner to the COO of a portfolio company.
Subject: An operations review for Ridgeway, before the line decision
Alex, as we discussed at the board, Ridgeway's output on the extrusion lines is flat and the capex request is on the table. Before it goes further, I'd like Kestrel Advisory to look at the lines. They do a fixed-price, six-week review on the floor, and if it doesn't find more than it costs, you don't go ahead. They're independent of the equipment makers. Jo Brady will call you this week, unless you'd rather not. — Claire
3. The portfolio framework, in summary.
One agreement, eight companies. Each review at a fixed price per plant, set by the number of lines, with the same way-out clause. A start within 100 days of a portfolio company's request. Monthly reporting to the operating team in their format. Either side can end the framework with 30 days' notice; any review under way finishes.
What to notice. The one-pager tells the partner when not to introduce Kestrel, which is why they trust it enough to use it. The introduction note is in the operating partner's voice, written for them, and names the decision it should change. The framework removes the procurement step that would otherwise stall every introduction. Three documents, one partner. Kestrel's plan has about a dozen.
Templates
The partner map (one row per partner)
Partner
Tier
Who they reach
Moments
What they get
What Kestrel gets
Owner
Introductions in / out this half
Review date
The partner brief
PARTNER [name] TIER [referral / strategic / panel /
association]
OWNER [Kestrel person]
WHO THEY REACH [audience, size, roles]
THEIR QUESTION [what their clients ask them]
WHAT THEY GET [the exchange, from their side]
WHAT WE GET [the exchange, from ours]
CLAIMS THEY MAY USE [signed claims only]
NEVER [fees, exclusivity, product recommendations, ...]
REVIEW [dates] MEASURE [introductions, both ways, and
outcomes]
The introduction log (one row per introduction, either direction)
Date
From
To
Client
Moment
What happened
Thanked?
In the campaign plan
Partners carry campaigns to audiences Kestrel can't reach, but only campaigns that help their own clients. The rule: a campaign goes to a partner with a version made for their clients, and nothing they'd be embarrassed to forward.
Kestrel campaign
What partners get
Which partners
The annual benchmark
An investor cut (margin found inside a hold period); a members' summary for associations
Operating teams; associations
Investor 100 days
The one-pager and a dated note for new acquisitions
Operating teams; transaction advisers; lenders
"Before you buy another line"
The equipment comparison, for clients weighing capex
The integrator; accountants
Owners' round table
Seats for their owner clients
Associations; accountants
Running it, with the nods
Who owns what. At Kestrel, each partner has one owner among the partners; the managing partner owns the partner map. Introductions in either direction go in the log the day they happen.
When
What happens
Within a week of every introduction
Thanks to the partner, and a note on what happened
Monthly
The introduction log reviewed: who's introducing, who isn't, who Kestrel should be introducing to
Twice a year
Each partner review: introductions both ways, outcomes, continue or end
Yearly
The partner map against the moments: is every audience Kestrel can't reach covered?
Associations, as a nod. Join the four sector associations as an active member: speak at one event a year each, give members the benchmark's sector cut, and keep the member-list entry identical to the fact sheet. That's the whole programme.
Marketplaces, as a nod. One correct listing on the directories assistants cite, maintained by Being named. Not a channel to sell through.
Employee advocacy, as a nod. Kestrel's engineers know more about plant floors than anyone in marketing. Encourage them to answer practitioner questions and write under their own names, with no scripts, no required posting and no approval beyond the claims rule: nothing said that Credentials can't sign.
Common mistakes
The mistake
The stage it breaks
The bias it ignores
What it would do at Kestrel
Instead
A logo wall of "partners"
Believed
We follow others
Twelve logos, no introductions
A dozen real exchanges, each with an owner
Partnerships that run one way
Found
Losses loom larger
Asking advisers for introductions, sending them nothing
Refer back; log both directions
Paying for referrals quietly
Believed
We follow others
A fee the buyer never hears about
No fees; or, if paid, disclosed
Partners with a stake in the answer
Preferred
Feeling first, reasons after
An equipment maker's preferred consultant
Partners whose interest matches the client's
Giving partners nothing to forward
Answered
A hard choice stalls
"Mention us if it comes up"
The one-pager and the introduction note
Letting partners say more than is signed
Believed
Familiar feels safe
"They guarantee 20% savings", repeated by an adviser
Only signed claims, in the partner's materials
Procurement as an afterthought
Bought
A hard choice stalls
Eight portfolio introductions, eight procurements
The portfolio framework first
No review
All, unseen
The planning fallacy
Partnerships that quietly lapse
Twice a year: continue or end
The bias to watch in the team: reciprocity, misread. Partners don't introduce because they were asked nicely; they introduce because it was good for their client last time. The first introduction is a test. Make it go well.
The business check and the measures
Revenue: investor-owned manufacturers are the second segment; one strategic partner can reach a portfolio. Start with operating teams.
One truth: partners use only the one-pager's claims. If a partner says something Credentials hasn't signed, correct it with them the same week.
Independence: no partnership may compromise Kestrel's independent view of the line. That rules out equipment makers and paid placements.
Capacity: a portfolio framework could bring several reviews at once. Agree a maximum number of concurrent starts before signing one.
Measure
What it tells you
Stage
Introductions received, by partner
Whether partners are naming Kestrel
Found
Introductions that become fit calls, then reviews
Whether the introductions are the right buyers
Bought
Introductions Kestrel sends partners
Whether the exchange runs both ways
Preferred
Portfolio companies served per strategic partner
Whether the investor channel compounds
Preferred
Investor moments in the Score: Known and Found
Whether investors find Kestrel without being sent
Known, Found
The Loop for this build
Each half-year the Loop (step 11) reads the introduction log beside the investor moments in the Score, and asks: which partners are bringing the right buyers, and which exchanges have stopped running?
What the Loop finds
What it means
What changes
Introductions arrive, few become reviews
The partner is introducing the wrong buyers, or too early
Sharpen "when to introduce us" on the one-pager
A partner introduces nobody
No exchange, or no reason to remember Kestrel
Send them something useful; if nothing changes in two reviews, end it
Portfolio introductions stall at procurement
The framework is missing or unclear
Fix the framework before the next introduction
Investors start finding Kestrel without a partner
The channel is building Known
Keep it; it's working beyond the introductions
What Kestrel's first year would look for. One strategic partner with a signed framework and two portfolio reviews by the end of the year; two referral partners introducing at least once a quarter; a place on the government panel. Small numbers, but each one reaches buyers Kestrel's other builds can't.
Shapes by business type
Business type
Typical mode
The partners that usually matter most
B2B professional services
Committee or owner-led
Investors' operating teams, advisers and lenders, accountants, associations, panels
B2B software
Committee
Resellers and integrators, technology alliances and their marketplaces, consultancies that implement
Considered consumer (finance, health, education)
Considered personal
Brokers and advisers, comparison sites, employers and professional bodies
Ecommerce
Quick choice or habitual
Retailers and marketplaces, affiliates (disclosed), complementary brands
Local services
Owner-led or considered personal
Trades and suppliers who refer, estate agents, local business groups
Marketplaces
Varies on each side
Platforms and tools sellers already use, communities on each side
Feeling a bit overwhelmed?
You should be, a little. One firm: six partner groups, about a dozen relationships, each with an exchange both sides can name, a one-pager, an introduction note, an agreement, a log in both directions and a review twice a year, plus a portfolio framework so introductions don't die in procurement. Most firms call everyone they've ever had lunch with a partner, and wonder why nobody introduces them.
RocMode does part of the heavy lifting:
A channel training kit, if you sell through partners. When your sales motion is partner-led, RocMode's sales kit includes a channel training kit, built from your strategy and the claims it can back up.
Who you win, and where they ask. Your choosers and their moments, mapped from what's known about your brand, so you can see which buyers you'll only reach through someone else.
