Zero-click does not mean zero influence. It means the influence happens somewhere you cannot tag, so the strategy has to change from capturing sessions to shaping the shortlist.
Optimise for the shortlist, not the visit
In B2B, a model answer usually produces a shorter list of vendors and a tighter set of evaluation criteria. Work backwards from that: define the criteria you want to be judged on, then publish the evidence that makes those criteria obvious.
- Publish pricing and packaging so cost is not an unanswerable question.
- Write honest alternative pages for competitors — models retrieve them.
- Make migration complexity explicit; it is the most common objection in comparisons.
- Keep documentation and changelogs crawlable so product facts stay current.
Instrument the invisible
Combine a self-reported attribution question on demo forms with referrer analysis and prompt-panel tracking. None of the three is complete alone, but together they show whether answer engine work is moving pipeline rather than vanity citations.
Give the model something to quote
Statistically meaningful benchmark data is the highest-leverage B2B asset. It gives analysts, journalists and models the same quotable sentence, which is exactly the corroboration that turns a mention into a recommendation.