Session Description

A customer in one of your territories just asked ChatGPT where to buy what your brand sells. Did your location show up? Increasingly, the answer is no. AI Overviews, zero-click search, and LLM-driven recommendations are intercepting high-intent local searches before customers ever see your franchisees’ listings, quietly driving up the cost of every lead across your system, and the locations with thin digital footprints are invisible exactly where buying decisions now happen. 

In this session, Ford Saeks, author of Accelerate: The Ultimate Guide for Franchisees to Maximize Local Marketing and Boost Sales, breaks down how AI has rewritten the rules of local marketing and how to get every location in your network found, chosen, and recommended. You’ll walk away with a practical playbook for auditing digital presence system-wide, spotting the locations most at risk, and equipping franchisees to put AI to work as their invisible coworker: quietly handling the review responses, local content, and follow-up that build visibility, while their people stay in the loop for the moments that create customer experience and trust. Whether you lead a franchise system or supply the brands that do, this is where local visibility is won because when AI decides who gets recommended, credibility and consistency are the new rankings. 

Speaker

Ford Saeks has redefined the formula for business success. His efforts have helped companies generate a total of over a billion dollars in sales worldwide. From start-ups to Fortune 500’s, Saeks is widely recognized as a Business Growth Innovator. With over 20 years’ experience (ranging from retail to wholesale), he has founded over ten companies, authored four books, awarded three U.S. patents, and received numerous industry awards. Tenacity and innovation are what fuel this revenue-generating powerhouse. From grassroots to Google, Ford provides his clients with fresh perspectives and doable tactics to resolve marketing, operations, and growth challenges. As President and CEO of Prime Concepts Group, Inc., an integrated marketing services firm, Ford specializes in helping businesses attract loyal and repeat customers, monetize social media, and ignite creativity.