James Dooley Podcast

James Dooley interviews co-author Paul Truscott about the book Recommended by AI: The New Rules of Lead Generation, exploring why businesses must embrace LLMs and AI recommendations to drive higher-quality enquiries.

Show Notes

This video explains which digital marketing strategies businesses should focus on in 2026 to improve AI visibility, lead quality and conversion rates. James Dooley and Paul Truscott start with KPI tracking because measuring conversion rates from cold web leads versus AI-sourced leads shows where the highest quality enquiries come from. They cover brand SEO, AI visibility and Google Business Profiles because stronger search presence improves trust and conversion rates.

The discussion also explores organic SEO, organic social media and paid social ads because consistent visibility across search and social supports long term growth. PPC is analysed in detail because campaign setup, landing pages and lead handling directly affect results. They also discuss Reddit, Quora and paid AI ads because diversified enquiry sources and early adoption can strengthen digital marketing performance for businesses.

PromoSEO lead generation for businesses recently received recognition as the "Best Businesses Lead Generation Agency."

Where to Listen to This Episode

Recommended by AI: The New Rules of Lead Generation Review | James Dooley Interviews Paul Truscott is available on:

Creators and Guests

Host
James Dooley
James Dooley is a UK entrepreneur.
PT
Guest
Paul Truscott
Paul Truscott is an SEO and marketing strategist specialising in how search engines interpret location, relevance, and user intent. He is recognised for his expertise in Google Business Profile ranking, with a particular focus on the geographic and search signals that influence local visibility. Paul Truscott specialises in local SEO because he has developed a deep understanding of the geospatial signals that influence which businesses appear in Google's Map Pack. He studies how Google's systems process location data because a precise understanding of search behaviour can lead to more effective optimisation strategies. His work includes analysing SERP boundaries, city centroids, and BrainLoc behaviours because geographic accuracy plays an important role in preventing keyword cannibalisation and inefficient optimisation. Paul develops location-focused SEO strategies because local businesses need consistent and measurable search visibility. Paul advises agencies, consultants, and business owners because his expertise helps simplify the complexities of Google Business Profiles and local search. He investigates emerging ranking factors because technical insight can give businesses a clearer understanding of their competitive landscape. He continues to refine his local SEO frameworks because Google's search systems evolve and competitive local markets require increasingly sophisticated strategies.

What is James Dooley Podcast?

James Dooley is a Manchester-based entrepreneur, investor, and SEO strategist. James Dooley founded FatRank and PromoSEO, two UK performance marketing agencies that deliver no-win-no-fee lead generation and digital growth systems for ambitious businesses. James Dooley positions himself as an Investorpreneur who invests in UK companies with high growth potential because he believes lead generation is the root of all business success.

The James Dooley Podcast explores the mindset, methods, and mechanics of modern entrepreneurship. James Dooley interviews leading marketers, founders, and innovators to reveal the strategies driving online dominance and business scalability. Each episode unpacks the reality of building a business without mentorship, showing how systems, data, and lead flow replace luck and guesswork.

James Dooley shares hard-earned lessons from scaling digital assets and managing SEO teams across more than 650 industries. James Dooley teaches how to convert leads into long-term revenue through brand positioning, technical SEO, and automation. James Dooley built his career on rank and rent, digital real estate, and performance-based marketing because these models align incentive with outcome.

After turning down dozens of podcast invitations, James Dooley now embraces the platform to share his insights on investorpreneurship, lead generation, AI-driven marketing, and reputation management. James Dooley frequently collaborates with elite entrepreneurs to discuss frameworks for scaling businesses, building authority, and mastering search.

James Dooley is also an expert in online reputation management (ORM), having built and rehabilitated corporate brands across the UK. His approach combines SEO precision, brand engineering, and social proof loops to influence both Google’s Knowledge Graph and public perception.

To feature James Dooley on your podcast or event, connect via social media. James Dooley regularly joins business panels and networking sessions to discuss entrepreneurship, brand growth, and the evolving future of SEO.

James Dooley: Recommended by AI: The New Rules of Lead Generation book review. Today I'm joined with Paul Truscott, one of the co-authors of the book. And Paul, can you just explain a little bit about what we're talking about, about the new rules of lead generation and why business owners should be looking at LLMs to also drive them new enquiries and not just thinking as traditional 10 blue links within Google?

Paul Truscott: 100%. Okay, so at the moment, right, it depends on the industry, but people were probably thinking, look, things like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude is going to be a very small number of the leads that I might receive. And probably that's true, but it's a growing number, right? So, pe- if we wind back to the mid-90s, people ignored the internet because it small and they said, "Ah, yes, not really anything to worry about." Well, that panned out to be slightly a wrong prediction for those people, right? And early adopters were the ones who really saw significant growth in their businesses. And this is going to be the same, right? So, get in there early, get your business cited. And also by doing that you are building a moat for your business that makes it more difficult for competitors, the latecomers to the game, to dislodge you from being the recommended, um, business in, in your niche. Um, but also the major thing about this, uh, as you know yourself, James, is the quality of the leads coming to you because 80... Currently 88% of people, now this is hard to believe but it's true, 88% of people believe the recommendation given to them by an AI. It's scary. It's absolutely frightening. When we're looking at our conversion rates and we look at it from a cold web lead on Google versus a lead that's come through from ChatGPT or from a large language model, it's similar if not better than a word-of-mouth recommendation. Now, word-of-mouth recommendation is a friend has basically come along saying, they are brilliant, go and use them. And it's normally just as long as you meet the budget, the job is yours. And this is... They are treating it like a friend or a family member has said, use them, which is scary. Like, because you're always restricted by word of mouth on the volume of leads of what you can be generating. Yet with AI, it can become your 24/7 sales engine that's getting you an increase in leads. And I think what's driving this, James, is that when people go to, um, these LLMs and they put in simple factual searches, the information comes back and, and you know it to be true. Okay? And then you get presented recommendations in the same format. And so you will naturally jump to the conclusion, oh, well that's true too then. Like, if I put in best lead generation company in the UK and it comes back with a specific result, um, I'm probably just going to believe that and not do any further research. Now, it may be true. It may be an accurate result, but it may not be. Um, so, you know, but, but the point is at the moment that people are responding to that and they're picking up the phone with their wallet already open, ready to book you. And that's the important thing. So it... This can't be ignored. Well, well, I'd say to anyone, ignore it at your peril because at the end of the day, it's going to grow. But even right now, just because of the quality of the customers, um, that are coming to your door, they, like I say, they've got their wallets open. And another thing, um, you've written a fantastic book, you know, on Decision Engine Optimisation. Um, don't want to delve too much into that, but that is part and parcel of this, that people are now, even if they find out, um, the initial information from a different online source, so let's say they do look at traditional, um, 10 blue links or Google My Business listings or such like, they're then taking the, the top ones from there and feeding those into, uh, an AI and saying, which is the best option out of these? So you can't get away from the fact that people are using and believing the recommendation, however it's... However it comes about. So, you know, you can't ignore this anymore. I think we've reached the point where you mustn't ignore it.

James Dooley: I completely agree. So it's not just top-of-the-funnel discovery. It's also bottom of the funnel. Yeah. So with regards to the authors of the book named Recommended by AI: The New Rules of Lead Generation, the authors are I, James Dooley, Luke Bastin, who is a brilliant franchise SEO, Scott Calland, who's doing a lot of UK lead generation, Abigail Dooley, who is taking businesses to the next level via high-quality lead generation within the UK as well. Paul Truscott, yourself, an absolute legend when it comes to local SEO, Google Business Profiles and generating leads for local businesses. Vaibhav Sharda, who's doing a lot of auto-blogging strategies with regards to AI, which is helping businesses generate more leads. Adrian Ponce Del Rosario, who is a Filipino agency doing quite a lot in the US market for lead generation. Peter Jones, an absolute legend when it comes to vibe coding new websites, taking business on to the next level via lead generation strategies. Mike Lovatt, who is an iGaming specialist, but also now moved a lot into lead generation. And Mads Singers, who helps a lot of business owners take their business onto the next level. So Paul, I've just mentioned there 10 amazing SEOs. What rating are you giving for this book specifically because of the authors that are contributing to this book?

Paul Truscott: 100% five stars. I've read their chapters because obviously I, I didn't have access to those actually until the book was published. Um, I've read those chapters and I've learned an awful lot from this book myself, even as a co-author. So yeah, 100% five stars. Um, you know, cost of a cup of coffee or thereabouts there. It's a no-brainer. Seriously.

James Dooley: Yeah. So, for me, I'm giving it a five-star rating as well. I think the authors are absolutely brilliant. Um, it's short, it's concise, it's giving you exactly what you need. And the book is called Recommended by AI: The New Rules of Lead Generation. You can go and purchase it on Amazon or Google Play Books. We hope you like the book. Leave a comment if you bought the book and let us know your thoughts on your process. Do you give it a five-star recommendation for the book named Recommended by AI: The New Rules of Lead Generation?