Why You’re Not Ready to Sell on ChatGPT

I’m consistently surprised by how few clients have even considered the possibility of selling their products or services through ChatGPT.

Most are only just catching up to the idea that their customers are using it to research and compare providers. That alone still feels new. Teams are beginning to ask how they show up, how they influence answers, how they avoid being invisible.

But the next step rarely comes up. Why?

• No clear owner - It cuts across SEO, content, and sales, so no team takes responsibility.

• No familiar metrics - No traffic, no attribution, no dashboard, so it feels invisible to leadership.

• It requires mastering a new channel - New behaviours, new mechanics, and no established playbook.

• It disrupts what already works - Investing here forces uncomfortable questions about paid search, websites, and existing funnels.

So, what happens when that same interface moves from recommendation to transaction?

We are not fully there yet. The merchant infrastructure is early. The rollout is uneven. Most businesses cannot plug in overnight and start generating revenue.

But the direction is clear.

OpenAI has already signalled where this is heading. ChatGPT is evolving from a discovery layer into something closer to a full commercial environment. Consumers are already comfortable asking complex questions, comparing providers, and forming decisions inside a single interface. That behaviour is established. The next logical step is enabling those decisions to convert directly within the interface.

LLM product queries have already been determined as higher intent than conventional search. Soon the journey will compress from intent to purchase in a single thread.

That shift matters, even in its early stages, because by the time it feels “ready,” the rules will already be set. The same pattern played out with search, marketplaces, and social platforms. Early movers shaped visibility. Late adopters optimized within constraints they did not define.

Right now, most companies are still treating ChatGPT as a research tool. Something upstream of the real commercial moment. That framing underestimates what is happening. Once a system both recommends and enables action, it becomes a distribution channel.

There will be no switch from “not a channel” to “now a channel.” There will be a gradual increase in capability, followed by a rapid change in behaviour. By then, preparation will look like hindsight.

So the question now is less “should we sell through ChatGPT today?” For most, the answer is not yet.

The better question is: what would it take to be ready?

That means thinking about how your services are structured, how your offering is described, and how a model would interpret and recommend you. It means considering integrations, data exposure, and how you participate in a system where you do not control the interface.

Most businesses have not started that work…But they will need to.

Because ChatGPT is on a path to becoming a meaningful sales channel. And like every channel before it, the advantage will go to those who prepare before it is fully formed.

The window is open now.