I was a bundle of nerves leading up to my first listening tour calls.

• What if my idea gets trampled?
• What if I’m so far off base with my service hypothesis I have to start over?
• What if this person thinks I’m way out of my league?

Do you see the through-line in those fears?

I was making it all about me.

I don’t love a right/wrong binary, but in this case, I can objectively say my head was in the WRONG place.

A listening tour is not about you, it’s about them.

You selected to talk to these specific people because you believe they might have insights about the problem you’re trying to solve.

As the name of the exercise implies, your main job in the conversations is to LISTEN.

A simple structure:

• First, record the call or invite your AI notetaker
  • This will keep you from focusing on taking notes, and allow you to simply listen
  • You will also rely on their transcribed verbatims for your messaging later
• Thank them for their time, and add a bit of small talk to break the ice
• Remind them you’re not trying to pitch them, and rather the goal is just to get their reaction to an early idea for a consulting service
• Before you say any more, share your screen and ask them to take 1-2 minutes to read the bulleted version of your service hypothesis
• Then ask them:
  • To summarize the service in their own words
  • What’s not immediately clear based on what they read?
  • What more would they want to know?
  • What would bring someone (themselves or someone else) to need this service?
  • What other options would they consider if they wanted to [relieve this pain point]?

Some pointers:

• Present the same service hypothesis on every call
  • What’s unclear to some may be obvious and intuitive to others
• Resist the urge to answer any questions they have immediately
  • Don’t get lost trying to explain your service idea further
  • Stay focused on understanding questions that they have based on what you’ve presented
  • Keep them talking, not you
• Avoid discussing pricing
  • You’re vetting the viability of the solution itself, pricing will come later
  • If they ask directly, just say you haven’t gotten that far yet
• Respect the time you requested and end on time - remember, they’re doing you a favor

Still feeling anxious? Just remember — they should be doing the vast majority of the talking.

And believe me — this is the fun part.

Once you’re done, you’ll likely be energized regardless of the feedback, as you now have real insights from which to refine your service hypothesis.

💡

-Wes