How To Conduct A “Listening Tour”

Have you ever launched a new service, product or pivot to crickets? All that work and then, well nada…

Yep, we’ve been there too, which is why Jonathan and I discuss how to circumvent that—with what I call a listening tour:

Why—and under what circumstances—you might want to consider a listening tour.

How to choose who to interview and increase your chances for getting a yes.

Uncovering specific belief systems and comments that you can incorporate into your sales copy.

The one question that will get your interviewees to go deeper in sharing their experiences.

Why avoiding any sort of persuasion is critical (and how to stay in listening mode).

Quotables

“It’s an ideal gig when you can basically package and sell your expertise.”—RM

“There’s something about writing, actual writing, not typing, that focuses me more on the conversation somehow.”—JS

“My marketing copy came out of the mouths of the women that I interviewed.”—RM

“There’s just something magical about that (gems) unfiltered from the buyers’ side of the table, then seeing what…they really want.”—JS

“You really have to look at this as a listening tour—not a selling tour, not even a warm-up-to-buy tour.”—RM

“Obviously this whole episode is to encourage listeners to do this…but it’s also about how you’re going to communicate the offer in a way that the right people will recognize that it’s for them.”—JS

“I looked at my job (on the listening tour) as “tell me more”. How do you think about that? What made you think that way?”—RM

“You don’t want to be so rigid in your thinking…and then just go out and try and validate that, cause it’ll just turn persuasive and that’ll be gross.”—JS