Listening is learning.

We’ve all heard the adage that we have two ears and one mouth. And we know it refers to the wisdom inherent in listening twice as much as we speak.

This admonition takes on a whole new definition when it’s applied in the business development and bidding context.

Listening is a highly profitable skill. But there are various different types of listening.

For example, there’s surface listening, pretend listening and, worse still, self-listening (where you listen only for the opportunities to break in with your own story).

It is, however, deep, selfless, customer-focused listening that is the modus operandi resulting in the production of winning bid strategy.

This type of listening is characterised by hearing both what is said and what isn’t said, and by seeking clarification. It’s hearing the emotion behind the words, and “walking a mile in the customer’s shoes”.

This brand of listening lets you hear things the competitors don’t hear. It gives you insights you won’t get elsewhere. It provides you with new opportunities to customise or tweak your technology to meet the nuances within user groups’ needs. And it endears you to the customer . . . for whom being attentively and genuinely listened to, is likely a rare compliment.

Listening Precedes the Quality Question

Effective, customer-centric listening fosters the ability to ask quality questions – one of the most powerful tools in your bid strategist’s kit.

In an overarching sense, there are two categories of “quality question”.

One is the planned question, and the other is the question you ask on your feet . . . and both require first-class listening skills.

A planned question is, of course, pre-determined, while the “think on your feet” category of question forms in your mind as you listen intently to the speaker.

To formulate a savvy planned question outline with which to guide a specific customer interaction, first reflect back upon all your past conversations with the client and any other form of interchange that reaped valuable information and insights.

Identify the precise point at which you currently sit in terms of your overall information-gathering activities. This will help you identify the nature of the data you need to complete the picture you’re endeavouring to put together. From that point you can determine the actual questions you need to ask, and how to ask them.

Now to the type of question you ask as the conversation evolves.

Again, the key to asking the highest-value questions is to listen carefully to your conversation partners, being present both to the information they’re imparting and to the emotion behind it.

If you’re “people-smart”, you’ll be able to determine when you should be deepening your understanding by prompting the other party with a question designed to bring forth a fact-based answer – and when you should be aiming to have your customer impart more of his sentiments on the topic in question.

If you can master this distinction, you’ll get inside both the customer’s head and his/her heart.

This will help you appeal to both his/her logic and his/her emotions. And that’s a powerful place to sell from. Why? Because – as individuals, as consumers – we make buying decisions based on logic, and we justify our decisions based on emotion.

And to come full circle back to the importance of listening . . . it’s only when you list with both your head and your heart, that you pick up not only the face-value and logical data you need, but also the all-telling underlying emotion/s.