You will be able to take useful notes during a meeting while staying engaged with the buyer.
There are two ways notes go wrong in a meeting. Some sellers take none, trusting their memory, and by the time they write the summary that evening they have lost the exact words the buyer used and half the numbers. Others take so many that they spend the meeting typing, eyes on the laptop, while the buyer talks to the top of their head and eventually starts giving shorter answers.
Good notes sit between those two. They capture what you need for the summary and the proposal, in the buyer's words, while you stay in the conversation. This lesson shows you how.
Ask permission to take notes, and say why. "Do you mind if I take a few notes as we go? I don't want to miss anything." Almost everyone says yes.
The request does more than it seems. It tells the buyer that what they say matters enough to write down. It explains in advance why you will sometimes look down. And it makes the notebook or laptop part of the agreed meeting rather than a barrier.
Paper is often easier on the relationship than a laptop, because it does not sit between you like a screen. If you do use a laptop or tablet, say what you are doing: "I'm just typing that number in." If you would like to record the meeting instead of or as well as taking notes, ask separately and clearly, and respect the answer. Some buyers will be fine with notes and not with a recording.
Write the buyer's exact words for problems and goals, not your interpretation of them.
The buyer says, "Month end is a nightmare, I'm up till two in the morning." Your interpretation might be "inefficient reconciliation process." That is accurate, and useless for what comes next. When you write the summary in lesson 7.1, Write the discovery summary the buyer signs off, the buyer needs to recognise their own situation, and "up till two in the morning" does that in a way "inefficient reconciliation" never will. Sales foundations lesson 3.3, Summarise back what you heard, made the same point about spoken summaries.
You do not need everything word for word. Write the exact words for three things: the problem, its impact, and what the buyer wants instead. Put them in quotation marks so you know later which words were theirs. Numbers, names and dates also go down exactly.
The signals from lesson 6.1, Hear what the buyer does not say, belong in your notes too. A repeated word with a tally, a skipped topic with a question mark, a pause marked with a small p. These are the things you plan to come back to.
Use a fixed template so your notes land under the same headings every time. A template means you are not deciding where to write things in the middle of a meeting, and it shows you at a glance what you have not covered yet.
A one-page template with six headings works for most discovery meetings: situation, problems, impact, urgency, decision, and next step. The order follows the meeting from lesson 2.2, The question funnel: from wide to specific, and the headings match what your summary and scorecard will need.
Wei Ling's template has those six headings down the left side of an A4 page, with space beside each. In the margin she keeps a narrow column for signals: repeated words, skipped topics, pauses. By the end of a meeting with Daniel, the contractor from lesson 6.1, her impact box has "used most of savings last year, client didn't pay 3 months" and her margin has "steady x3" and "wife's income: 'that's separate' p." The decision box is nearly empty, which tells her what to ask before they finish.
Five minutes before the meeting ends, glance at the template. Any empty box is a question you still need to ask.
Look up between notes. Long silences while you write or type feel like you have stopped listening, and the buyer will often stop talking to wait for you.
A few habits help. Write short: a word or two and a number, then look up. Write while the buyer is still talking about something you already understand, not while they are starting something new. And if you need a moment to write a longer point, say so: "Hang on, I want to get that exactly right," then write, then look up. That turns a gap into a sign of respect.
Do not write during the silences from lesson 6.2, Use silence instead of filling it. That is when the buyer is most likely to add something, and they will add it only if you look ready to hear it.
Within the hour, read through your notes and fill in anything you remember but did not write. Mark anything you are unsure about. This takes five minutes and saves a great deal of guesswork when you write the summary.
Notes in a fixed template are also easy to compare. After a few meetings, look back across them. If the decision box is always the emptiest, you know which part of your discovery needs work.
Before the activity, decide whether you will take notes on paper or on a device, and find a page or a document you can turn into your template.
Set up a one-page note template with headings for situation, problems, impact, urgency, decision and next step, and use it in your next meeting.
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