Since 2017 we have worked with Microsoft, SAP, Google, Huawei, Crayon, Liquid Telecom, Westcon-Comstor and Adept ICT, in English-speaking markets across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States.
Power Listening is a method we have written down, so we are not guessing. It says exactly where a person is needed in the sales process and where AI can help. It is published in Power Listening: Hear What Machines Miss (Wiley, early 2027). We use it in two places: research with your market, and discovery with each prospect. People do the listening, the thinking and the writing. AI helps with the analysis and the first drafts.
Market listening
What do your buyers value, and where are you meaningfully different?
Market listening is research. We talk to the people who buy what you sell and, where we can, to those who chose someone else. Then we look for the one or two differences that give a buyer a clear reason to choose you.
Buyers choose on differences, not on the long list of things every provider offers. We spell yours out, in the buyer's own words. That becomes your positioning, your messaging and how you go to market.
Then seven steps to one document.
Timing
How long it takes depends on how much you already know. Typically:
These timings are typical, not fixed
Prospect listening
What does this buyer need, and what did they tell you last time?
Prospect listening is discovery, one buyer at a time. Before a sales conversation, we prepare the questions. After it, we analyse the call. Then we write content for that account and build a deck for that stage of the deal. Then we listen again.
Your CRM shows where a deal sits. It does not show what the buyer said. We add that, conversation by conversation, for the account and for each opportunity in it.
01
Listen
Discovery questions prepared for the conversation. Your team runs the call.
02
Analyse
A close reading of what was said, what was left open and what comes next.
03
Respond
Content for the account, a deck for the stage of the deal and, at the end, the closing presentation.
04
Listen again
The next conversation starts from what the last one taught us.
This is what we mean by technology closing partner. We stay with your team through the last step of the deal and help them present what they have learned. The goal is a better chance of closing. We do not promise every deal closes.
How an engagement runs
Start with your positioning, or one live deal.
There is no package to choose. Some clients come to us with a marketing problem: how they should be positioned, how they can stand out from competitors, or how to get the market to notice the value they offer. Others come with a deal they do not want to lose. One usually leads to the other.
01
Where it starts
A conversation about the problem or the deal. We tell you what we would do, what it needs from you and what it costs. If you do not need us, we say so.
02
Who is in the room
Your sales leader and the people working the deal. Your marketing lead when positioning is part of the work. From us, the people who do the listening and write the analysis.
03
What we need from you
Time with the people who sell. Access to their conversations, or good notes of them. Introductions to buyers when we research your market. An honest account of what you have already tried.
04
How it grows
The pace follows your deals. Over time we move from preparing one call to supporting the whole account, and on to the closing presentation. That is how a project becomes a closing-partner relationship.
"Blacfox has been hands-on from the start of the campaign. They also play a vital role in the introduction meetings by being energetic and knowledgeable of the products and services. It has been a pleasure to work with them."
The role of AI
What AI does for us, and what it does not.
AI has changed how your buyers prepare. Before they meet your salesperson, many have already explored the options with an AI and formed a view. Your team now meets a buyer who may know a great deal, and the conversation has to be about that buyer's situation.
AI has also changed what we can do. With its help we can go through every discovery conversation in detail, and our writers can produce content for one account or one deal at a pace that was not possible before. Everything starts from what a real buyer said, and a person writes every piece.
What it does for us
- Reads every transcript closely and consistently.
- Gives our writers a first draft to work from, built on what the buyer said.
- Keeps every conversation in view between meetings.
What it does not do
- Sit in the room.
- Notice hesitation, or the question behind the question.
- Decide what matters, or write the final version. Both stay with people.
In 2026 we surveyed 500 real buyers and tested two AI systems against what they told us. The paper is still under academic review, so we will not claim more than that yet. What we found did not change our view: people still have to do the listening.
Why listening leads
Machines can hear; only people can listen.
What you receive
Questions, analysis and content, made for each deal.
Everything on this list is made for a named account and a specific stage. Nothing is a template.
Before the call
Discovery questions
Prepared for your sales conversations, from what we already know about the buyer.
After each call
Call analysis
What was learned, what is still open and what to raise next.
For the account
Tailored content
Documents, ebooks, white papers and other material, written by a person for that account.
For the stage
A customised deck
A presentation for this buyer and the stage the deal is at.
At the close
The closing presentation
A closing pitch or presentation tailored to that opportunity, prepared with your team.
Plain questions
The questions we get asked first.
How long does it take?
Market listening typically takes about ten weeks for the full framework, four for research only and two for a messaging sprint. Prospect listening runs at the pace of your deals.
How do you work with our sales team?
Alongside them, not instead of them. They run the conversations. We prepare the questions, read each call closely, and write the content and build the decks they use next.
Do we have to start with full market research?
We prefer to. Positioning built on what real buyers said is a stronger base for every deal that follows. We do make exceptions depending on your situation, for example when a deal is live now, or when you already have recent research we can work from.
Do you promise the deal will close?
No. We work to improve the chance of closing, opportunity by opportunity, and we stay with your team through the final presentation. Nobody can honestly promise the outcome of a complex sale.
What if we are not a fit?
We will tell you in the first conversation. If the problem is not one that listening solves, we say so and point you somewhere useful.
Bring us one deal, or one positioning problem.
Tell us where a deal is stuck, or where your positioning is not landing. We will tell you plainly whether we can help.