Feedback is the breakfast of champions they say.

But I've found that some feedback is more important than others. If particular, if you do surveys and get input from potential clients you should pay special attention to a particular type of input.

This is something I heard first from researcher Glenn Livingston many moons ago. It's simple really, but most people don't realise it…

Whenever you do a survey or ask for feedback and ask open questions, pay the most attention to the longest answers.

It makes sense really. If someone invests a significant amount of time to write you a long, detailed answer to a question, then the chances are they really care about the problem or challenge you asked them about. Much more so that someone who just writes a few words.

I had the same thing when I used to do face to face interviews to kick off consulting projects.

Most people would give decent answers to questions. Some people would give more thorough ones. And some people went on and on and on…

I was always frustrated by the folks who wanted to pour out their souls. After all, I had 5 or 6 interviews to do a day and I didn't have the time for each one to drag on.

What I didn't realise at the time was that these were the people I should really be paying attention to.

When I look back now, it's easy to see just how insightful some of them were. They really cared, and they wanted to share what they knew.

Make sure you pay attention to the long answers whenever you get feedback. Don't get frustrated because you'd prefer a quick summary. The long answers are where the gold is hidden.