Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. Generally, the described techniques provide for efficiently identifying a receive beam for performing a listen before talk (LBT) procedure in an attempt to gain access to a transmission opportunity (TxOP) in a shared radio frequency spectrum. In particular, a wireless device may select a receive beam that corresponds to one or more transmit beams to be used in a TxOP to perform an LBT procedure in an attempt to gain access to the TxOP. In one example, the wireless device may select a receive beam for performing an LBT procedure based on the energy of each of the transmit beams to be used in a TxOP. In another example, the wireless device may select a receive beam for performing an LBT procedure if the receive beam is quasi co-located with each of the transmit beams to be used in a TxOP.