The fruits of curiosity

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The importance of questions is territory well covered in sales books. But more often, the best conversations and sales “interviews,” are a result of unconsciously curious people.

Think about it. The more interested you are in others: who they are, what’s on their mind, what’s bothering them, what challenges they’re facing, how well things are going, who they do things with, and so on, the more insightful, powerful, and natural questions you will ask.

Of course, you can’t just DECIDE to be curious and expect it to click for you 24/7. But if you weren’t born inquisitive, you can still develop the trait. It’s never too late. It’s just that the developmental version of being inquisitive (as opposed to the natural born version) is harder to come by. You’ve got to do a little each day to open up your curiosity.

I’ve found the best way to train yourself or someone else to do this is by asking “Why…?” and “How…?” questions. Why do we sell this way? Why does ABC Company “need” my product? How are we truly different from our competition? How do I come across to my customers? And the questions should evolve to go well beyond work: Why am I waking up at 6:00 a.m. each day, instead of 5:15 a.m.? Why do I exercise? Why don’t I take a different route to work today?

Asking these questions will help you think about things you generally don’t think about. Things you just do.

And curiosity will help you far beyond asking better questions. It’ll help you use your personal talents and traits more to become more successful overall in your sales career. You’ll be more open to new ways of doing things. New approaches. New applications of your product. New ways of explaining how you do what you do to help people. Re-read the sample questions again. Don’t you agree that forcing yourself to answer some basic questions will allow you re-evaluate your way of doing things? Even your motivation behind doing things?

It’s curiosity that kills red-tape (”Why do we do things this way?”) Curiosity makes people wonder what they’re capable of (”Why do I really want to surpass $1,000,000 in sales this year?”). It helps people break free of old, tired ways of doing business (”Why should this buyer take my call right now?”).

And in a day and age when outside sales professionals are scrutinized (even ridiculed in some cases) for making cold calls, for asking so many questions of buyers, for using flashy Powerpoint presentations, for trying to “close deals,” we owe it to ourselves to be more curious about why we do the things we do. Curiosity spawns creativity and innovation.