Insatiably Curious

by Jeff Goldberg

Insatiable curiosity is a characteristic that the best salespeople have in common. The most important part of the sales process is the questioning phase, so you either have to be curious or act like you are.

The more you know about your client’s world, the more likely it is that you’ll be able to help them. If you don’t find out who they are and what they need, it’s unlikely you’ll sell them anything.

Great salespeople are genuinely and insatiably curious about everything having to do with their prospects. They ask lots of questions, over time, about their personal lives (to establish rapport), their business, how they do what they do, what they want to accomplish, and more to help them to develop a relationship and uncover what makes sense to the prospect.

If the key to selling is asking the right questions, and plenty of them, then the key to being a better question-asker is to make it more conversational.

Nobody likes to be interrogated. It brings pictures to mind of movies where detectives have hot, blinding lights shining directly in the face of their prisoner as they hammer the prisoner with question after question. The prisoner has a sweat-covered face and a wild look in their eyes. Not a pretty picture and certainly not the way to gather useful information from your prospects.

A very simple method for turning what could easily be seen as an interrogation into a conversation is using what I call "softeners." A softener is a word or phrase that comes before your question, and softens it. I'm just curious, would you like an example? Hey, I just used a softener! In the preceding sentence, "I'm just curious," softens the question, "Would you like an example?"

You'll also want to be sure you're prepared to ask questions when you go on a sales call. Once you're sitting across from your prospect, it's too late to prepare. You're already "on stage" and need to be completely focused on your interaction. Before you go on a sales call, you should stop and ask yourself, "What information do I need to gather today in order to consider this a successful meeting? What questions will I need to ask in order to get that information?" Amateurs "wing it" but professionals plan in advance.

The fact is, if you ask the right questions, then SHUT UP AND LISTEN, your prospects will tell you everything you need to know in order to help them get involved with your product or service (Sell them).

Practice being more curious. Ask friends and associates lots of “why” questions. Try to get enough information to figure out what “makes them tick.” If you can do it with friends and associates, you can do it with prospects and customers.

Jeff Goldberg & Associates
http://www.jgsalespro.com/
blog: http://jgsalespro.blogspot.com/