Curiosity

Curiosity

December 14, 2005

Curiosity is defined as: desire to know something:
eagerness to know about something or to get information. So
for you to be curious about what is in that box, you must
have this urge or pull to open it; you must know what's
inside of it.

Now let's transfer this to business. When a person tells
you how fed up he is with his boss and you ask, "What are
you going to do about it?" and that person responds, "I
don't know," your reply back should be, "I may have a
solution." You've just created a moment of curiosity. If
your prospect isn't curious when he gets off the phone with
you, you have nothing.

On the contrary, if you call your friend and ask: "What are
you doing Thursday night?" and he says, "Nothing," good,
the curiosity is there. But if you say something like,
"Great I want to meet you and talk to you," and then when
you meet up you discuss your business, you have changed his
perception from curiosity to feeling tricked. Don't do
that. It makes prospects feel baited and switched rather
than curious.

Let me explain the difference between the two: it's the
difference of being a consultant versus a salesperson.

When you're a consultant, you help solve a problem; you do
this by asking your prospect the right questions to fully
identify what problem he needs solved - before offering the
right solution.

A salesperson knocks on your door and says, "Would you like
to buy a garden hose?" A consultant sees you in your front
yard with a leaky garden hose and says, "You've got a lot
of holes in your garden hose. I can help you with that."
The difference is helping someone versus getting the door
slammed in your face.

Now there is a big mistake that practically everyone makes
when trying to create curiosity - it's creating too much
curiosity that ends up antagonizing the prospect.