Want to Sell More? Get Curious.

If I were to pick one character attribute that's essential to success in B2B sales, it would have to be curiosity. Curiosity is the key to unlocking every door that leads towards consistent sales performance. Consider:

• Relationship Building. People are drawn to those who show true interest in them. Having an abiding fascination in others give you the opportunity to learn new things and make new connections.
• Business Acumen. If you're curious about your own industry and the industries of your prospects, you'll always be learning more, and therefore always increasing your ability to add value.
• Problem Solving. If you're going to delve into customer difficulties, and ask plenty of questions, you'd better have some real curiosity or you'll just be waiting for a chance to sell.
• Developing New Skills. Constantly honing your selling ability requires constant curiosity about what's out there to learn, what would benefit you most, and how you can get the training you need.
• Objection Handling. If you're not curious about the customer's real motives, objections are just obstacles rather than a golden opportunity to learn something more about the customers.
• Contract Negotiating. If you're not curious about the concerns of the other party, you'll immediately find yourself at loggerheads, arguing about issues that aren't really important to either party.
• Lifelong Learning. When you bungle a deal or the customer buys from somebody else, if you're not curious about what that happened, you won't bother to find out, and won't learn from the failure.

Without it, you're just an order taker.

Readers: I challenge you to come up with some other character attribute that's important! I'm pretty convinced about this one.