Last time, I wrote about curiosity as one of the most underrated skills in sales. But it’s not enough to say be curious and expect something to change. Curiosity isn’t just a mindset, it’s a behaviour. And that behaviour shows up in two places: your questions, and your listening.
You can’t be genuinely curious if all you do is ask the standard, surface-level questions. The ones everyone asks. The ones the customer has answered a hundred times before. If you want to understand what’s really going on and uncover the value that’s actually there, you have to go further.
Curious sellers don’t just tick boxes. They explore. They notice something odd, or interesting, or incomplete and they go again.
- “Can I just ask, what’s behind that?”
- “Interesting you said that. Can I dig into it a bit more?”
- “What happens if nothing changes?”
- “Who else sees it this way?”
These aren’t scripted. They’re sparked by real interest. And customers can tell the difference.
But it’s not just about the questions. It’s what you do after you ask them.
Because curiosity lives in the listening. Not the polite nodding kind, or the kind where you’re just waiting for your turn to speak. I mean real listening. The kind where you’re tuned in enough to spot the moment when something doesn’t quite fit. Or when their tone shifts. Or when they say something vague that needs a little more light shining on it.
That’s where the best value conversations happen, right there, in the follow-up. That’s when the customer realises:
You’re not just here to sell me something. You’re here to understand.
And once they feel that, they start sharing the stuff that actually matters.
So I want to leave you with a thought:
Curiosity isn’t a soft skill. It’s a commercial skill.
It drives better conversations. It uncovers more relevant problems. It builds trust. And it gives you everything you need to connect your solution to something the customer actually cares about.
That’s where value lives.