Reading Time: 4 minutes Most sales training programmes treat curiosity like a soft skill – a nice-to-have, good for rapport-building or probing for pain. It’s rarely seen as strategic. It’s often relegated to the warm-up act: ask a few open questions, nod thoughtfully, then get to the real business of presenting, demoing, and closing. But that framing misses the point. In a selling environment where buyers are better informed, more sceptical, and more overwhelmed than ever, curiosity isn’t just polite – it’s powerful. Because curiosity doesn’t just make you more engaging. It makes you more dangerous – in the best way. It enables you to learn faster, adapt smarter, and get under the surface of problems your competitors are too busy pitching to even notice. In an age of templated outreach and AI-generated talk tracks, genuine curiosity is both rare and unmistakable. It can’t be automated. It can’t be faked. And when it’s real, buyers can feel it. Curiosity changes the shape of the conversation The average sales interaction is a thinly veiled monologue. A rep has a point they’re trying to reach – a feature, a slide, a price – and everything else is preamble. But a curious seller doesn’t just ask questions. They listen for something that surprises them. They allow the conversation to zig when it was meant to zag. They hear the buyer say something that doesn’t quite fit the narrative and they pull on the thread. That thread is often where the value is hiding. Research backs this up. In a 2021 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers found that people who asked more follow-up questions – not just surface-level queries, but real, responsive ones – were consistently rated as more likeable and more competent in conversations. Buyers, in other words, don’t just notice curiosity – they respond to it. Because buyers don’t always understand their own problem. Or they do – but they’ve learned to describe it in ways that feel safe, expected, budget-justifiable. A curious rep isn’t just qualifying. They’re discovering. Curiosity signals competence We don’t often talk about this – but the questions you ask do as much to build trust as the insights you share. Lazy questions (“What keeps you up at night?”) scream template. Transactional ones (“How many seats?”) can come off like a waiter asking how you’d like your eggs. But a sharp, curious question – one that cuts through the noise and gets the buyer thinking – can instantly shift the dynamic. It signals that you understand nuance. It shows you’ve done the thinking. And it makes people feel seen. Psychologist Todd Kashdan, one of the leading researchers on curiosity, argues that it plays a vital role in forming deeper, more meaningful relationships – professional ones included. His research shows that curiosity is strongly correlated with better interpersonal outcomes, not just because it makes people feel good, but because it drives relevance in the conversation. Reps who are curious are better at adapting – and relevance, in sales, is everything. Buyers are tired of being pitched at. But they still like to be intrigued. Curiosity builds better strategy, not just better rapport There’s a commercial upside, too. Curious sellers don’t just understand the stated problem – they uncover the adjacent ones. They find the blockers no one mentioned. They notice that the person who said “We’re not interested” doesn’t actually own the decision. They pick up patterns. They hear the things that aren’t said. Over time, this shapes a more accurate forecast, a clearer path to value, and a stronger internal case. In complex B2B sales, where 6 to 10 stakeholders are now involved in a typical deal (Gartner), the ability to connect the dots between multiple perspectives is essential. Curiosity is what allows reps to stop asking, “Who’s the decision-maker?” and start asking, “In my experience, buying has become more of a team sport – just out of interest, for a decision like this, who would that team be?” It’s less about hierarchy and more about dynamics. Less about who’s in charge and more about how things actually move. In this context, curiosity isn’t just a mindset. It’s intelligence gathering. It’s risk management. It’s pipeline hygiene. In short: it sells. When curiosity meets insight Curiosity opens the door, but insight invites the buyer to think differently once they’re inside. When a seller combines real curiosity with personal experience, industry pattern recognition, or a well-placed story, something shifts. The conversation stops being a diagnostic and becomes a dialogue. You’re no longer just learning about their world – you’re helping them see it in new ways. This is where credibility is earned. A curious question shows you care. A pointed observation shows you know. And when the two meet – when curiosity is met with grounded expertise – buyers don’t just engage. They start to recalibrate. They rethink assumptions. They bring you into earlier conversations. And they begin to treat you not as a rep chasing a deal, but as a thinking partner solving a problem. But here’s the trick: you can’t fake it Buyers know when they’re being walked through a pre-approved list of discovery questions. They know when the rep’s just waiting for the right cue to drop a pitch. Curiosity isn’t a tactic. It’s a posture. It requires the humility to not have all the answers. The presence to stay with the messy part of the conversation. The confidence to ask the question no one else has. And, more importantly, to mean it. Because real curiosity shows. It shows in your tone. In your pauses. In your follow-ups. It shows in whether you’re genuinely trying to learn something, or just going through the motions to hit a qualification box. And it’s surprisingly rare. The pressure to perform – to look polished, to stay in control, to always be moving the deal forward – can crush curiosity before it has a chance to breathe. But buyers don’t need another perfectly-rehearsed expert. They need someone who’s paying attention. Someone who’s interested, not just interesting. The irony is, when you stop trying to come across as credible and start becoming genuinely curious, you often become more credible than ever. Because curiosity suggests confidence. It says, I don’t need to pretend I know everything – I’m here to learn, to understand, and to help. And that – in a sales landscape increasingly defined by noise – might be your sharpest edge. Aaron Evans 15 April 2025 Share : URL has been copied successfully!