When many types of pelagic sharks stop swimming they die. Swimming to forces water over their gills and provides oxygen for life.
I believe that there is a similar necessity for sales. Since the sales and customer environment is changing so fast, when a sales person stops learning, he or she becomes less effective, and dies as a sales person.
What has curiosity (See my post Curiosity Killed the Cat) got to do with learning? It’s simple. Curiosity is the catalyst for learning. If you aren’t curious or interested, it’s very difficult to learn.
I believe learning is important in sales for two reasons. First to stay current in your own disciplines, both sales skills, and the product/service areas you sell. The second is to learn about your prospect’s business. Are you curious about their business problems? Do you ask yourself how you can help solve them? Can you learn a way to help them? Curiosity is also a catalyst for problem solving.
Can curiosity be measured? Not directly or easily. But we can ask interview questions on learning.
• Give me an example of the last time you learned a new sales skill, or technology.
• Give me an example of when you uncovered a problem your prospect didn’t know they had.
• Give me an example of how you provided a unique solution to a customer problem.
• Give me an example of the last thing you read and how you used it.
• How many good questions did they ask you about your business problems?
And how many of you bothered to look up the word “pelagic”? Is the candidate confident enough to stop you when they don’t understand something?
Keep swimming, and look for others that are curious.
Do Great Things!
Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)
Good questions Lee. Just shared your post with a VP of Sales of $30mm per technology company in Twin Cities.