How to get stuck in a curiosity cycle

‘How can I become more curious?’

I hear it often from sellers who are trying to break free from overly scripted discovery playbooks.

Anyone can become more curious.

It just takes a little learning.

Curiosity, just like creativity, is fueled by knowledge and understanding.

What that means is the more you learn about a particular subject, the more you discover how much you still have left to know and understand about it.

The difference between what you know about a topic and what you want to understand is called an information gap.

As humans, we generally don’t like information gaps.

I know I don’t.

Our natural human instinct is to try to fill them.

That’s why these information gaps are the fuel for your curiosity.

For instance, if you think your product knowledge is a weakness when you talk with a buyer, then you’ll be motivated to learn more about your product and its use cases.

And, as you learn more, you’ll find yourself wanting to learn and understand even more about your product and how your customers use it to derive value and achieve their objectives.

The same holds true for customer knowledge. You’ll find that the more you know and understand your customer’s business, the better conversations you have with them.

Which makes you want to have even more productive conversations with your buyers.

Which motivates you, in turn, to want to learn even more about their business, their markets, their products and their customers.

You can never know too much about your customers or your products.

Every time you level up your knowledge and understanding on a topic, you’ll spot the next information gap you want to fill.

That’s the self-perpetuating cycle of curiosity you want to get stuck in.

Learn a little more about an important topic.

Spot the information gap.

Then you’ll want to learn a little more.

And then a little more.