Step Up Results

Create Curiosity

How do you get customer’s attention and make them think?

Making prospects and customers curious about your product or service is a highly effective way to engage them in a productive conversation. This is just simple logic based on recent research (2002): People who become engaged in curiosity-based thinking want to hear more about the solutions you provide, while those who are not engaged in such thinking won’t.

Curiosity is created when the customer recognizes he has a knowledge gap that could have unfortunate consequences for him. When the gap is manageable or marginal, the customer is more comfortable initiating action to close the gap. On the other hand, if the gap is too small, then the customer is unimpressed.

The question is, “How do you pique someone’s curiosity?” Simple. Ask him an intriguing question related to something personal, something he seeks to gain.

• Did you know that the bottles your entire industry uses could be causing cancer?
• Did you see the Wall Street Journal report on small business failures?
• Two questions: how many competitors do you believe you have? And, how much money would it take to buy them all out?
• What have you learned about franchise start-up costs?

The key is, make the knowledge gap moderate and relevant.

What strategies or techniques can you add to improve the curiosity factor?