By Andrew Sobel and Olivier Jacob
In the 1987 film Wall Street, Charlie Sheen plays an ambitious young stockbroker named Bud Fox. He goes to Gordon Gekko, a prominent financier - played by Michael Douglas - to pitch him stock ideas. Each time, Gekko rebuffs him, telling him that his ideas are not really new or just plain bad. Rejecting his final idea, Gekko says, "Not bad for a math guy, but he's another loser. Come on, tell me something I don't know. It's my birthday, man, surprise me." He's bored.
At this point, in desperation, Bud changes his tactics. He throws out "Bluestar Airlines," adding, "They just got a favorable ruling in a lawsuit. Even the plaintiffs don't know that."
Suddenly, he has Gekko's attention. Gekko went, in an instant, from bored to... curious.
Your most powerful tool in developing clients and business is curiosity.
Executives are assaulted every day by service providers and suppliers who want to sell them something. Psychologically, prospects are leaning back in their chairs with their arms crossed. Like Michael Douglas in the scene with Charlie Sheen, your job is to draw them into a conversation. To make them lean forward in their chair, thinking, "This is interesting. I want to know more."
Curiosity is the desire to know. There are plenty of circumstances in which it can be useful to spark the other person's curiosity - to get them interested in learning more. This includes sales, networking, and yes - romance.
Here are 6 rules to generate curiosity:
- Tell people what they need to know, not everything you know. Keep questions brief. Don't give a ten-minute speech to a prospect when they ask you to describe your company.
- Be seen as someone at the market's crossroads - someone who always has interesting bits of information, insights into what's going on in the world, ideas about the competition, and so on.
- Develop contrarian or unusual perspectives. Be seen as someone who has refreshing points of view.
- Say the unexpected. For example, just when people expect you to brag about your successes, tell them how lucky you are and how ignorance may have actually helped you in your career at a pivotal moment. Surprise them by attributing much of your success to those around you.
- Ask provocative questions. When everyone else is telling your client how to do something, you should ask them how they want to do it.
- Tell people what you do and the results you get, not every detail of how you do it. The former is interesting, the latter can become tedious.
