Curiosity.
What we mean by curiosity.
Depth of discovery. Domain learning. The willingness to sit in the unknown and ask the second question. Curiosity shows up in how a rep researches a prospect, how they sit in silence, and how often they ask "why" instead of "how".
Signals we look for.
Asks the second and third question without prompting.
Surface-level discovery, ticks the box and moves on.
Pitches before understanding the problem.
Strong rep vs weak rep.
"Walk me through what made you pick your current vendor over the alternatives. What changed in your stack that opened that door?"
"So you're looking at our platform for a reason. Let me show you how we compare to vendor X."
An excerpt from a real shortlist.
What this behaviour looks like inside the meritt fit report we send on every Hire with Assessment shortlist.
Strong second-question habit. Sits comfortably in silence, returns to motivations before features. Drops only on technical depth questions.
- Asked "what changed for you in the last 90 days?" three times across the role-play, unprompted
- Paused 4-7 seconds after answers; followed with "tell me more about that"
- Reframed two pricing objections as discovery questions rather than concessions
Curiosity is the most underrated predictor we measure. Reps high on curiosity multi-thread faster, lose less on price, and learn new verticals in weeks not quarters.
Hire on curiosity.
Every shortlist scored against this behaviour, with the evidence behind each call.
Hire with AssessmentBuild your curiosity.
Free coaching to sharpen the behaviour and show it on camera.
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