Know Your Product
Sometimes we get so caught up in sale strategies and closing techniques, that we lose sight of the simple things. There are so many aspects of sales that we can’t control; therefore, we need to make sure that we control what we are able to. One of the things that we have the most control over, is knowing what we are selling inside and out. A true sales professional must know not only what their product can do, but also what it can’t do. A sales professional will also make every effort to know everything that has been promised with the product that he/she is selling. Those things can include but are not limited to, service agreements, warranties, maintain agreements and common problems.
A friend of mind had an extremely frustrating experience with a computer company recently and it all stemmed from a lack of product knowledge. All she wanted was a simple database upgrade for her home computer. She called customer service and explained what her needs were and they told her what she would need and instructed her to call customer support and they would help her. Customer support then told her that everything the customer service department had told her was wrong and that she would have to spend a fair amount of money to accomplish her goal and that technical support would be able to best meet her needs. Well, needless to say, technical support gave her a completely different answer from the first two departments.
She spent an inexcusable amount of time on the phone trying to get some sort of consensus on what she needed for a simple database upgrade. She was willing to spend the money if that’s what it took, which it did, but was very unhappy with the service she received. She, of course, had every right to be unhappy. They may have sold a database upgrade that day but the odds are slim that my friend will buy anything else from this company. So even though the product may have been a great one, it doesn’t matter if no one knows how to service the customers who buy it.
Don’t lose sales or customers over something that you have control over. In this age of constant technology advances in everything, product knowledge is vital. Be sure that you are the one who knows your product better than the next salesperson and never quit learning about your products and all the services that go along with them.
FINAO - Brad Huisken - President, IAS Training
