Product knowledge is essential to your success

The depth of your product knowledge is essential to your success. It is also a reflection on and of the company you are representing. You should be able to comfortably articulate what your product does, how it benefits its users, and at the very least, its basic specifications. Every sales rep that I have ever trained or mentored knew that there were certain expectation levels they needed to meet or exceed. High up on the list is the ability to be conversant about the products they sell and the company they represent.

A variety of upcoming articles will use the following story to illustrate a number of elements crucial to success. Indeed, an entire workshop will be built around it.

A year ago, I was looking to buy a car. What I wanted was a fuel-efficient vehicle that would be fun to drive and had creature comforts like air conditioning and power windows. I walked into a car dealership and had a look around the showroom. A pleasant salesman who we will call Steve approached me. What follows is as close to the conversation as I can recount. I wish I had recorded it.

Steve: “Great looking car eh! Shiny isn’t she!”

Me: “It sure is. What kind of mileage does it get?”

Steve: “Well like most of these cars, it gets better mileage on the highway. Do you do mostly highway driving?”

Me: “I do a mix of highway and city driving. How many miles per gallon does this vehicle get in either category?”

Steve: Obviously guessing “Well somewhere between 28 and 40.”

Me: “I see. Does it have power windows and air conditioning?”

Steve: “Great question! Let’s have a peek.” Steve opens the door, hops in and quickly identifies power windows. “Yep, she’s got power windows”.

Me: “Air conditioning?”

Steve: “Oh right!” Steve looks at the dash, points at a button and says .. “I think this icon here means air conditioning .. yea .. it does.”

Me: “Umm, what’s under the hood?”

Steve: “An engine!” he laughs then says “Dyawana see it?” and opens the hood.

Me: “Sure. Looks like a nice engine. Does it have 4 or 6 cylinders?”

Steve: “One sec” Steve walks away and gets Bob. “Hey Bob, this fella wants to know how many cylinders this car has!”

Bob: “No idea…sorry.”

Steve: “One sec…I’ll get a brochure.” A few minutes later “Typical! We are all out of brochures but I will go get a service guy. They are bound to know!”

Me: “Actually, its ok, I have to run now. I only had a few minutes. Thanks for your time though.”

I did not use this example to pick on car salespeople. The sad truth is I encounter a similar experience in many of the shops I walk into these days. Lumberyards, electronics stores, grocery shops, computer stores…the list goes on and on. Businesses staffed by employees that don’t seem to have a clue about the product they are selling even to the extent of not knowing where something is located in their store. I am happy to report that I occasionally have the opposite experience. What is distressing is that I had to use the word ‘occasionally’.

There is so much that can be learned from this story. As this article is about product knowledge, we’ll stick to that theme.

Engender your clients confidence

Being conversant about what you sell engenders your client’s confidence in you. I won’t make many guarantees at this site but I can assure you that if your client does not have confidence in you, you won’t sell a thing.

Put your company in a good light

As I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, your knowledge is a reflection on your company. It is also a reflection of your company. The question that leapt to mind while talking to Steve was; why did the dealership allow a salesperson like this on the floor? It speaks volumes to their lack of investment in staff training. Bob’s input of “No idea…sorry” didn’t help matters either. Neither gentlemen nor the dealership put themselves in a good light.

Differentiate yourself

Your knowledge and your ability to communicate that knowledge differentiate you from your competitors. It is a tactical advantage. At the next dealership I walked into, a professional young man who knew his product inside out greeted me. He was well versed on the industry, the competition and intimately familiar with the dealership including all of their value added services. You can imagine the enormous advantage he has over Steve. He cast his dealership in a very bright light.

Build self-confidence

A large measure of self-confidence is based on personal knowledge. Competent public speakers know this and rely heavily on it. They are comfortable speaking to an audience because they have a deep understanding of the subject matter.

Tone down the jargon

When speaking with your clients, please, tone down the jargon. Don’t expect your clients to know all the buzz words. Use simple words and avoid acronyms. For example, avoid this: “We use a SCSI drive backplane architecture with RAID level 5 to provide your enterprise with systems that are fault tolerant thus providing built in redundancies to ensure the availability of your mission critical applications twenty four seven.” Please, find a simpler way to say that. Don’t go too far to the left though. “Dude, our storage solutions really rock” is not a great choice either!

Enthusiasm is infectious

Be passionate. Be enthusiastic. If you can’t get excited about what you are selling, then I contend that you are in the wrong business. Enthusiasm is infectious. We all know people who are up, happy and eager to talk about what they know. We gravitate towards those people. If someone had bothered to train Steve, this part would have been easy for him. For all his lack of knowledge and polish, Steve was enthusiastic. He really did like that car.

I don’t know, but I’ll find out

Remember, as knowledgeable as you might become, there will always be more to learn. Inevitably, someone will ask you a question you simply can’t answer. Saying I don’t know is totally ok. How you say it is what really matters. ‘I don’t know, but I’ll find out’ has worked well for me. When you say it, you are being honest and demonstrating your integrity. Don’t guess! Your clients won’t appreciate that.

If your company won’t take the time to make you more knowledgeable, then you must take the initiative to do so. Use the web, brochures and magazines. Listen carefully to what the experienced reps are saying and how they are saying it. The time you spend learning is an investment that will pay huge dividends. Think of it as a personal commitment to excellence on your part while remembering that it will distinguish you from many of your competitors.

© Gil Namur, 2009