Selling Skills: Understand the Product

Are you happy with the per­for­mance of your sales team? Do they have a thor­ough under­stand­ing of your prod­ucts and how to present them to cus­tomers in an engag­ing way? In-depth prod­uct knowl­edge is a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of sales success.

Use Prod­uct Knowl­edge to Sim­plify Explanations

Sales­peo­ple may under­stand how a prod­uct works, but they may not know how to explain the prod­uct clearly and suc­cinctly to a prospec­tive buyer.

Think about the last soft­ware demon­stra­tion you viewed.. The sales­per­son has given the pre­sen­ta­tion count­less times, whereas you were see­ing it for the first time. Were you able to fol­low along with every mouse click and screen tran­si­tion? Or did the sales­per­son run through each slide too quickly for you to under­stand how the soft­ware might help you in your busi­ness? Did the sales­per­son use jar­gon? Or were you able to clearly under­stand the product’s fea­tures and the ben­e­fits to you?

Sales­peo­ple need to sim­plify the expla­na­tion. Joe Rawl­in­son, from Return Cus­tomer says, “Use a men­tal anchor that con­nects what you offer to some­thing the cus­tomer already under­stands.” The goal is for the cus­tomer to be able to visu­al­ize what the end result will look like. No surprises.

Key Take­away: The eas­ier it is for a buyer to under­stand what the prod­uct does, how it relates to them, and how they would ben­e­fit from using it, the eas­ier it is to close the sale.

Use Prod­uct Knowl­edge to Gain Con­fi­dent Customers

Cus­tomers expect sales rep­re­sen­ta­tives to be knowl­edge­able. When sales­peo­ple are knowl­edge­able, cus­tomers have con­fi­dence in the com­pany, the prod­uct, and their buy­ing expe­ri­ence. If a sales­per­son hes­i­tates or doesn’t have clear answers to sim­ple ques­tions, cus­tomers begin to ques­tion their pur­chase decision.

Key Take­away: The more con­fi­dent sales rep­re­sen­ta­tives are in their pre­sen­ta­tions, the more con­fi­dent the prospect and the more likely the sale.

Use Prod­uct Knowl­edge to Put the Cus­tomer at Ease

When poten­tial cus­tomers call, will they receive a clear expla­na­tion of the prod­uct and the pur­chase process? Or will be they be over­whelmed with terms and con­cepts they don’t understand?

One of the first times I walked into Star­bucks, I ordered a medium cof­fee. The barista replied, “We have Tall, Grande, or Venti.” Rather annoyed, I said, “Whichever one’s the medium size.” She retorted with, “Well dif­fer­ent peo­ple have dif­fer­ent def­i­n­i­tions of what medium means to them.” My ini­tial annoy­ance quickly turned to extreme irritation.

Imag­ine how cus­tomers feel when they don’t under­stand the salesperson’s jar­gon. Few peo­ple will ask the sales­per­son to explain. Instead, they’ll put off the pur­chase deci­sion or pur­chase some­place else.

Key Take­away: Put the cus­tomer at ease by giv­ing easy-to-understand prod­uct infor­ma­tion. The less acces­si­ble the infor­ma­tion is to the cus­tomer, the less likely the sale.

How do you know if your sales staff is per­form­ing? Lis­ten to calls, give out quizzes, be a secret shop­per. From there you will find out what kind of job aids and train­ing the sales staff may need. Develop prod­uct train­ing that sticks. If the train­ing depart­ment is over­whelmed, a num­ber of com­pa­nies offer cus­tom train­ing tai­lored specif­i­cally to the needs of your team.

Stay Tuned: This post is the first in a series of three on help­ing reps close more sales.