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Product Knowledge
-by Jerry T. Hancock _______________________________________________________________________ Surely you are already convinced about the importance of knowing your product. If you're not, read on. Today's buyer is very sophisticated. He/she has access to reams of information--sometimes more than the salesperson. Typically, today's buyer has already researched the internet as well as trade magazines before even considering a purchase. The implications for that are staggering! This means that now more than ever you have to not only know your product but know the various ways in which it might be used--even unorthodox ways. Regardless of how many products you are responsible for selling, you should sit down and write a two or three sentence description of each one and its main features. Then write a slightly longer paragraph for each product illustrating the benefits it brings to the customer. Of course, you will need much more information than this in order to be successful at selling; however, many sales people can't even pass this basic test. Learning about the product is your responsibility. Finding the time to learn about the product is your responsibility. Likely it will mean you have to do this on your own time. Sales managers and product experts inside the organization will likely be glad to teach you the finer points of the product, but they (rightfully) will likely resist educating you from the ground up. Within your first few days on the job, you should master all of the brochures and product description information, the website content, and the technical specs for the most popular products. If this seems like a tall order, it is. But think of it this way: would you want to risk missing a sale with a valid prospect because you appeared unprepared or lacking product knowledge? I could recite numerous stories in which rookie salespeople have called on me in person to sell a product. My elementary questions caused them a great deal of embarrassment when they realized how little they knew about their own product. There is no short cut--learn your product! While you're at it, learn your industry as well. (You may reprint this article or distribute it at will as long as it includes the following Copyright notice.) Copyright 2005 Jerry T. Hancock and sellingcoach.netTM
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