Know Your Product

My inspiration for this week’s blog comes from a trip to a plant nursery. Last week during a driving rain storm, I decided I needed to drive an hour each way to go to my favorite nursery to buy some fruit trees. I could have purchased these at a number of local places or I could have purchased them over the web. So why did I drive 2 hours to buy these trees? Well it was because I needed to find someone who could help me make the right decisions as to what type and variety of trees would work best for where I am going to plant them. So I went to this nursery and received a lot of consulting around what I should purchase and how I should plant them, fertilize, and trim them. While the sales person was ok at doing the selling, he was excellent at the consulting. This trip reminded me as to how important it is for a sales person to know their products and services, and to act as a consultant for the customer. It is not enough to just be friendly and ask all the right questions. The customer should look to you the sales person as the expert.

Even though most of the sales training I have delivered over the last 20+ years has been about strategy, politics, pain, value, and so on; product knowledge is also a must to excel in sales. I have always had a strong technical background and a very good knowledge of any product that I have sold. I have always used this as one of my competitive advantages along with the more strategic items like strategy and value propositions. It is true that in many cases the sales person’s product knowledge is not a must but, it sure is an advantage. If you are truly going to be a consultative sales person you have to know everything there is to know about your product. Of course you also have to know about the customers business, industry, and competition. Tactical sales skills are also important but to really be outstanding in sales you have to have three things (Business Knowledge, Sales Knowledge, and Product Knowledge). It really is like a three legged stool. You can sit on the stool if it only has two legs but you have to be extra careful and someone can easily knock you off. Make sure you have all three legs for your selling. Good Selling