Product Knowledge: Important or Nah?
Image downloaded from Pixabay.com
Spoiler alert… product knowledge is extremely important in sales and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!
Now, regardless of how important it is, it’s not the ONLY important thing about sales, and product knowledge alone will not be a sustainable sales tactic.
In fact, one of the best salespeople I have ever known does not know about the products they sell on a technical level. They know how the product is used, why the customers need it, and is just a really great networker! But as far as product knowledge, it doesn’t matter to them.
But, what if they’re on to something?
What if customer demand for product knowledge is decreasing as time goes on?
Educated Customers
Think about it this way, regardless of your product or industry, the customer has much more access to product information than they did just a decade ago.
Customers are actually becoming more educated as manufacturers start unlocking more and more of their product documentation and allowing people to download it for free online.
Of course, not everything can be gathered from a product manual, regardless of how well written it is, so a salesperson is still necessary to fill in the gaps in their understanding.
Think about being a car salesperson, right?
A typical car buyer has been in the market for a while, and they have done their research on cars. They know roughly what they’re looking for in a car, and they’re just trying to select the “best” one.
In this case, the salesperson’s responsibility is no longer about rattling off specifications of the car, but about making the customer feel good about a car while they’re still in the building.
The customer is now trying to make an emotional decision. They used their logic when they did their research to narrow down their prospects. Now they’re looking for the “best” one, and that is an emotional decision.
That means the salesperson needs to use empathy, and great conversation skills in order to make the customer feel good about a particular vehicle in their showroom. Product knowledge is actually secondary in a lot of those situations!
What about other larger purchases?
A lot of customers who shop at Best Buy, or other electronics stores, are rather educated in electronics. When someone goes in to make a big purchase on a TV or a sound system, they’ve most likely done their research, and they know what they’re looking for.
In that case, the salesperson’s job is to try and include as many accessories as they can. They are trying to add to the purchase, but also to enhance user experience with the product. Accessories can be surprisingly useful!
That DOES require product knowledge, and it may require quite a bit depending on what they’re actually selling.
But, even in that situation, product knowledge isn’t the most important thing the salesperson needs. They need to be good at up-selling!
Product knowledge can also serve a much more vital role in a sales process!
It Can Build Trust
This is especially true when selling a more technical product, and you have to sell the product to engineers.
Engineers, or other technical minded people, are typically comforted when a salesperson demonstrates a strong technical understanding of the product they’re selling. They are usually wary of salespeople who are always uncertain, or seem to be completely misunderstanding questions due to gaps in their knowledge.
When a customer feels comfortable with a salesperson, that naturally leads to a feeling of trust and therefore the customer will be more apt to purchase from them.
In fact, depending on how complex the product is, a customer may buy from a salesperson solely based on their product knowledge! It does happen, and it has happened with me because I admittedly have a very strong understanding of the products I sell professionally.
Even if you aren’t selling a technical product, your understanding of the product can still help build trust.
Just think about it from the perspective of the customer. Imagine you were a customer, and you had questions about a product that the salesperson didn’t know. They had to keep looking it up somewhere, or asking someone about it.
That makes you think, “I could just do that myself, why are you here?”, right?
You’re not going to trust that person’s opinions on the product or their recommendations. If you don't trust their judgement, then they are serving you absolutely no value.
Not to mention, if a salesperson doesn’t know anything about their product, then it could come across as though they simply don’t care. They don’t care about the product, their job, or the customer. If the salesperson doesn’t care about the customer, why should they care about the salesperson or the product?
Regardless if that is true or not is irrelevant. If the customer feels as though the salesperson doesn’t care, then the salesperson doesn’t care! The customer is always right!
That said, the customer isn’t the only reason to have strong product knowledge.
What about you?
Product Knowledge Can Make You Feel Good!
Maybe it’s because I sell into a very technical industry, or maybe it’s because product knowledge is emphasized in sales so much, but I love to learn as much as I can about products! Being an expert in a product makes me feel good about myself, plain and simple!
However, you’ll typically find that the most confident salespeople out there are the ones who have the best product knowledge. It’s just a fact!
Confident people typically feel really great about themselves, and we’ve all heard “the one about” the confident salesperson, yeah?
Therefore, product knowledge = confidence = improved self-esteem = awesome!
CONCLUSION
Product knowledge is extremely important in sales, but it’s good to keep in mind that it’s not the only thing that makes a good salesperson. This is going to be increasingly true as customers become even more educated, and that is literally right around the corner with the younger generation coming into a lot of industries.
Therefore, being able to sell with empathy, and really connect with customers as human beings, is going to be an invaluable skill to have in sales.
The customer is only getting more educated, and the products are only getting more and more complex. As the need for deeper product knowledge increases, the demand from customers may decrease over time. And that amount of time is getting shorter by the day.
I can promise you that the need to connect with people on a deeper level is only going to become more valuable with time, and you may as well get a head start on everyone else, right?
Send me a message on LinkedIn and we can schedule your FREE Sales Therapy Meeting!
