I can not stress the importance of knowing everything there is to know about whatever product or service you are in business to sell. By becoming an expert in not only your product but your clients business, industry or personal needs you move from being the "sales guy" to someone who is working with the client to find the best solution for them based upon the information you gather and your knowledge of the product and the industry.
Before we dive in here, let me start by saying that I am a manager and sales person by trade and not a professional writer so please don't be alarmed by my obvious inability to effectively and properly communicate through the written word. Ok, with that being said, let's get started.
Without complete and accurate product knowledge you will not be able to properly position a solution that meets your clients needs. As a matter of fact, you could have great difficulty in determining your clients needs in the first place, because as you will learn in a later chapter, many times while gathering information to position the solution by asking the right closed ended, open ended and smarter questions (covered in later chapters) you are mentally building a solution based upon their needs and your knowledge of the products or services that best meet those needs.
Product knowledge is much more than just knowing all of the features, advantages and benefits for your product or service and actually won't do much good unless you completely understand your clients business and business needs. You will also want to become a complete expert in your area.
If you were selling computers, then you would want to know about the latest technology, what technology is in development, what your client needs the computers for, how they will be using them, what software they use and what changes are forthcoming in their needs as well as the industry software applications, etc... With this information you could properly "position" (covered later) the proper solution.
It is critical to not under sell nor over sell your customers. If your customer is buying a computer that will only be used to check their email and to print labels, don't attempt to position a system that is obviously more than they need. At the same time you would not want to under sell a customer who wants to buy a computer with 128 mb of ram and integrated shared video when you know that your client will be using this system to work with Photoshop and because you are an expert in your area, you also know that the current version of Photoshop recommends 320 mb as a minimum and 380 mb recommended. Because you've done your research, you also know that the latest version which will be released in the next few months will require much more.
Further, because you've properly gathered information by asking "smarter questions" (covered later), you know that your customer will be running 3D rendering software which will allow you to position a higher priced system which supports openGL technology. Because you've done your research and have product knowledge as well as related industry knowledge, you are in a better position to "pushback" (covered later) against your customer, using the information you gathered to position your solution
What are your clients future needs?
Are there any big changes on the forefront which would enable you to position a different solution? One that would not only meet their current needs but also allow them to smoothly transition when the new industry changes roll out. Your client will definitely thank you for that one and will absolutely trust you in the future.
Even though my example above was regarding computers, I hope you can see that this would apply to any product or service. Spend the time to know not only everything there is to know about your product or service but also stay abreast of the industry itself by subscribing to any industry related magazines, ezine, etc.. Visit and bookmark all websites you can find relating to the product or service you sell, attend any industry specific trade shows or events.
By becoming an expert you make yourself even more valuable to your customers and will be seen not as a sales person trying to earn a commission by just selling them something but more of a consultant, one who can be trusted to recommend the correct solution and one which they will seek out again in the future.
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