‘Knowledge is power’. This saying is more relevant than ever in today’s market. Potential buyers are armed with a lot of research and knowledge before they make a purchase decision. They expect your sales staff to be highly knowledgeable to answer their queries. Thus having the right product knowledge is crucial for your sales team more than ever.

Equipping your sales team with the right knowledge is often a challenge. How much should they know? How can they communicate effectively? What’s the best way to cross-sell? There are many dimensions to look into. In our interaction with hundreds of customers at SmartWinnr, helping them making product knowledge a strategic differentiator, we’ve come across 5 most important aspects:

1. Talk benefits, not features

A golden rule (and I cannot stress on this enough ) is to talk benefits not features. A customer is not really interested in your product features. What they want to know is if your product can solve their problem.So essentially they are looking for the benefits. But benefits flow from features. So your sales team need to have good product knowledge to easily translate features into benefits.

Practical to do : Write down all the features that your product has. Against each feature, write about the Advantage and then, the ultimate benefit. A simple way to reach the benefit is to ask the question continuously, ‘so what?’

2. Respond to difficult customer queries

Every salesperson comes across questions like -“Why should I choose your product over your competitors?” or “What kind of problems can I face in the long run?”. Without in-depth knowledge they might be caught off guard, fumble and get defensive on these questions. This can result in loss of customer faith. Having the right product knowledge might help your sales team rebut these objections effectively.

3. Handle price objections effectively

Price objection is the most common sales hurdle. “Your product is very costly” or ”Why should I pay so much when the other company is offering a similar solution for less?” It’s important that your sales team knows everything about your products/services, company and competitors so that they can use the relevant information to convince your customers. To be able to provide a ‘win-win’ goal is of the utmost importance.

4. Build Trust

Customers usually enter conversations armed with information about your product. Imagine what it says to them if your salesperson contradicts what is in your website and marketing releases. It erodes trust in not only the salesperson, but also in the company as they don’t know who to believe. To avoid this your sales team has to be seen as a dependable sources of information. It will help in establishing a good rapport with the customer, thereby building trust.

5. Create a superior buying experience for your customer

What a customer remembers most after a sale is their experience with the sales team. The first thing your salespeople sell is themselves. Customers come to them with their problem. If your sales team solve their problems, they can form a connection with the customers.

To bring great customer service into every sales deal, reps need to have great product knowledge.A deep knowledge of how your products work and how they help with various problems is what reps need to provide a tailored experience to prospects.

Here’s what you can do to increase product knowledge

• Create a knowledge sharing platform : The more sales teams get to interact the more they learn from each other. This is especially true for new recruits. The knowledge you get from talking to your colleagues is something training sessions just can’t provide. They know exactly what customers are looking for in a product and what the new team members should be focussing on. Not only will creating such a platform increase product knowledge, it will also reduce ramp-up time for new recruits.

• ‘Storify’ product use cases : A good way to retain information is to think of it as a story. Research shows that our brains are hard-wired to seek out a coherent narrative structure in what we hear and tell. This structure helps us absorb the information in a story, and connect it with our own experiences in the world. Using a narrative structure to explain product features and uses results in a higher retention capacity.

• Gamify : Creating a fun atmosphere around learning about your products will reinforce product knowledge without adding to the stress of their everyday jobs. Read “How can we use Gamification to boost Employee Engagement?” to get more details.

• Product training softwares : Consider using product training softwares to promote learning across the sales staff. Through guided self-learning, your organization can maximize sales rep efficiency. Look for a software that comes with analytics functionality and can customize training modules according to the rep’s performance.

• Employ memory exercises : Pop quizzes can be infused into the daily operations on the sales floor. Short bursts of information regarding updates can also be sent to your sales staff. These activities always keep them on their toes when it comes to keeping up with product updates.

A well updated seller will always have a competitive edge. By knowing every detail about their product, they know what makes it stand out. Therefore, organizations need a solution that allows salesteams to fully understand what they are selling.

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Looking for a sales training software that takes your sales training to a whole new level?

Explore SmartWinnr’s Learning and Gamification features. Learn how to run fun and engaging sales training for your team through SmartWinnr.

Curious to learn more about it? Book a demo today!