1. This topic is for the professional who wants to be different from others and stand out in his/her approach.

2. Everyone likes to talk to sales people who know their stuff and also who know the market.

3. Great sales people know how to keep themselves updated to the latest conditions.

Irrespective of the product you have to deal with knowing the competition is key and studying the market is a daily routine for great salesmen.

• • “Nobody is perfect”, this statement defines the product knowledge in depth as it will be futile to comprehend your product as the best.
  • And also incorrect to assume that your product does not have any shortcomings.

Question Yourself ?

• • Have you been to sales shop where a salesman is not aware of the details of his products.
    • In such a shop would you be willing to purchase ?
    • In such a shop would you be willing to invest your time ?
    • In such a shop would be willing to listen ?

Example of the situation

• • Imagine a salesman who does not know what he is selling.
  • Even worse imagine a salesman who does not know what is the benefit of his product.
  • Further to this is a salesman who does not know what is the benefit of his product for a particular customer.

Author Suggests

• • Ability to sell a product arises from the knowledge about the product and the belief in its ability or use.
  • Without product knowledge any customer facing salesman would not be able to convince the customer.

Words of wisdom

• • A great man once said “before pointing any fingers on others you must look within yourself and know who you are”.
  • If you do not know you capabilities and are trying to convince others of it your words may fall short of praise.
  • A great salesman is the one who understand well the benefits of his product and also remembers the shortcomings.
  • He is then able to pitch the best features and balance out the shortcomings too.

Author suggests

• • You should be considered an authority on your subject, if people are to take you seriously.
  • You should know the intricacy of the product and its details to the best possible extent in-order to sell effectively
  • The more you know your product the better you can curtail the discussion with a customer to accurate facts.

Words of wisdom

• • The most critical item that you must also work towards is to know the Benefits of the product that you want to sell.
  • Knowing the features is just not enough.
  • Knowing how it work is also not enough.
  • You need to know and talk about how the product is going to actually benefits the customer.

Example of the situation

• • Salesmen of a phone tells you that, the new phone he wants you to buy has a option to have 802.11 a/b connectivity.
  • This is a feature that just came with this phone.
  • Instead he could have said that this phone will allow you to connect various wireless devices with ease, especially when you travel and don’t know the capability of the hotspot you need to join.
  • Bottom-line, Sell the benefits not the features.