How Much Should a Salesperson Know about his/her Product?

Should sales people know the ins and outs of a product? Should he/she be able to quote the dimensions, weight, features, functions, etc?

The answer, as always, is “it depends”.

If you have a well developed sales team, you may have hunters, farmers, and sales engineers. The sales engineers is an interesting creature. It sits between the world of pure revenue responsibility and no revenue responsibility. It helps a salesperson win accounts without seeming “salesy”.

If you have sales engineers, then your pure salesperson does not need to know all the technical specs on a product/service. He/she can concentrate on the value of the product/service, why it is needed, and how it solves problems for the buyer.

Assuming you do not have a sales engineer, your salesperson has to be both the sales engineer and the salesperson. Its tough to find the skillset in people. Bridging worlds is difficult.

Here’s the key, no matter your size: A salesperson must communicate why the buyer should be interested, why the buyer needs to buy, and that the price is lower than the risk. Communicate these and you will be on your way to a sale. Your relationship is the only thing remaining. And that, well that is for another post…