When you hire someone to join the team, make sure you train them comprehensively in the products or services you are selling.
As customers, we expect staff to be able to answer our questions on a particular product or service – after all they are the ones trying to sell it to us.
But too often, we hear the words: “I’m sorry I don’t know.” Sometimes, that spells the end of the conversation, because if they can’t answer the question a potential customer will simply find someone else down the road who can. Sometimes, the staff member will offer to find out, which is commendable, but with appropriate training, the sales people should know the answer themselves.
To be successful in business you must have a team who has excellent product knowledge. There’s no point in you, the owner, holding all the knowledge because you cannot be everywhere at once. The business needs to be able to stand alone when you are not available – you may just be on the phone but you’re still not available – and that means all your staff, whether temporary, casual, part-time or full-time, need to be as knowledgeable as you are.
You need to think about: holidays (your own and those of your staff), sick days, long service leave, training days and succession, so that on any particular day the business can still present excellent product knowledge.
Think too about what is happening in your industry, what the key players are doing and be alert to industry trends and fashions. It is important to keep abreast with developments in the business environment and make sure you update staff regularly. The more informed they are, the more knowledge they have to help sell your products.
An important characteristic of a well-run business is that product knowledge is a shared resource amongst the staff, not jealously guarded by the owner or one key employee.
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