Customer Product Knowledge
Part 1, 7/17/06

Are your techs ready to face informed customers?

By: Matt Michel

Have you ever gone to a computer store with a rather basic question the “salespeople” couldn’t answer? I know I have. It drives me nuts.

Spend a few minutes on Cnet.com reading product reviews and it’s entirely possible that you will know more about a product category than the guy in the store whose entire job consists of helping people buy the products in that category. It’s really pathetic.

The “salesperson” leads you around the store, picking up boxes and reading the specs to you, as though the ability to read is beyond your feeble mental faculty. Like I said, it’s pathetic.

I’d like to say that only happens in the retail environment, but it doesn’t. I’ve known too many so called “sales professionals” who were lazy. They didn’t study their products. They didn’t study their competitors. They depended upon their ability to bluff their way through any situation. They don’t know how much it costs them.

A Willing Buyer & A Lost Sale
A couple of weeks ago, when I was ready to by a PDA, the salesperson assigned to the PDA section of Fry’s was unable to answer the most basic question. This guy didn’t even seem to know the difference between a Palm OS and Windows Mobile Edition. He was trying to bluff his way through, making things up. When he saw he couldn’t bluff, he tried to direct me towards the lowest priced PDAs. Like many salespeople, price was his fallback position. Unfortunately for him, I didn’t want a low end PDA.

Here I was, ready to buy, practically waving money in the salesperson’s face, and he was unable to help me give it to him. He lost the sale. I left to find the answers to my final questions elsewhere.

Now, I didn’t tell him he lost the sale because he was ignorant about the products and tried to lie or bluff his way past his ignorance. I simply said I wanted to look around some more.

The same thing happens with your customers. They don’t tell you when you’ve blown it. No one wants to be rude. Instead, they stall. They tell you they want to think it over. Once you leave, they call your competitor. If he can’t answer the questions, they’ll call someone else until they find someone who appears to be knowledgeable and trustworthy.

The Impact of the Internet
In the past it was easier for salespeople to bluff. The Internet has changed the equation. Consumers are now armed with more information than ever before. Frighteningly, it may not be accurate information.

The educational role of the salesperson is greater now than in the past. Sales professionals must know their products forwards and backwards. They must know their competitors’ products. And, they must study the online and other resources their customers might see.

While you should never assume the customer knows anything, you cannot rule out the possibility they know a great deal. Good sales professionals will ask probing questions to ferret out whether the customer is well informed or not. They will try to identify any pre-conceived notions. They will not bluff.

If you get caught bluffing by a knowledgeable customer, you’ve blown it. The customer sees you as a liar. Anything you say afterwards will be suspect. If they ultimately buy from you, it’s *in spite* of you, not *because* of you.


Source: Comanche Marketing. Reprinted by permission.
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Copyright © 2004 Matt Michel