Hiring a candidate for your sales position who has “product knowledge” seems at first thought to be a smart move. Obviously you can save money on training if your new hire knows your industry. Right? Don’t believe it!

Product knowledge is highly overrated by most sales managers and has little to do with a representative’s ability to close sales. Even though most of the sales training conducted today centers on learning the nuances of an organization’s products or services, the emphasis on product knowledge is nothing more than a waste of training time. If you want to hire “order takers” and not sales professionals, place a major emphasis on finding candidates with industry experience and product knowledge.

Some years ago, I was sitting in a meeting with a bank president and several vice presidents attempting to sell a sales training package for their customer service representatives (CSRs). In an answer to one of my questions, the training manager said that the bank would not even consider my training unless I had some way of measuring its effectiveness with their staff. The day before this meeting, The $elling Edge, Inc. had been awarded the distributorship for a unique bank sales tracking software package, that would effectively measure CSR crosssales ratios. I knew what the software was supposed to do, but had no way to demonstrates benefits, because all of the sales literature and demo disks were in the mail. Nevertheless, before leaving the bank that day, the controller cut a cashier’s check for $8795 for the tracking software and the bank committed to one year’s training for their CSRs and tellers. Knowing how to sell gave my firm our first software package sale and a long term contract. Knowledge about the new software’s features and benefits played no role in the selling process at all.

Even the most complex products or services can be easily learned. Being able to consistently sell them is the hard part. Look for and hire candidates that can sell you on their ability to sell anything and don’t worry about their industry experience or product knowledge. The time and money you save in not having to train a new representative on your industry and your products, or services, could be the most expensive “cost savings” you’ll ever produce, if your new hire can’t sell. Hire people who can sell!

“Hire the best. Pay them fairly. Communicate frequently. Provide challenges and rewards. Believe in them. Get out of their way and they'll knock your socks off.”

Source: Mary Ann Allison link