The life of all professionals revolves around products. Products are the reason why industries function, people work, raw materials get transported, and the economy stays in motion.
So, proper product knowledge is crucial for everyone, from the support staff to the Chief Executive Officer. But, if there is one category of professionals who need knowledge of the product the most, it is customer support agents and sales representatives.
Simply put, having knowledge of the product means your employee is totally aware of the product features and can accurately explain the top benefits to customers whenever needed.
Let’s delve deep to understand product knowledge and the many benefits of product knowledge training.
What is Product Knowledge?
Product knowledge refers to an adept understanding of a company’s products or services. It usually starts with product research and passes through stages like product inquiry, questioning, and convincing.
In the product research stage, the customer care agent researches the product to understand its positioning. During product inquiry, the agent inquires about all facets of the product to understand the product’s value proposition. After understanding the product fully, the agent questions the product’s acceptability and seeks answers from the manufacturer.
Once they are satisfied with the response, they get convinced about the product and are ready to explain their benefits to whoever they interact with.
What is Product Knowledge Training?
Product knowledge training refers to the process of sensitizing employees, including customer care agents and sales representatives, about a company’s products and services. The knowledge of the product helps them develop, market, and sell products efficiently. The training also equips them to follow up with the clients they have recently communicated with.
Product knowledge training may be extensive, covering the whole range of products manufactured/marketed by the company or product-specific. For example, a large IT hardware manufacturing company may have separate departments for handling hardware like desktops, laptops, printers, all-in-one, etc. Employees of a specific department need to master only the product lineup of that department.
Besides customer care agents and sales reps, product knowledge training can also prove beneficial to other departments like marketing, branding, recruitment, production, manufacturing, and the like. Proper knowledge of the product can enable the employees to prioritize the important concepts and streamline customer handling.
Now that you know what product knowledge and product knowledge training means, let’s understand the four top benefits of product knowledge training.
The Top 4 Benefits of Product Knowledge Training in 2022
Boosts Employees’ Confidence Level
Happy and confident employees are a prized asset of any organization. In a survey, almost 98% of workers admitted that their job performance improves when they feel confident. In addition, 96% of workers prefer not leaving a company which empowers them to feel confident. Product knowledge training not only this corporate employee motivation training boost the employee confidence levels but also improves their relationships with customers and co-workers.
One of the greatest benefits of product knowledge is that it helps one to understand key aspects that affects understanding of the employees about the product. It enables one to gauge the strengths, weakness key features as well as vital parameters of a product. An overall product knowledge heightens the confidence of the employees on the product. It makes it easy for them to sell or promote a product on a wider scale.
Moreover, by delivering efficient product knowledge training, you ensure that your frontline employees become well-versed in the key features and benefits of products. Once they feel empowered about the products, they will automatically feel more confident. A confident staff will certainly be staunch advocates of your business.
So, whether yours is an online or offline business, proper product knowledge training is essential to amp up your employees’ morale and scale up their confidence levels.
Improved Negotiation Skills
Negotiation is an art not many can master efficiently. However, negotiation and objection handling skills are absolutely imperative to improve customer relationships without affecting the bottom line.
Generally, customers are concerned about a product’s price and quality. If your employees are not conversant with the product USP (Unique Selling Proposition), they cannot negotiate with the customers. But, if they know the benefits and key features of the product, along with the market situation and competitor’s standing, they can negotiate like professionals.
In this age of cutthroat competition, customers know where they will get the best value for money. If you do not satisfy them with your response, they will most likely move to your competitors.
Hence, product knowledge training is an absolute necessity for creating long-lasting relationships with customers.
Upsell and Cross-Sell Better
Upselling refers to selling more than a customer intends to purchase. The upsell value is usually higher than the customer’s purchase value. Cross-selling refers to selling something related or unrelated to what the customer wants to purchase.
Upselling and cross-selling are necessary for maximizing the performance of your employees and business processes. Upselling alone can increase your revenue between 10% and 30%. Companies that upsell believe it contributes to around 80% of their total revenue. In fact, upselling is 68% more cost-efficient than finding new customers.
Customer care agents and sales reps can upsell and cross-sell better when they know the products inside out. For example, if a customer has called for a computer protection plan, you can upsell them a comprehensive plan after elucidating the benefits. Alternatively, you may cross-sell them a new PC device or external accessories to keep their computer safe.
Hence, high-quality product knowledge training can systematically improve the agents’ knowledge levels and empower them to upsell and cross-sell better.
Offer Better Customer Service
Product knowledge training helps you suit the product to a specific demography. The understanding of demographics is crucial for serving the community better.
A recent survey by Tulip Retail found that 83% of customers believe they are more knowledgeable than sales associates. Also, 79% of people surveyed believe that knowledgeable sales associates are very important. Moreover, 50% of consumers stated that they would prefer shopping in a store if the sales associate keeps track of their previous purchase history.
Hence, product knowledge training is not a luxury anymore; it is an absolute necessity. A sales associate with the right product knowledge and modern sales tools can offer an unparalleled shopping experience to customers.
Conclusion
If the various benefits discussed so far have motivated you to introduce product knowledge training to your employees, we can help you make an even better decision. Kytes offers you an intuitive solution to design and deliver top-class product knowledge training.
No matter which industry you belong to – real estate, travel/airlines, leisure/hospitality, restaurants, publishing, or small/medium businesses – you can design powerful training sessions and deliver them seamlessly.
Kytes enables you to offer a multi-sensory experience by uploading 16 content types and categorizing them into meaningful collections.
So what are you waiting for? Leverage Kytes’s solution to design and deliver the best-quality product knowledge training.
