Hiring a candidate for your sales position who has product knowledge seems on the surface to be a smart move. Dont believe it! Product knowledge is highly overrated by most sales manager and has little to do with a representatives ability to close sales. Even though most of the sales training conducted today centers on learning the nuances of an organizations products or services, the emphasis on products knowledge is nothing more than a waste of training time. If you want to hire order takers and not sales professionals, place an emphasis on finding candidates with industry experience and product knowledge

I was sitting in a meeting with a bank president and several vice presidents attempting to sell them on a sales training package for their customer service representatives; when, in answer to one of my questions, the the training manager said that the bank would not even consider my training program unless I had some way of measuring its effectiveness with their CSRs. The day before this sales meeting, The $elling Edge, Inc. had been awarded the distributorship for a unique bank tracking software package, that would effectively measure CSR cross-sales ratios. I knew what the software was supposed to do, but had no way to demonstrate its benefits, because all the sales literature and demo disks were in the mail. Nevertheless, before leaving the meeting that day, the controller of the bank cut a cashiers check for $8795 for the tracking software and the bank committed to one years training for their CSRs and tellers. Knowing how to sell gave my firm our first software package sale. Product Knowledge played no role in the process at all.

Two weeks after joining the sales staff of a large oil and gas tax shelter firm, I was asked to meet my boss at the Merrill Lynch office in Indianapolis to observe my first formal presentation of the tax shelter products. Twenty minutes before the presentation was to begin, I received a call from my boss whose plane had been delayed and was told Ide have to conduct the demonstration to 40 seasoned stock brokers alone. I knew nothing about the oil and gas industry and was scheduled for training about how hydrocarbons were produced the week after the Indiana meetings. I wasnt quite sure how the preference treatment worked in the tax shelters, nor did I understand all the nuances of the products, yet when I finished my presentation, several of the brokers commented that it was the best demonstration they had ever had on the subject. I succeeded with the group because I knew how to sell--not because of a working knowledge of oil and gas tax shelters.

Hire candidates who can sell. It doesnt matter if they know anything about your industry or your products or services. Product knowledge is overrated in the hiring process and selling skills seem to be underrated by many managers today. If your candidates can sell, learning what they need to know about what it is you sell can be accomplished in quickly.

Check out our sales management self-directed learning manual at: http://www.thesellingedge.com/team.htm

Virden Thornton

Serving Discriminating Clients Internationally Since 1983

Virden J. Thornton is the founder of The $elling Edge®, Inc., a training and development firm, specializing in sales, telemarketing, customer relations, and management training, coaching and marketing advisory services. He has trained, coached and advised literally hundreds of clients, including Sears Optical, Eastman Kodak, Northern Uniform Supply, The Texas Independent Banker's Association, Deloitte & Touché, Smith Barney, Jefferson Wells International, The Government of The U. S. Virgin Islands, First National Bank of Arizona, City Laundering, Co. and Wal«Mart to name a few.

Virden is the author of Prospecting: The Key To Sales Success, A Realtor's Success Formula, Organizing For Sales Success, and "best sellers" Building & Closing the Sale, 101 Sales Myths. His audio/video tape series entitled Close That Sale, is based on his 50 Minute Series manual Closing: A Process Not A Problem--published by a division of Thompson Learning. He has also authored a client acclaimed self-directed learning series of sales, coaching, customer service, telemarketing, and personal productivity training manuals, outlined in the Books & Manuals section of this site. Virden has a degree in communications (public address emphasis) from the University of Utah.

As a consultant and trainer, Virden has been retained by dozens of banks, savings and loans, and credit unions to help them move from operational, order taking cultures to proactive sales and cross-selling organizations. He has literally trained thousands of sales representatives and managers in businesses as diverse as distribution, auto sales, printing, eye care, uniform and linen rentals, manufacturing, and many others. Virden also specializes in training, coaching and advising service industry professionals (accountants, attorneys, engineers, architects, financial planners, stockbrokers, etc.) in the fine art of "business development."

Virden has taught small business courses at Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio, a bank sales curriculum at the Center For Professional Development, Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas and a short course on selling at the School Of Entrepreneurship, J. Willard And Alice S. Marriott School off Management at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

Virden and his wife Barbara reside in Avon Lake, Ohio and are the parents of ten children.