In my last blog, we had discussed and elaborated on the first essential of selling- “knowing yourself”.
Let us now discuss the second essential of selling:
“Knowing Your Company”.
Successful Salespeople know all about their company. They are aware of their company’s capabilities. They have an understanding of their company’s products, their service offerings, features, advantages, and benefits of their products. This knowledge is essential to present ideas and solutions to customers.
They should have a clear understanding of their company’s “Goal” and “Vision”. Customers do not want to associate with your company just because what your company does. They want to be a part of why your company does it. They want to do business with people who believe what they believe.
This cannot be effectively communicated unless you know your company and its authenticity. Better knowledge of your company will give you confidence and conviction, will make your communication richer, of higher quality and more effective. Once you are able to do that, you’ll attract loyal, belief-driven customers that can build an organization’s future.
Successful Salespeople spend time knowing about their company, their business, and the competitive landscape. If they do not have an understanding of their company’s business, how and where is their company placed against competition in the market, they will always struggle to make sales. They will surely land up in one of the following situations:
- Identifying and Approaching a wrong prospect,
- Approaching prospects that their business can’t legitimately serve or
- They fail to answer their prospect’s queries that allow the prospect to overlook them and go to the competition.
Let us now ask ourselves some questions, intellectual and factual, as to how well do we know our company.
FACTUAL
- Product lines of your company (if the company has more than one product line and you are not a part of others, still you should know about them)
- Organization hierarchy and Organization Chart
- Company Financials (Turnover, Net Revenue, Net Profit, Share Price, etc.)
- Number of employees
- History
- Production Facilities
- Daily Output
- Awards & Accolades
- Certifications & Affiliations
INTELLECTUAL
- Are you aware of your company’s business beyond the features and benefits of your products?
- Do you understand your company’s strategies and how it plans to place itself against the competition?
- What are your company’s
- Goal?
- Values? And
- Mission?
Once the Sales Person has complete details about the company’s history,goodwill and reputation,achievements, objectives and company policies, he qualifies himself to move forward to learn about the 2nd part of the second essential “Knowing your Product”. We would elaborate on this aspect in my next blog, next Tuesday….
Till then Keep Learning….Keep Practicing…
PS: Do let me know what new you learned about your company. Also, share it with all your team members, it will help them all.
