Flooring Sales Tip: Product Knowledge - When to Use It?

If you are to aspire to the title of “professional salesperson” – and to those earnings — know your products and your services. To help others, there is a technical basis of selling that is important to deliver the information and the product performance your customer needs to complete the buying decision. If the prospective customer needs no further information to buy, then she doesn’t need a salesperson — any order-taker will do. Not having product knowledge (PK) is like being the world’s best salesperson and not being told what you are selling. It’s like a computer without any input. Without product knowledge, a salesperson will sound incompetent at best, and a con artist at worst.

To learn about what you sell, take advantage of as many different resources as you can. Read the mill and yarn manufacturer's product literature.  Read your trade journals and magazines and attend product seminars. Understand your warranties. Ask questions of your learned colleagues. Acquire a working knowledge of interior design. Be able to clarify any details about the features and terminologies that are presented on the face of every sample label. The list goes on. Just as any tradesman knows his trade, you should know yours. This is your livelihood.    

For anyone, but especially for the younger student, never pretend to know something you do not know or completely understand! Do not ‘fake it until you make it.’ Simply say, “I’m not sure let me find out.” Your honesty and thoroughness will be respected. If possible, make a point to find answers on the spot, showing the customer that your organization solves issues quickly. Otherwise, make a point to get back to the customer. A follow-up call with your careful investigation makes a nice touch.

Granted, product knowledge is not the ‘be-all’ of selling. In our business, people do not buy technical knowledge; they buy color and design. She came into your store looking for a beautiful home not a trade fair on flooring. The problem with product knowledge is that as salespeople, once we become very knowledgeable, we have the human tendency to say way too much. Please do not become what I became addicted to earlier in my sales career— turning into a “product knowledge junky.”  

For example, have you ever noticed that many times an inexperienced salesperson will start out-selling others and achieving results right away? Then something changes. The salesperson begins picking up so-called expertise and things start to go south. So, what happened? The answer is they start saying too much and over-complicating matters. They start spewing out random loads of features and benefits that the customer has no interest in. When they did not have all this knowledge, they listened to the needs of the customer and being vaguely familiar with the showroom, found a specific product based on the customer’s request in terms of color, style, quality, and price. The customer said, “I’ll take it,” and everybody was happy. There is a sales saying that stays forever true, ‘less is sometimes more.’

There is no call to use big words or technical jargon. Even the Ph.D. can appreciate plain simple conversation. Remember, your ideas of color, style, and function are your most important messages. Do not trash your ideas by trying to impress your customer with foreign words. However, alluring words which excite and inspire the customer to own your product will build value and dreams. Use a straightforward, simple vocabulary that all will understand and appreciate.  

Further, discussing technical issues before selecting the floor coverings that meet her fashion needs may put you in a corner. For example, you sold her on a certain yarn system, but it is not available in her color or style. So, where does she buy her floor covering? From another store that happens to have her fashion needs in the right color, style, and yarn system that you sold her on. Before you discuss the fabulous features, benefits, and the great price of your “specials” — make sure it belongs in her home.  

Only after carefully understanding the customer’s needs or problems can a salesperson decide which products offer the best solution for the buyer. Let the prospect express her needs first. Consider not only the reasons that prospects should buy but why they should not buy. 

While saying too much can hurt you, PK does many valuable things for the professional salesperson. In general, it produces competence and therefore should be the very first step in preparing yourself as a professional. Specifically, know your pricing, discounts, and sales ads. Know where and what items are on sale in your store. Otherwise, your advertisements and values will seem like a joke to the consumer.

Having product knowledge allows the professional to head off quality and other performance issues that may occur during the sale or after the sale is completed. Product knowledge likewise enables you to speak effectively with other experts within your field and perform any essential tasks needed to execute or complete the transaction. 

Further, an excellent understanding of what you sell, allows you to effectively answer objections by allowing you to generate new information to manage these questions. This added information may also create an ability to offer unknown benefits to your customer, needed benefits they had not thought of that build value to your merchandise. It also increases confidence because you now have the skill to answer objections without feeling stumped. If an objection bewilders you, the customer may perceive this, and you may seem less credible. 

More than ever salespeople need to be proficient in answering questions about performance and technical issues when asked. Today’s consumers have become digitally connected, and they enter your store with questions that are more specific because of their research. Sadly, digital customers may know more about the product than some salespeople.

To be real, there are liability issues to your recommendations as well. This means you may be held liable for your recommendations, not necessarily as an expert, but merely as a person in the normal course and trade of your business. These recommendations may involve various manufacture requirements such as proper adhesives, subfloor types, and preparation of, recognizing moisture problems, etc. You make the wrong recommendation and the courts will side with the consumer every time. As a flooring account representative, I saw it all the time.  

Finally, you need product knowledge because it gives you self-assurance and it is therefore a great builder of and enthusiasm. When used properly, PK builds trust as well. Customers tend to trust those who understand and care about their craft. Further, it spawns a belief in your product that may translate into excitement for your customers.     

Product knowledge creates the opportunity to construct a unique selling proposal that differentiates you from your competition especially when tailored to her design needs. As Socrates said, “Everybody is eloquent enough on what he knows.”

Good selling to you!

Buddy wisdom

[email protected]

Buddy Wisdom has more than 30 years of wholesale and retail experience. He is the author of Selling Retail Floorcovering - A Humanistic Approach. Find out more at www.lulu.com/shop/buddy-wisdom/selling-retail-floorcovering-a-humanistic-appropach-a-complete-10yr -write-over/paperback/product-22165170.html or contact him at [email protected]