How to train your team on product knowledge

When it comes down to it, your team's knowledge of your products and services has the ability to make or break customer relationships. A business team that has knowledge of both changing market conditions and its own products and services gives customers a sense of trustworthiness and competence. It will convert your customer's perception of your business into positive reality.

If you train your people to become fully conversant with your products and services, they’ll naturally want to share these benefits with your customers, giving you an edge in building positive customer relationships. Training up a knowledgeable team for both sales and customer service will provide

• more customer trust on a personal level

• confident employees who feel ready to tackle problems without referring to a higher authority

• quick resolution of customer issues and complaints

• greater sales conversions and repeat business

• glowing customer reviews when a team member has been most helpful

Many successful businesses have made thorough product knowledge an integral part of their brand and culture because of these benefits. It pays you to recruit staff who have a natural service inclination and then train them into your culture.

Do you want to build product knowledge across your teams and departments? Here are some ideas the from The Business Minder notebook that will ensure your team members are delivering consistent product knowledge and service to your customers.

Recruit for attitude

The success of your training doesn’t just rely on your teaching methods. It also hinges on the inherent attitudes and values of your staff. You can hire nice people and teach them to sell, but you can’t hire sales people and teach them to be nice. It pays to put attitude over aptitude when recruiting new people. It would be nice to have someone who has both, but if you had to choose, always go with the attitude. It will be much easier to train a positive person who’s open to learning and who shares your values than it is to modify someone’s default attitude and disposition.

Consistent Training

All team members should take the same training. This way, everyone will be working from the same knowledge base and the team will work collectively. Product knowledge training needs to be consistent, engaging and customised. There is no point in rehashing the same material twice or giving unnecessary information to staff who don't need it. Once initial training has been completed your employees can be tested using fresh new content that is tailored later on to fit particular job roles. Staff schedules and the cost of including staff not scheduled when training occurs will mean that its more helpful to have training that is modular and can fit into 1 hour segments.

Create a mix of training opportunities

One of the fastest ways to improve employee knowledge is to allow employees lots of opportunities to become familiar with the products and services. The best way to make learning “stick” is through the use of varied training materials and methods.

One format may not be enough to answer the everyone's needs. To ensure that your employees can hold onto what’s being taught, use two or more learning methods to train them. For example, you can verbally teach your staff about company policies, and reinforce the information through handouts or videos so employees can refresh their memories when they need to. If you are training your staff on how to use software such as your POS or inventory system, it’s best to demonstrate the programs in person and then refer them to cue cards or videos that they can come back to.

Feedback

Holding workshops to expose employees to new products or offering employee discounts on the items you sell will help employees gain exposure to the products they work with. Be sure to get feedback from your team on the products they use, such as their favourites and least favourites, as well as feedback on what can be improved.

Practice with Role Play

Role playing can be your number one key ingredient to help bring your training to life and it will be the very thing that encourages fluency - a sign that the knowledge has been internalised and understood. Put a bunch of “What Would You Do?” scenarios into a hat and give everyone a chance to get up and act out the perfect sale.

Use role play to encourage your employees to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise on the spot by getting other members of staff to pose as customers. Don't play as any old customers either, but educated customers that ask challenging, intelligent questions. This type of training is invaluable for helping your team to use their product knowledge in simulated real word situations.

Flexibility

Think about how you train your team on your rules and guidelines. While these are necessary to keep employees in line and ensure consistency in procedures, there may be some areas in your business that don’t require rigid rules. In some cases, it may actually be more beneficial to empower employees to use their judgment and be creative.

Take your training out of the business

Give your people a change of scenery every once in a while by offering opportunities for field trips, which take training out of the usual environment. Send your team to trade fairs, conventions, or anywhere else where they’ll be able to network and pick up some valuable market knowledge. Many trade events involve a series of seminars from manufacturer reps, where your team can get hands on experience with new ideas and the chance to ask questions directly at the source.

A lack of proper product knowledge can have disastrous consequences for both customer relationships and your business reputation. These ideas should start you well on your way to building a team that has thorough, useful product knowledge. The Business Minder is a business consulting and management service operating in SE Asia with clients in Bali, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.