SOAR Selling: How To Get Through to Almost Anyone—the Proven Method for Reaching Decision Makers

CHAPTER 4PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE

How Much Do You Need to Know Before Dialing?

First, the good news. When a new salesperson begins at an organization, most of the training is devoted to acquiring product knowledge. Rightly so; product knowledge should take first priority because it is critically important. Now, the not-so-good news: product knowledge by itself isn’t the complete formula for sales success. Much more is involved, including selling mechanics and mindset.

Here’s one example of why product knowledge alone isn’t sufficient to do the job. When we started in the commercial real estate business, we were sent to San Francisco for one week of training. Although we spent plenty of time in training, because we’d just started, we didn’t really know ...