Hey Deegs -- actually, I'd spin this a different way. It's not knowing the value/features of the product as much as it is knowing how to probe the customer. What you have here is not a lack of knowledge; rather I would venture a guess that it's lack of probing skills to uncover customer needs and then link those needs directly to a product.

"Effective salespeople will be ruthless in their pursuit to uncover or create an awareness of problems clients weren't even aware they had. They will think far ahead of their clients, not just along with them." (Tim Connor - Soft Sell, The New Art of Selling)

That's actually an angle that we put a lot of effort looking into. We found that our staff is uncovering the customers needs but when they find out the need they don't know what to do with it. In other words, they know the need but they don't know which product satisfies that need.

Curious... How do they know what to probe for if they don't know the products? The point Mr. Connor makes is that the effective salesperson is uncovering needs that specifically can be met by the products/services being offered. If I know I'm trying to sell you a watch, I'm not going to probe about your documentation needs.

Point being -- you can cover the ongoing knowledge building of the products within the context of on-going practice with probing and matching customer needs to products. They'll remember the products so much better if they're actually practicing their jobs while learning about them and how they best benefit the customer.

Thanks for the thought-provoking discussion. I agree with others that your best goal isn't increased product knowledge but increased sales.

If it's clear that salespeople aren't able to match customers' needs to the appropriate products, maybe that's the skill you need to focus on.

For example, an online scenario could present various customers and challenge the learner to uncover the customer's needs and identify the best product.

While you would also need to cover the product features, this wouldn't be the main focus of the material. That's because your goal isn't for the learners to know the features but to apply this knowledge.

You could create scenarios in a simple tool if it allows branching. However, an argument could easily be made for covering product features online and doing the sales training face-to-face, since that would be far more realistic.

Thank you for the comments Fanatic and Cathy. All of these different perspectives are a big help.

I completely agree that matching the product to the customers needs has to be the focus of whatever solution we come up with.

Cathy, I love the idea of the online scenario. We are doing something very similar. We presented this problem to the vendors of our products because they regularly visit our stores and train the sales staff on their products. So we obviously needed to bring them in on this.

In response they have developed eLearning courses very similar to what you have described that we are accessing through their LMS. We are still in the testing stages but I think this is one solution that is going to work well.

In addition to this the vendors will be facilitating an ILT class for our regional sales managers and training managers. This class will focus on coaching our sales staff on matching a product feature to a customer need.

After this ILT class has been completed, regional sales managers will be coaching the staff during their regular store visits. We feel that in person role playing will be a very important follow up to the eLearning course.

Prior to beginning this initiative we will be establishing a baseline of knowledge through an online assesment. We will also be conducting a post assesment to evaluate if their has been an increase in knowledge. I am unsure of how long to wait before conducting the post work assesment. It will take approx 3 months to implement the eLearning initiative and for the regional sales managers to effectively coach the staff in their region.

Sorry for the long post. I've been getting such great feedback so I thought I would lay it all out there and let it be critiqued. Thanks.