The Basics of Product Knowledge Training

The quality of a product, combined with its ease of use, has a strong influence on customer satisfaction. Team members being properly trained regarding product knowledge usually takes care of the “ease of use” portion.

Assuming the quality of your product is already in place, your LMS can pay dividends when it comes to product knowledge training. This article will outline what product knowledge training consists of, why it should matter to you, and how to implement it within your organization.

Number One: Product Knowledge Requires A GOOD PRODUCT

Many corporate organizations (especially sales departments) may have overlooked product quality in the past. It wasn’t uncommon to hear a sales rep claim that a strong salesperson makes the numbers for any company, and the interaction with the rep makes the customer experience.

However, the influence of the internet completely shifted this mindset, as most consumers have all of the knowledge in the world at their fingertips. The bottom line is if you want a good reputation, repeat business, and to increase your revenue, you need a good product.

A team of strong sales reps might garner big profits, but only temporarily. After a wave of bad reviews, the house of cards comes tumbling down, and the next thing you know, nobody wants to do business with your organization.

Once you’ve nailed down a quality product or quality line of products, the next important element is compiling a staff that is well-versed in product knowledge. Just as a strong sales rep can’t shoulder a company’s revenue with a weak product, a strong product alone can’t carry an organization’s sales.

Let’s examine why product knowledge is so crucial.

What Makes Product Knowledge So Vital?

The level of your team’s knowledge of the product you offer has a strong influence over the sales numbers of that product. A lack of knowledge regarding a product can lead to poor sales, subpar employee performance, and a low ROI.

Now that you understand why product knowledge is so crucial, you’re probably wondering how this is translated to your team members. What is product knowledge training?

What Is Product Knowledge Training?

Training your workforce to understand your organization’s products or services is product knowledge training. This training also includes their communication skills regarding specific products or services. Do they understand how to engage with clients regarding these products and services? In other words, can they speak the same language as your customer base?

When we say ‘speak the same language’, we don’t mean a literal language. This means essentially understanding how to connect with your client base when it comes to the need for your products or services and how to take advantage of them. A team that understands these elements brings significant advantages to your organization.

The Benefits of Product Knowledge Training

There are several huge benefits of having an efficient product knowledge training program associated with your LMS. These benefits include:

• Higher sales numbers
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Customer loyalty
• Better adoption rates
• Increased trust in your products or services

Developing the right learning strategy and knowing how to deploy it is the most important element of your product knowledge training. You need to understand what your objectives are when it comes to your training program.

Objectives of Product Knowledge Training

What is the end goal of your product knowledge training? You need to outline your objectives, which should usually include the following:

• Helping you train a growing team in a scalable way
• Lowering gaps in information
• Simplifying all of your procedures
• Making knowledge more accessible and learning more user-friendly
• Automating time-consuming workflows
• Making learning and training programs mobile-accessible
• Providing a varied training program by implementing multimodal learning
• Increasing team member engagement
• Measuring the impact of your training by analyzing the right metrics

By now, you might be asking how you develop the right training program for your organization. There are several important things to consider when crafting a product knowledge training program that fits your company.

Asking Questions

Ask yourself the following questions regarding your line of products and customer base:

• Who is my target audience?
• What is expected of team members?
• What are the requirements for my clients?
• What makes my product different from competitors?
• What is my customers’ life cycle like? What does the buying process consist of?
• How do my products work?
• What training methods will be most effective for my team members?
• Are there specific needs my team members require that affect their learning?

Remain Consistent

Consistency is key when it comes to your product knowledge training. Each and every one of your team members should undergo the same training regarding products and services.

Scalability

Your training program should be scalable. If you want your organization to grow, your training program needs to be scalable to accommodate a growing workforce.

Make Simplicity a Priority

Every team member you have will learn in a different way and at a different pace. However, one thing will be true regardless of how your employees’ digest material – complex training is difficult for anyone. Keeping things simple will increase the chances of having a successful training program.

Automation

After you’ve crafted everything in an efficient manner, don’t be afraid to invest in automation. Investing in the right LMS and automation will help you manage your training program in a more efficient manner.

Increasing the access of your training, measuring the right data, and simplifying ways to track results should all become automated over time. Eventually, even the onboarding process should become automated and operate in a timely fashion.

Acquiring and investing in the right LMS platform to build an effective product knowledge training program is money well spent. This will guarantee that all the critical aspects of product knowledge are covered, and all of your team members have access to an effective program.

After all, one of the main goals of deploying the right LMS platform is to give your team members the highest chances of success. When it comes to product knowledge, the right LMS platform and training modules are the best way to ensure the highest odds of becoming successful.