Don’t misuse your product knowledge and industry expertise

The whole point for a salesperson to have outstanding product knowledge and industry expertise is for the purpose of asking great questions.  You cannot possibly know what your prospect knows about their business…unless you ask.  Selling is not about persuading people to buy your product or service because of your vast intellectual knowledge.  Optimal selling is about discovering your prospect’s pain and then customizing a solution to resolve their pain.  Product knowledge and industry expertise are tools you can use to discover your prospect’s pain and these tools always take the form of carefully crafted questions.  Enhance your selling skills by building up your product knowledge and industry expertise and then fashioning that knowledge into effective questions.  You will increase business as your prospects are skillfully prompted by your questions to reveal their pain that your solutions can resolve.