The Noise Curve

Written by Don France

Product knowledge is extremely important. Equally important, however, is what people do with their product knowledge. Used at the wrong time, in the wrong way, or at the wrong time, it can become a detriment to making a sale. It's innocent enough. You may say something about an issue that's not directly related to the problem and suddenly everything changes. It's not what you know that's important. It's what you do with what you know.

noise curve.jpg I've found that there are three stages of sales experience -- Novice, Amateur, and Professional. The first stage, Novice, is usually when someone first joins a company and doesn't really know anything, or at least anything specific, about the company's products or services. They're excited about the opportunity and can't wait to start making sales calls. They may even start calling on existing customers and prospective customers alike.

Being a Novice doesn't mean the person is completely inexperienced. It's just that this particular environment is new to them. It's sort of like being a rookie racecar driver at the Indianapolis 500. They may have been racing for 10 or even 15 years but never before at Indianapolis. In 1993, when Nigel Mansell, the Formula One World Champion racing driver at the time, went to Indianapolis for the first time, he was considered a rookie. If this is the driver's first trip to the Indianapolis 500, no matter what their previous racing experience, they're considered a rookie.

Selling is the same way. A person could have prior sales experience, but until they received their product training, they are still considered a novice. That doesn't mean that aren't productive. Have you ever been in an office where some new hire came on board and immediately started making sales? You wonder to yourself, "how come I didn't get that prime territory?" or "I've been calling on that customer for years and they never bought from me!"

What usually happens is that the newly hired sales person doesn't have a lot of information on their new product offering. Instead of going out and doing a lot of presentations, they set up meetings with the decision-makers just to get the ball rolling. Since they don't yet know anything about the product, they start asking questions. Every time the decision-maker stops talking, they simply ask another question. Sometimes, they even take notes.

Because of their lack of specific product knowledge, these new sales people spend about 75% of the time listening and only 25% of their time talking. Most of their talking time is spent asking questions with a little of it spent establishing rapport. They can't get hung up in product information because they don't know anything. They come out of the gate very fast and it appears a new superstar has arrived.

As good as this person was without training, imagine how good they'll be when they get trained. These folks now graduate from being a Novice to becoming an Amateur. Sales people spend a great deal of time and energy learning about their products. They hone their presentation skills. They've worked hard, practiced, and they're proud of their knowledge. They can't wait to get in front of a prospect -- it's so much fun to show people how much we know.

The complexion of a sales call also starts to change at this point. Where the listening ratio as a Novice used to be 75:25, there's a complete reversal following product training. The Amateur now spends 75% of the time talking and only 25% of the time listening. After all, having spent as much time as they did in learning the new information, it's only good if you find someone to tell it to!

Each time a prospective customer asks a question, the Amateur inundates them with all the information they have on the subject. We begin to notice that there are times when a prospective customer sours during the sales cycle. When we first started talking to them, they seemed to be excited about getting the product right away. After we told them all we knew, their enthusiasm waned and they told us they wanted to "think it over."

What happened? Here was someone who was excited about our product from the moment we met them. We gave one of our best sales presentations and answered every question they asked.

Most sales people never get past this point. Once they learned it, they don't change it. You can introduce new products and they still focus on the old ones. They're stuck in the middle at the Amateur Stage. If you ask them how many years experience they have in sales, they will likely tell you some number of years. In reality, they have one year of experience many times! There is a big difference.

Smart companies get their people beyond this point. They get to the Professional stage. It’s more than product training. It includes sales process and skill development to refine and improve what the people do.

The difference is so subtle it's almost impossible to distinguish except for the results. This stage requires the same degree of product training the Amateur received. They go back to asking questions. Instead of the questions being haphazard as they were in the Novice Stage, they now use their product knowledge as the basis for their questions. The Professional spends 25% of their time talking and 75% of the time listening to what the prospective customer is telling them. The Professional does on purpose the same thing the Novice was doing by accident.

The greatness of a sales person is determined by the questions they ask prospective customers… not the statements they make to them! With training in the sales process, product knowledge is used to guide prospective customers to discover the solution to their problems. It's in understanding the prospective customer's problem, not in convincing them that you have the best product. That's the sign of the true Professional.

Don France -
	Don France is the founder of SalesNavigation , a consulting, training, and software firm focused on improving the performance and success of front-line professionals. It is his vision and leadership that has led to the development of the training materials and software tools for sales, customer service, and sales managers. Although Don has worked in a variety of industries, his specialty continues to be computer software and financial services. Read More >>
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