A sales associate will be successful in their efforts if they acquire the knowledge of products offered for sale by the retail firm. Before taking steps to sell the products of vendors, a sales associate needs to have detailed knowledge of the product . To attend to grievances or complaints or clarification sought by the customer, the knowledge of the nature of product is important.
Product characteristics :
(1) Explicit characteristic: The explicit characteristics of a product refers to those characteristics over which there is a common agreement, in both, the existence and attributes of the product.
There are five attributes which require the attention of a sales associate. They are as follows:
(a) Physical configuration: A product is a bundle of physical stuff. Every product has its own shape, size, density, odour, taste, texture, colour, weight and host of other physical attributes. Hence, the sales associate has to acquire knowledge about these areas of a product to influence a customer’s buying behaviour.
(b) Associated service: A sales associate should have knowledge of before and after-sales service. Before-sales services include product demonstration, informing about credit facilities, if available, and after-sales services include delivery, installation, provision of spare parts, repair service, warranties, etc.
(c) Package and brand name: The sales associate has to gain knowledge of packaging or brand name to differentiate with competitors brand or product. This enables to highlight the product features in comparison with other products available in the market.
(d) Product size: A sales associate must have the knowledge of a product’s width, depth and consistency. The width refers to a product lines depth stood for a number of items in every product line and consistency indicates the similarity among the product lines.
(e) Product life cycle: A product’s life cycle includes introduction, growth, maturity and decline. A product can be located at any stage of its existence and hence, the sales associate has to know at which stage of existence the product is. This enables him or her to formulate different strategies for selling goods and services.
(2) Implicit characteristic : It is evident that every person sees a product in a different way and uniformity lacks in their view point. The perception of a person may not match with the perception of another. These points of disagreements are called implicit characteristics.
The implicit characteristics of product are as follows:
(a) Product symbolism: A product is a symbol by virtues of its form, size, colour and function. The significance attributed by individuals vary according to the needs and social interaction. Hence, the sales associate has to study the product in terms of status symbol, economy, performance, etc., in relation to customers’ needs.
(b) Communication media:The sales associate has to determine the consumer’s personal interpretation of the symbols, medicated by his culture groups and group influence and personality. He or she has to study whether the product information is given or hidden. The sales associate also needs to understand and communicate as to what the product is used for, at what rate, made by whom and where it is available.
(c) Product perception: Perception is the physiopsychological process. The sales associate has to understand as to how products are perceived by consumers. These perceptions influence the marketability of a product. Hence, the sales associate has to gather information about the perception of consumers on a product sold by the retailers. This helps to reformulate product policies to suit the product needs of consumers.
(d) Product evaluation: Product evaluation helps the retailer to know the consumer satisfaction over the product used by him or her. Evaluation refers to comparing the efforts involved and rewards received by the consumer thus, every product has both explicit and implicit characteristics which are to be understood by the retailers acquiring knowledge of these characteristics of a product. It helps the retailers to formulate successful product policies.
