Student

Book
BUSINESS
COLLEGE

Certificate II

Customer engagement

Develop product and

service knowledge for
customer engagement
operation

BSBCUE309
COURSE CODE

BSBCUE309
Develop product and service knowledge for customer
engagement operation

Page |2

Table of Contents
Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... 2
Unit of Competency ........................................................................................................................ 4
Performance Criteria....................................................................................................................... 5
Foundation Skills ............................................................................................................................. 6
Assessment Requirements .............................................................................................................. 7
Housekeeping Items ........................................................................................................................... 8
Objectives ........................................................................................................................................... 8
1. Acquire knowledge of products and services in a specified area ................................................ 9
1.1 Identify information sources on products and services in a specified area and evaluate them
for reliability and validity .................................................................................................................. 10
What is product knowledge? ........................................................................................................ 10
Specified area................................................................................................................................ 11
Look inward: use internal information ......................................................................................... 11
External Information ..................................................................................................................... 12
Danger markers with product knowledge research ..................................................................... 14
Activity 1a...................................................................................................................................... 14
1.2 Identify purpose and use of products and services ................................................................. 15
What are your main reasons for seeking this information? ......................................................... 15
Identify product purpose .............................................................................................................. 15
Review product information that is already in place .................................................................... 17
1.3 Identify and evaluate key features of products and services .................................................. 18
Key Features.................................................................................................................................. 18
Critical Features ............................................................................................................................ 18
Identify benefits relevant to client needs ..................................................................................... 19
Address issues relevant to your client needs................................................................................ 19
The alternative to functional benefits is psychological ................................................................ 20
1.4 Identify and evaluate strengths and weaknesses of products and services ............................ 21
Activity 1b ..................................................................................................................................... 23
1.5 List relevant product and service support details .................................................................... 24
Identify service support details..................................................................................................... 24
About the Australian Consumer Law ............................................................................................ 25
Which goods are covered by guarantee? ..................................................................................... 25
Which goods are not covered? ..................................................................................................... 25

Page |3

Extended warranties ..................................................................................................................... 25

When is a manufacturer responsible? .......................................................................................... 26
Activity 1c ...................................................................................................................................... 27
2. Evaluate full range of products and services in a designated area of business .......................... 28
2.1 Use a range of information sources to identify range of products and services in a designated
area of business ................................................................................................................................ 29
2.2 Compare features, benefits, strengths and weaknesses of range of products and services
available ............................................................................................................................................ 29
2.3 Establish relative standing of organisations products and services with alternatives, to
communicate differences to buyer or user ...................................................................................... 29
A designated area of business ...................................................................................................... 29
Market research ............................................................................................................................ 29
What analysis methods could you use? ........................................................................................ 30
Activity 2a...................................................................................................................................... 32
3. Convert product and service knowledge into benefits ............................................................. 33
3.1 Identify features of products and services with potential buyer or user appeal .................... 34
3.2 Present relevant features of products and services as benefits to stakeholder ..................... 34
3.3 Present benefits of products and services within context of organisational requirements and
legislation .......................................................................................................................................... 34
Some considerations when developing features .......................................................................... 35
What does it mean to sales? ......................................................................................................... 35
Selling a product using features, benefits, and emotions ............................................................ 35
Product and service manuals, labels, instructions ........................................................................ 38
Activity 3a...................................................................................................................................... 39
Skills and Knowledge Activity ........................................................................................................ 39
Major Activity An opportunity to revise the unit ........................................................................... 40
References ........................................................................................................................................ 42

Page |4

Unit of Competency
Application
This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to develop knowledge of products and services
in preparation for customer engagement in an inbound or outbound customer engagement activity.
It applies to individuals who apply a broad range of competencies in a varied work context, using
some discretion and judgement and relevant theoretical knowledge, and who may provide technical
advice and support to a team. This work is undertaken with some supervision and guidance.
No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.
Unit Sector
Stakeholder Relations Customer Engagement

Page |5

Performance Criteria
Element
Elements describe the
essential outcomes.

Performance Criteria
Performance criteria describe the performance needed to
demonstrate achievement of the element.

1. Acquire knowledge of
products and services
in a specified area

1.1 Identify information sources on products and services in a

specified area and evaluate them for reliability and validity
1.2 Identify purpose and use of products and services
1.3 Identify and evaluate key features of products and services
1.4 Identify and evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the
products and services
1.5 List relevant product and service support details

2. Evaluate full range of 2.1 Use a range of information sources to identify range of
products and services
products and services in a designated area of business
in a designated area of 2.2 Compare features, benefits, strengths and weaknesses of
business
range of products and services available
2.3 Establish relative standing of organisations products and
services with alternatives, to communicate differences to
buyer or user
3. Convert product and
service knowledge
into benefits

3.1 Identify features of products and services with potential

buyer or user appeal
3.2 Present relevant features of products and services as
benefits to stakeholder
3.3 Present benefits of products and services within context of
organisational requirements and legislation

Page |6

Foundation Skills
This section describes language, literacy, numeracy and employment skills incorporated in the
performance criteria that are required for competent performance.

Skill

Performance
Criteria

Description

Reading

1.1-1.4, 3.1

Sources and evaluates a range of texts to compare and

contrast product and service information and identify key
details for consumer consideration

Writing

1.1, 1.5, 2.2, 2.3, 3.2,

3.3

Prepares detailed and factual product and service

information to inform job role
Adjusts information to assist sales strategy and consumer
decision-making

Oral
Communication

3.2, 3.3

Selects and uses clear and persuasive language when

conveying information to a specific audience

Numeracy

1.1, 1.4, 3.1

Recognises and extracts numeric data to determine key

information according to internal and stakeholder
requirements

Navigate the
world of work

1.1-1.4, 3.3

Develops product and service knowledge related to role

Recognises and follows explicit and implicit protocols and
legal requirements in relation to marketing products and
services

Get the work

done

1.1-1.4, 2.1-2.3

Uses systematic, analytical processes, setting goals,

gathering relevant information, and identifying and
evaluating options against agreed criteria when acquiring
and evaluating product and service knowledge and
converting it to benefits

3.1-3.3

Page |7

Assessment Requirements
Performance Evidence
Evidence of the ability to:
Use a range of sources to identify key features and benefits of products and services within area
of business
Prepare information for customer engagement in compliance with legal and organisational
requirements
Knowledge Evidence
To complete the unit requirements safely and effectively, the individual must:
Describe features, benefits, strengths and weaknesses of a range products or services available
in the organisation
Outline organisational policies and procedures relevant to customer engagement activities
Identify processes used to describe products or services
Describe ethical principles and key provisions of relevant legislation, codes of practice and
national standards affecting customer engagement operations
Assessment Conditions
Assessment must be conducted in a safe environment where evidence gathered demonstrates
consistent performance of typical activities experienced in the stakeholder relations customer
engagement field of work and include access to:
Relevant legislation, codes of practice and national standards
Information sources about an organisations products, services or ideas
Office equipment and resources
Assessors must satisfy NVR/AQTF assessor requirements.
Links
Companion volumes available from the IBSA website: http://www.ibsa.org.au/companion_volumes
http://www.ibsa.org.au/companion_volumes

Page |8

Housekeeping Items
Your trainer will inform you of the following:
Where the toilets and fire exits are located, what the emergency procedures are
and where the breakout and refreshment areas are.
Any rules, for example asking that all mobile phones are set to silent and of any
security issues they need to know.
What times the breaks will be held and what the smoking policy is.
That this is an interactive course and you should ask questions.
That to get the most out of this workshop, we must all work together, listen to each
other, explore new ideas, and make mistakes. After all, thats how we learn.
Ground rules for participation:
o

Smile

Support and encourage other participants

When someone is talking everyone else is quiet

Be patient with others who may not understand the ideas

Be on time

Focus discussion on the topic

Speak to the trainer if you have any concerns

Objectives
Discover how to build knowledge of products and services in a specified area
Know how to evaluate full range of products and services in an area of business
Learn how to change product and service knowledge into benefits
Gain skills and knowledge required for this unit

Page |9

1. Acquire knowledge of products and services in a specified

area
1.1

Identify information sources on products and services in a specified area and evaluate
them for reliability and validity

1.2

Identify purpose and use of products and services

1.3

Identify and evaluate key features of products and services

1.4

Identify and evaluate strengths and weaknesses of products and services

1.5

List relevant product and service support details

P a g e | 10

1.1 Identify information sources on products and services in a specified

area and evaluate them for reliability and validity
Information sources may include:
Associations
Catalogues
What competitive sales people say
Websites of other businesses who compete with your organisation
Any written information about sales from other competitor companies
External sales data sources, such as warehouse withdrawals
Internal sales data records
Other company employees
Sales conventions This is a large event
with salespeople from across the
company discussing sales strategies.
Often sales teams in different countries
discuss and learn about tactics used in
those different markets.
Team members
Trade association magazines
Trade shows these are events where
different companies in the same industry can show their new products and services
Products and services may include:
Goods
Ideas
Infrastructure
Private and public sets of benefits

What is product knowledge?

Product knowledge means you know a lot about a product/service and its benefits.

P a g e | 11

Specified area
Try to be specific in what you want to research.
Goods

Where do I look? There are thousands of options!

Ideas

Has someone else got the same idea? Copyright issue?

Services

Am I ltrying to improve or make a new service?

All of these products and many more can be researched/ collected from many
different sources
The hard part is finding and using information that is relevant to your product or
service. You also have to make sure the information is reliable or true.

Look inward: use internal information

Your organisation has many records and a lot of important information.
Accounting records are a very important source of internal information.
They have details about all business transactions. A transaction is what a business
buys or sells. The details about business transactions can help you find information
about products.
You can find information from data of customer sales invoices and purchase orders.
Invoices and purchase orders are the records of what a customer buys. These will
give you information about who the customers are and what they buy.
Also, it is likely that the internal accounting system is connected to other places where you can find
data resources.
You can find data on the price of what a business buys and sells, e.g. contracts.
Records can also give you details about products. For example, records can give
information about whether the product meets quality standards. A quality standard
is the minimum level of quality for a product to be considered good.
Data from the production department on products will give you clear information
about products.
Data from activities which involve your customers (social or non-business) will
usually give you details which are hard to find through trade show presentations,
catalogues and trade magazines.
Businesses also give a lot of internal information in an informal way. For example, when staff have
meetings, they will discuss and learn about product information.

P a g e | 12

External Information
Information about the markets in which products and services work.
This kind of information is very important because it helps you find information
about products in a specific area. It also helps you check if the information is
reliable and true.
Marketing research and intelligence are the most common ways to find information
about products. Intelligence means learning about what other organisations do.
Many salespeople, especially new salespeople or salespeople in a new market, do not know how to
find a lot of information about products and services.
You need to know where to find information about products because it helps you and your
organisation say the right thing. It also helps you get the right information. You can then use that
information to make sales and help customers be satisfied.
Salespeople can usually find all the product information they need through these sources:
Marketing intelligence
You can get marketing intelligence from many sources, including suppliers,
customers and distributors.
Market Research
You might need to ask people to do market research, or you might need to do it
yourself to get the information you need. You cannot always trust reports about
market intelligence, because they might be old or not relevant / important.
Website research
There are very many websites where you can research knowledge
of products, services, ideas etc. However, finding the right
information can take a long time because there is so much
information online.
Objectives:
A specified area
Check to see if they are reliable and true.

P a g e | 13

From direct experience

This is not the most common method that people choose when
they are new.
Some organisations give discounts to their staff so that they
can use the products or services. They do this so that the staff
can evaluate the product.
You can learn more about the product or service by going to
the place where the organisation makes it. This way, you can
see how it is made.
For example, if you want to learn more about how shoes are
made, you can visit a factory.
From printed materials
These include catalogues, sales information from your organisations competitors,
trade association magazines, user manuals and other promotional materials.
These papers also give you extra technical information that you might need.
Referencing these types of printed materials will give you information for research
on a certain product compared with the quality of similar ones.
Printed materials are good ways to find information about products that are in
boxes, bottles, or cans. Labels can also give people important information.
Printed materials are very helpful if you are in the food business. They show you a
lot of information about ingredients and nutrition.
From other people
Co-workers
Supervisors
Customers
Friends
Manufacturers
Representatives

P a g e | 14

Danger markers with product knowledge research

Too much information about too many products
Information overload means when you have too much information from many
different sources. It can be a bad thing because there is too much information to
gain or share.
Giving someone a large product manual can be boring and does not help anyone.
Many organisations do not have enough money or time for their employees to go to
industry conferences to get more specific product knowledge.
It is difficult for organisations to have a cost-effective and efficient system to deliver
product knowledge training to their employees regularly.
Many people are not always interested in learning more about products.

Activity 1a

P a g e | 15

1.2 Identify purpose and use of products and services

This will include background, function, purpose and some additional areas which your organisation
will need.

What are your main reasons for looking for this information?
Get better information about what consumers need.
Predict future trends
Reduce the risk of product/business failure
The goal of business is to sell many products and services that
customers want so that your organisation becomes successful.
When you are researching product knowledge, you should always
keep in mind what the product will be used for.

Identify product purpose

Hopefully, this information is easy to find.
A bad organisation will not provide enough information about a product or service, making it a
mystery.
Sometimes this is a good market strategy, for example if you want to build suspense before a
product launch, but your organisation should not do it for every product.
Most products and services that need to connect to customers through sales, the purpose, use,
function and other important information will be clear.
Your Product Or Service
The products strengths and limitations (the capability of the product to deliver benefits to clients)
The products purpose
How the product/service works
How the product is developed / manufactured
How the product is checked for quality
How the product/service is delivered
How the product is maintained and serviced

P a g e | 16

How long the product is likely to last (including any warranties)

How the product compares to similar products/services you may have on offer
How the product/service compares to competitors product/service
Which other products or services might complement this product or service

In preparation for customer engagement does your organisation have a policy or acceptable
practice?
Read your organisations policy or guidelines closely
Check with a manager/supervisor/senior person about the guidelines if any aspect appears
confusing, unclear or vague
When seeking advice, do you write the answers down and create your own mini-guidelines for
personal use especially in terms of clarification?
If you want to deviate from the guidelines or policy, do you seek written approval to do this which
would include the reasons why you want to make the change?

1. Some suppliers may advise you not to recommend a complex product or service to every
customer, as it will not be suitable for every customer.
2. Otherwise, make sure you follow all the rules about product and service recommendation.
3. Do not listen to other employees if they want you to change policy.

4. When someone breaks the rules, HR (Human Resources) should formally evaluate what has
happened, rather than just trust what someone says is true.

P a g e | 17

Review product information that is already in place

Product knowledge or familiarity with your product/service is very important when you recommend
a product/service, but if you know what your organisation needs, this will help you as well.
Check your knowledge
Having accurate and informative product knowledge is essential
Check your knowledge on non-physical features of the product, such as how it feels
when you use the product. For example, how does it feel to sit into a particular
model of car? This information will help you discuss the product and is generally not
something you can learn from a product manual.
Other features include the brand, what its made of and its price.

P a g e | 18

1.3 Identify and evaluate key features of products and services

Features may include:
Brand
Colour
Country of origin
Covenants (a formal closed/
sealed agreement or contract)
Manufacturer
Product care details
Safety aspects
Shelf life
Size
Style
Warnings
Key product characteristics are those that are most likely to change how satisfied customers are.
Critical product characteristics can change customer satisfaction, but also can change safety and the
environment, and more.

Key Features
Key features of a product, process, or service are about its specific functions. They influence a
products performance, service life, and how easy it is to make in a factory.

Critical Features
An important feature or characteristic is any Item, such as dimension, finish, material or assembly,
which if it is unusual, missing or broken may cause the failure or malfunction of a safety Item.
Key features in terms of product knowledge mean the features which you can sell that customers
want. This is important for research. The features which you can sell are called saleable features.
You could prioritise:
If you let customers make their own choice, they will likely rank features as being of
high or low imprtance for themselves. Use this to make a list of priorities. For
example, if customers of your skateboards value reliability more than they value
style, this is important information to know.

P a g e | 19

You could set those parameters as:

High an important requirement that meets operating features as well as saleable
features
Medium supports necessary operations but not as featured as high.
Low a functional or quality feature but not an item I want to purchase now.
Other features:
Value

List all of the features, but dont mix your personal requirements with product
features

Cost

Assess the relative cost benefit that each feature provides

Risk

How do those features fit to your business and overall product knowledge?

Identify benefits relevant to client needs

Functional how the product works
Psychological how the product makes you feel
Knowledge and features are very important, but they do not always address problems which your
client has.
Benefits provide many answers to the clients question what benefits do I get
when I buy this product?
Benefits are the advantages that a products feature can deliver to a specific client.
Maybe the features will attract the first level of interest, and it is likely that the products purpose
and other benefits will teach customers everything they want to know about the product.

Address problems relevant to your client needs

A printer, for example, may include benefits such as:
Unique no paper jam facility
Wireless connection to multiple devices
Auto double-sided print capacity
These examples are often referred to as functional because they result in a benefit the client directly
associates with the product.
Functional benefits are the result of materials, good design and thoughtful
production decisions.
How the product is made can lead to benefits such as the fact that it is more
effective, long-lasting, quick, easy to use and affordable.

P a g e | 20

The alternative to functional benefits is psychological

These benefits represent certain benefits the client may think that they will receive
when using the product. They are usually difficult to measure.
Psychological benefits address needs such as status within a group, such as car
purchases, or risk reduction, a feeling of independence and meeting a need such as
happiness.
These benefits are developed through promotional efforts that target specific
clients or sectors.
Not everyone thinks of psychological benefits in the same way. So, they are very
difficult to generalise.

P a g e | 21

1.4 Identify and evaluate strengths and weaknesses of products and

services
Strengths and weaknesses are two parts of what is called a SWOT analysis. The other two initials
stand for Opportunities and Threats (to your business or a single plan that the business is working
on).
A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project, marketing campaign,
sales plan, business plan and sometimes a single product or service.
The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at Stanford
University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies.
A SWOT analysis or the strategic identification of the findings usually determine
sales or marketing plans that include a variety of products and services.
Individual products and services are then usually evaluated to see if they are suitable to be
included depending on the strategy which was determined by the SWOT analysis.
The first stage of a SWOT analysis is to specify the objective. Doing a SWOT will help
you understand the internal and external factors which in turn help you to assess
your objective.
Setting the final goal of a plan is done after the SWOT analysis has been performed.
This allows achievable goals or objectives to be set for the organisation with a more informed view.

P a g e | 22

Here are some guidelines you can use to do a SWOT analysis of a product
You should determine the best strategies that you can use to answer the four parts of the SWOT
analysis.
You have to identify the strengths and weaknesses by meeting with colleagues or
others who are qualified to talk about the product. Employees who have no
knowledge may have opinions that are not specific enough to help you.
You will usually do this in a brainstorming session or a sand pit meeting format. A
sandpit meeting is an event at which specialists from a wide range of disciplines are
brought together to try to find a balanced solution to a certain problem
You need to focus on the internal characteristics that the product will have on your
organisation and its sales.
Look through the characteristics and traits for success or failure.
The strengths are the good while the weaknesses are the bad.
You should follow the same procedure with the opportunities and threats.
Focus on the outside or external factors for both opportunities and threats.
Always consider the current market environment for opportunities and threats.
You should qualify and review each category of the SWOT analysis.

P a g e | 23

Activity 1b

P a g e | 24

1.5 List relevant product and service support details

Help lines
Technical support
Internal or external support
Guarantees

Identify service support details

Consumers have the right to ask for a repair, replacement or refund if
the goods you sold are:
Faulty this means they are not working properly
Unsafe
Look unacceptable, and
Do not do what they are supposed to do
In each case this is according to what someone would normally expect for the type and cost of the
particular goods. Consumers also have this right if goods you sold them do not:
Fit the purpose you discussed with them
Match what you or the product itself describes.
Match the sample or demonstration model
Have the extra qualities or performance that you promised before the sale
Services
Consumers have the right to ask for a repair, replacement or refund if the services you sold:
Were not delivered completely or with enough care and skill
Did not fit the purpose or give the results that you and the consumer had agreed to
Were not delivered within a reasonable time
These rights arise from the consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law that provide
consumers with a right to seek remedies where there are problems with goods or services.
Your organisation will likely have manufacturers guarantees, warranties like 1 year,
2 years etc. and also offer supporting service arrangements in case the product
stops working or breaks. You should know these exactly and be able to tell
customers what they are. Keep in mind that with retail products, they are generally
part of the advertising.

P a g e | 25

For goods and services which you do not advertise but sell to your customers in a
business environment the guarantees and warranties that your organisation applies
to its products and services are governed by laws as well.

About the Australian Consumer Law

The ACL aims to protect consumers and guarantee fair trading in
Australia. It is a national, state and territory law and from 1
January 2011 it included unfair contract terms legislation
introduced on 1 July 2010.
Under the ACL, consumers have the same protections, and
businesses have the same responsibilities and responsibilities,
across Australia.
As a business, the law requires that you guarantee the quality of the goods and
services you sell.
You automatically provide consumer guarantees when a consumer purchases
something from you.

Which goods are covered by guarantee?

Consumer guarantees cover goods as long as they are sold in trade or commerce and a customer
buys them. The guarantee also covers used goods and leased or hired goods.

Which goods are not covered?

Goods not covered by consumer guarantees include those:
Bought before 1 January 2011
These are covered by statutory conditions and warranties under the Trade Practices Act 1974 and
state and territory legislation since 1 January 2011

Extended warranties
Some suppliers or manufacturers offer extended warranties to add more time to the basic
manufacturers warranty. Usually, consumers can choose to buy an extended warranty after, or at
the time, they buy the goods. Some suppliers or manufacturers also tell the consumer an extended
warranty provides extra protection, which the consumer would not have unless they buy it.
This is not always true. The consumer guarantees provide rights that exist despite anything the
supplier or manufacturer may say or do.

P a g e | 26

Extended warranties are optional

Suppliers and manufacturers must not:
Pressure consumers to buy an extended warranty
Tell a consumer that they must pay for an extended warranty
when it is the same as the normal warranty under a consumer
guarantee.
There are nine guarantees that apply to goods (goods are products and
services of a company):
1. Suppliers and manufacturers guarantee that goods are of acceptable or good
quality when a consumer buys them.
2.

A supplier guarantees that goods will be reasonably fit for any

purpose the consumer or supplier specified

3. Suppliers and manufacturers guarantee that the way they described the goods
(for example, in a catalogue or television commercial) is accurate
4. A supplier guarantees that goods will match and look the same as any sample or
demonstration model and any description that is provided
5. Suppliers and manufacturers guarantee that the goods have extra promises made about
them (express warranties)
6. A supplier guarantees they have the right to sell the goods (clear title), unless they warned
the consumer before the sale that they had limited title
7. A supplier guarantees that no one will try to repossess or take back goods, or prevent the
consumer using the goods, except in certain circumstances or conditions
8. A supplier guarantees that goods are free of any hidden charges and will remain free of
hidden charges, except in certain circumstances or conditions
9. Manufacturers or importers guarantee they will take reasonable steps to provide spare parts

When is a manufacturer responsible?

A manufacturer must give a solution when goods fail to meet the consumer guarantees for:
Acceptable quality
Matching description
Repairs and spare parts
A manufacturer must also keep any extra promise or representation they made about the goods
for example, an express warranty. An express warranty is one that is clearly stated (or "expressed")
either verbally or in writing. The manufacturer must protect a consumers rights under consumer
guarantees, regardless of whether the goods are covered by any other warranty.

P a g e | 27

Activity 1c

P a g e | 28

2. Evaluate full range of products and services in a

designated area of business
2.1

Use a range of information sources to identify range of products and services in a

designated area of business

2.2

Compare features, benefits, strengths and weaknesses of range of products and services
available

2.3

Establish how the organisations products and services compare with alternatives, to
communicate differences to buyer or user

P a g e | 29

2.1 Use a range of information sources to identify range of products and

services in a designated area of business
2.2 Compare features, benefits, strengths and weaknesses of range of
products and services available
2.3 Establish relative standing of organisations products and services with
alternatives, to communicate differences to buyer or user
A chosen area of business
This could be a sector / area of your organisation or a range of products or services.
It could also be a range of products and services that are important to you because
your competitors sell or are planning to sell them.
There are a wide variety of research tools available to do this research.
The most common information sources are:
Direct observation by visiting the competition and
asking questions
Find out what your customers are experiencing
about you and your competition
Research open source market information about
competitors online
Research how your competition is positioning its products in marketing and
advertising, look at their brochures, advertisements, trade shows, and promotions.
Review industry journals, business publications, and databases that present
competitive information.

Market research
If you don't understand your customers needs, especially the critical ones, you cannot understand
your competitors easily.
Conducting frequent market research on your customers and your products position in the market
will show help you understand your industrys competitive forces. This understanding will help you
to formulate your market research questions.
The only reason you might not want to do market research and evaluate your competitors is
because you already have the entire market share.
Very few organisations actually have the entire market share. In this case they
would be a monopoly. A monopoly has all of the market share.
Even if you do have a large share of the available market, there is always potential
to expand and into areas that may be serviced by your competition.
Are you concerned about how stable your strength in the market is?

P a g e | 30

Competitive analysis is not only restricted to you, your competitors are doing it as well.
Your competitor will develop a better understanding of your customers needs
You can also conduct a SWOT analysis of your strengths and weaknesses as they apply to your
competitors products and services!

What analysis methods could you use?

Knowing who your competitors
are and what they are doing.

Always concentrate on your own business but remember that

your competitors are always a threat to your organisation

Competitive strategy and

evaluate the competitor

This question is answered by the results of your customer

satisfaction survey
The survey results will allow you to provide a gap analysis

How is your competition

performing relative to your
assessment or thoughts?

You must understand what the customer is thinking, it is not

enough to improve what YOU think

A detailed competitive analysis

should be part of every
business plan and every
strategic planning process
thereafter

You can use a formal model like Porter's Five Forces model that
looks at the threat of new competitors.
Porter's Five Forces Model: analysing industry structure
An industry is a group of firms that market products which are
very similar to each other (e.g. the car industry, the travel
industry).
Some industries are more profitable than others. Why? To find
the answer, you need to understand the dynamics of
competitive structure in an industry.
The analysis
The threat of entry of new competitors (new entrants)
The threat of substitutes
The bargaining power of buyers
The bargaining power of suppliers
The degree of rivalry between existing competitors

P a g e | 31

Once you know who the competitors are or more about them if you already know exactly who
they are:
Read their annual reports if they are a publicly listed company because these
reports have information about their future plans
What are their growth strategies?
What regions and locations are they expanding to?
What new products or services are they adding?
Are their sales increasing or decreasing?
How are they doing compared with others in the industry?
Remember, competition in any industry is not a bad thing.
It can often show you that an industry is a good one to be in.
If there are few competitors, it could mean that the industry is in decline.
Establish relative understanding of the competitors' product and communicate differences to your
buyer:
What are its strong points and weak points?
Is the service they offer outstanding or poor?
Is the competitions website easy to use?
Are the products worth the price?
What are their customer service practices?
Admitting your weaknesses?
Most of your customers and clients and consumers do not always expect you to be
perfect, but they always expect you to be honest.
Building a trust with your customers and clients depends on a strong open and
honest relationship.
By being open truthful about your competitors or comparing their products with
yours, you can build a reputation for trustworthiness and authenticity. It can,
however, be disarming as every negative statement you make about yourself is
instantly accepted as truth. Positive statements, on the other hand, are looked at as
dubious at best.
Quoted by: Al Ries and Jack Trout who coined the term "positioning", as related to the field of marketing,
and authored Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind, an industry standard on the subject.

P a g e | 32

Activity 2a

P a g e | 33

3. Convert product and service knowledge into benefits

3.1

Identify features of products and services with potential buyer or user appeal

3.2

Present relevant features of products and services as benefits to stakeholder

3.3

Present benefits of products and services within context of organisational

requirements and legislation

P a g e | 34

3.1 Identify features of products and services with potential buyer or user
appeal
3.2 Present relevant features of products and services as benefits to
stakeholder
3.3 Present benefits of products and services within context of
organisational requirements and legislation
Features
Brand

Shelf life

Colour

Size

Country of origin

Style

Covenant

Warnings

Manufacturer

Product care
details

Safety aspect

It can sometimes be a misunderstanding that more features means a better product.

For the same price or less, company A is offering a product with more features than
company B.
The feeling among many customers is that if it offers more, it must be better.
In the process of such an evaluation, what is sometimes lost is the value of intangible features
such as:
Performance
Usability
Design
Longevity how long the product lasts
An example is software. Take a look at any software you have been using and you will likely discover
you are not using more than 10% of the overall features provided.
Look at simple spreadsheet software that you use and you will find you use no more
than 20%. In fact this strengthens the 80/20 rule which means that you will use 20%
of features 80% of time.
To a consumer, this means they may not need a product which has many features
but a product that actually suits their (basic) needs!
For you as a salesperson, identifying the needs that suit the customer or client is far
more important than showing a range of unnecessary features.

P a g e | 35

Some considerations when developing features

Products should be developed or sold that meet specific needs, rather than claiming
to satisfy all needs. to have a lot of different features
If you are a manufacturing business, as well as selling the products, the cost of
developing and maintaining the products is much higher when you have more
features in your products.
Maybe the cost of adding unnecessary features will need more resources and
question the profitability of the product in that design?
Customers can be frustrated with unnecessary features.
You can also start comparing features by certain values or convenience that can
assist the customer in making a decision based on their preferences

What does it mean to sales?

More features does not mean better product (to all)
Prioritise features, if you can, to suit the customers
needs
Identify quicker products which have buyer appeal
and offer those products
More features does not mean a better product but the
right features of the product will have potential buyer
appeal
Find out a specific area of use or assessment and focus
on that

Selling a product using features, benefits, and emotions

Once you identify the features that the customer or client need, transform them
into benefits.
Add some emotion and enthusiasm and the product becomes a saleable item.

P a g e | 36

Example:
Feature: 12 GB of RAM
Benefit: You can run multiple software programs at once without experiencing any
slow down or memory problems.
Emotion: You can complete your work faster as your computer processes multiple
programs at once. That makes you feel comfortable with the decision.
Example:
Feature: The Aspire GD245HQbd 3D monitor
Benefit: Engineered for graphics-intensive, high definition 3D games.
Emotion: The radical design, ultra-high performance and immersive 3D visuals take
gaming to the next dimension! Creating excitement.
The method involves 3 step
1. Show the feature
2. Describe the advantage
3. State the benefit
Your customers and clients are not actually buying a tangible product, they
are committing to an idea that their decision is right and they have achieved
their own results.
It might be:
Peace of mind
Longevity of a product
Features that are facts
Fulfilling a need
Organisational requirements may include:
Level of client service required
Policies and procedures which are formally documented and are available for
reference within the workplace

P a g e | 37

What is a policy?
A policy is a guiding principle used to set direction in an organisation. For example, the sales area
we are currently discussing.
It can be:
A course of action to guide and influence decisions
Used as a guide to make decisions in certain circumstances, objectives, goals and
management philosophies
There are really two types of policies
1. The first are rules frequently used as employee policies
2. The second are mini-mission statements which often are related to procedures
Employee policies are used to set a standard for projecting your company image or to
communicate regulations that apply to all personnel.
What kind of image are you projecting as a company? They typically come from
top management as a result of interpreting the company mission and vision
statements, laws and regulations, or industry standards and practices.
What is a procedure?
Think of a procedure policy as a mini-mission statement.
It contains:
The target user

The stated purpose

Some type of measure to communicate how users know the procedure is

working
Procedures provide a method to keep your products consistent and maintain quality control.
For example, how a company can eliminate waste and increase performance.
The Difference Between Policies and Procedure
A policy is a guiding principle used to set direction in an organization.
A procedure is a series of steps to be followed as a consistent and repetitive
approach to accomplish a specific result.
Together, they are used to empower the people responsible for a process with
the direction and consistency they need for successful process improvement.

P a g e | 38

Product and service manuals, labels, instructions

Are the actions described in the current procedures manual accurate and up to
date?
Are the details unclear or misleading?
Is the content of the manual consistent?
Are there gaps or missing sections that no one has
noticed?
Are revisions that are undertaken managed and
controlled, or are different people using different
versions?Are all people using the most updated version
of the manual for each product?

Are the standards and references in the manual current and

not superceded?

Are documents included as references or annexes written to produce clear,

measurable results?
Measuring customer satisfaction should be an ongoing process
Being able to identify the problems that are causing negative customer service
feedback allows the organisation an opportunity to make operational changes and
possibly reduce cost overheads
Customers see changing policies and procedures in cases where a customer service
problem is not fully resolved or trying to make changes as a good attempt to solve
the problem. Customers look favourably upon your organisation when it changes
policies and procedures in relation to one of their complaints. They grant trust and
forgive more easily in this case.

P a g e | 39

Activity 3a

Skills and Knowledge Activity

P a g e | 40

Nearly there...

Major Activity An opportunity to revise the unit

At the end of your Learner Workbook, you will find an activity titled Major Activity. This is an
opportunity to revise the entire unit and allows your trainer to check your knowledge and
understanding of what you have covered. It should take between and 1-2 hours to complete and
your trainer will let you know whether they wish for you to complete it in your own time or during
session. Once this is completed, you will have finished this unit and be ready to move onto the next,
well done!

P a g e | 41

Congratulations!
You have now finished the unit Develop product and service knowledge for customer engagement
operation

P a g e | 42

References
These suggested references are for further reading and do not necessarily represent the
contents of this Learner Guide

Product Knowledge: Pinpoint Sales Skill Development Training Series [Paperback]

Timothy F. Bednarz (Author)
The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage [Hardcover]
Roger L. Martin (Author)
Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods [Hardcover]
Michael Quinn Patton (Author)
Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant [Hardcover]
David A. Aaker (Author)