At DELTA POINT, Inc we define the knowledge skill as being composed of the following:
- Self Knowledge - I must first know “me”. Self awareness is the starting point of all learning and knowing what I know, what I don’t know, what I need to know, how I communicate and relate to others is crucial.
- Product Knowledge - How well do I know the intricacies of my business product? The business product can refer to something that I am selling or an intangible such as the knowledge that I need in order to do my job successfully. What do I need to know to be identified the Subject Matter Expert?
- Customer/Audience Knowledge - What is it that I know about my customers or business audience that will help me focus on doing more for them and helping them achieve their business goals? I need to know about their personalities, their approaches, their issues, their challenges and as much as I can about how they determine the best choice when they make business decisions.
- Competitive Knowledge – I must know my competitor’s product, service or offering as well as I know my own!
- Selling/Communication Skills – Selling is a process. It requires the mastery of certain skills like: being interesting, being able to initiate dialogue, ask effective questions, engender thinking, listen, ask for commitments, etc. How proficient am I at each of the skills required to be effective when I communicate, or sell?
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Knowledge seems to be one of the bigger influencers than the other two (messaging and relationships). The concept here is not just knowledge but “mastery”. To be able to craft truly powerful, memorable and effective communications, you need to possess expert knowledge of your subject. Simply put, “You can’t message what you don’t know”. The person who is deficient in the knowledge skill set will most likely not have the optimum business relationship with fellow business associates, colleagues, prospects, supervisors, etc. People want to do business and work with people who have deep and broad knowledge. So ‘knowing our stuff’ is the first priority.
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