Knowing your product has always been essential to good selling, but concentrating on product alone can be a serious mistake. Salespeople who love their products, and possess vast product knowledge, sometimes overload their customers with product data they neither need nor want. This practice is often described as a “data dump.” With the aid of specific types of questions (see Chapter 11), the customer’s needs can be identified. Once the customer’s needs are known, the salesperson can develop a customized sales presentation that includes selected features that can be converted to specific benefits.