When it comes to ensuring budtenders understand your product and can communicate its advantages to consumers, it’s on you as a marketing professional to give them all the unique information they need.
It's not easy for a budtender to tailor a sales pitch to a specific audience if they don't know the intricacies of your product. That’s where your brand’s budtender training manual comes into play. This training deck is complete with product-specific information that can help budtenders do what they do best — sell.
Naturally, customers will ask questions, and the more informed and confident the budtender is, the higher the chance of selling your products. Superior product knowledge makes a budtender believe in the products they're selling and ultimately builds credibility in the customer's eyes.
Without proper training, budtenders lack enthusiasm in their work leading to poor sales and high employee turnover. In this article, we will discuss six specifics to include in your budtender training manual to help your product sales.
Product Development
Put yourself in the budtender’s shoes for a minute and think about the sheer number of products they have at their disposal. How will you differentiate your product from the competition?
To start, consider the true uniqueness of your product. How do the ingredients differ from similar offerings? What’s unique about your cultivation and manufacturing process that competitors can’t match? Essentially, how much of the secret sauce can you give away that budtenders can latch onto and communicate to your customers?
These pieces of information are the foundation of great training and give budtenders ammunition to recommend you over the competition.
Health and Safety
Budtenders need to know how to educate consumers on safe dosing and usage specifics. Failing to communicate dosing and usage information not only poses health and safety concerns to your consumers, it also prevents them from using your product correctly.
To avoid this, include dosing and usage parameters in your training manual to help budtenders communicate this information to consumers when questions arise. If they don’t know the answer, chances are they will recommend another product that they understand more completely.
ICPs
An often-overlooked inclusion in budtender training manuals, ideal customer profiles (ICPs) equip budtenders with consumer-specific information that helps them recommend the best product for various effects they may be seeking.
The truth is that the “my product is for everyone” approach doesn’t work. Instead, you need to intimately understand your specific buyers — what their problems are, why other products haven’t solved their problems, and why yours does. When you understand this, you can include ICP-specific information in your training manual that helps budtenders understand why your product is perfect for them.
Testimonials
Regulations in the cannabis industry make it difficult to directly express the effects of your product, so how do you get around this to help budtenders communicate the expected benefits? Customer testimonials.
While you can’t explicitly say your product will help users experiencing sleep problems, you can include a customer testimonial in your training manual from a customer who recounts the sleep benefits they experienced after using your product.
Memorable Branding
As a marketing professional, you understand the importance that cannabis branding has on your ability to create meaningful impressions with buyers — the same thing is true for budtenders. When you effectively use logos, colors, video content, and supporting language that resonates with budtenders, they are more likely to remember your brand.
It’s important to remember, however, that your training manual is not a direct copy-paste of your marketing deck. Marketing materials are watered down, simplistic, and do not take into account the expertise budtenders already have when it comes to cannabis products.
Instead, include elements of branding into your training deck that engages the budtender while getting into the nitty-gritty details of your product. Remember, informative training does not have to be boring. Use this training opportunity to set you and your brand apart.
Mobile Access
Offering mobile budtender training makes it easier for retailers to access product information, learn conveniently, and communicate convincingly and effectively. When budtenders can access your product information through a mobile-optimized web experience, they are more likely to spend time interacting with your brand and learning your product.
Implementing mobile budtender training allows you to meet budtenders where they are using digital elements they already interact with. Doing so creates an environment when it’s easy for budtenders to interact with and effectively communicate your product's knowledge to their customers.
Customize Your Budtender Training With ZolTrain
While there are steps to be taken to implement a guide/manual for your budtender training, you ultimately must remember that your budtender training manual is precisely that — yours. Customizing means developing a training manual oriented to your brand's culture and tone of voice.
Every company has a unique identity, and the training manual needs to reflect that. If you can do this well, budtenders will be more engaged in the process and have a better sense of involvement.
We know it's not easy to develop a budtender training manual that answers your specific needs. With years of experience crafting product-specific budtender training, we will help you speak to your audience and prepare them to sell your products.
A well-crafted budtender training manual will help you to increase sales, build a stronger team, and create a memorable customer experience. Contact us today for a tailor-made budtender training manual.