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SPIN Selling – A Summary
A word of advice.
Reading this summary in NO WAY replaces the experience of reading one of the SPIN Selling books. I cannot hope to cram 200 pages of sales wisdom into a 10 page summary. So, do yourself a favor and buy one of the SPIN Selling books (personally I prefer the SPIN Selling Fieldbook) or better still attend one of the sales courses they run. I’m very confident it will be worth your time and money.
I should also mention that I have never been formally trained in the SPIN Selling model. I was in business to business selling for 23 years selling mainly big ticket items and only found SPIN Selling late in my B2B career. I was surprised at how many of the SPIN techniques and ideas I wasalready applying. Not surprising really, when you think about it, since SPIN Selling was devised from studying successful big item sales people and I was very successful at doing just that (thanks mainly to some wise mentors I was lucky to be working with).
Anyway, enjoy the summary and if you want to see better sales results apply what you read and further your study by learning more and refining your SPIN Selling ability.
Introduction
In my early days of business to business selling I was lucky enough to have an astute sales manager; hopefully you were also this lucky?
My sales manager had a favorite saying, "you have two ears and one mouth, use them in those proportions". The basic reference of course was to listen during a sales call much more than you talk. I would suspect that this was common wisdom for many years. However, it was only ever a theory.
That was until 1988 when Neil Rackham published “SPIN Selling”.
“SPIN Selling” delivered the results of a huge 12 year study relating to how large sales were made. The extensive research by Rackham, and his company Huthwaite, examined more than 35,000 sales calls relating to large, complicated scenarios.
(Please note that Rackham himself says in his books it is not wise to follow a rigid system of selling, that’s just not the way it is in the world of selling, you need to maintain your flexibility.(e.g. you may not always follow the SPIN questions in strict order.)
The Results
One of the key findings of this large study was that in successful sales calls it's the buyer who does most of the talking. And how do you get a buyer to talk? By asking questions.
So that long held belief that good salespeople are not necessarily good talkers was finally proven to be correct.
However, this extensive study revealed many more interesting facts about selling. Perhaps the most important being that the good salespeople did not just ask any old questions. It seemed that successful salespeople ask certain types of questions and often in a particular sequence.
Rackham and his team defined those types of questions as:
Situation ( questions ) Problem ( questions ) Implication ( questions ) Need-payoff ( questions )
We’ll get into the specifics of these questions later on.
For now you just need to know that the first students trained in the "SPIN" model showed an average of 17% improvement in sales results.
Before you read any further let’s check something out.
Before I go on, let me ask you to write down at least four examples of questions you typically ask during a sales call. No cheating. Do not read ahead. Write down your answers now.
Now I'd like you to categorize your questions into one of two types.
Are your questions factual? Are your questions like the following? What is your production output? How many product returns do you get? What is the turnover rate of your staff?
Or do your questions focus more on problems and difficulties.? Is your product output keeping up with your delivery commitments?
“Do you have a deposit? How much does each of you earn a month? What other loan commitments do you have to pay? What are your average monthly expenses apart from the loans we just mentioned?”
Now, from the perspective of the real estate sales person what does he want to know? He wants to know how much these people can afford to pay on a mortgage, right? Well, he should ask that question and not all the others.
A targeted question would be: “How much can you afford in monthly repayments on a house?”
The way you formulate targeted questions when you are planning is to look at each question you are going to ask and just ask yourself the question, “What do I really want to know when I ask this question?” and then examine whether the answer to this question gives you the information you want.
SPIN Selling goes into the planning of Situation Questions and also the phrasing of Situation Questions so that they “help the buyer see you as a problem solver rather than a prosecutor.” The right Situation Questions can lead smoothly and naturally into discussion about your prospect’s problems. The book even goes into “Low Risk” and “High Risk” questions to ask and the appropriate times to ask them.
So, SPIN Selling states that sellers need to ask more questions but asking too many situation questions reduces your chances of sales success. Conversely, the more of the other types of questions asked during a sales call the more likely a sale will be made.
Problem Questions
The first of these other questions are Problem Questions. If you are relatively new to selling then practicing problem questions is probably the single most important thing that you can do to improve your sales results.
Problem Questions ask about the difficulties and dissatisfactions the buyer is experiencing and focus the buyer on this pain while clarifying the problem. They give rise to Implied Needs which are the raw material for Implication Questions.
An example of a Problem Question could be, “What prevents you from producing a product with lower return rates?”
Inexperienced sales people ask less problem questions than their more experienced colleagues. And not only do more experienced salespeople tend to ask more problem questions they also tend to ask them sooner in the sales meeting.
It should not be surprising that good sales people talk about problems. Well known sales trainer Tom Hopkins has said for years that if you are a professional sales person you are a PPS = Professional Problem Solver. It’s logical isn’t it? If everything is OK why would someone want to buy anything? People who buy are either looking to stop something happening they don’t like or looking to have or achieve something they couldn’t get in the past. Moreover, in order to sell you have to uncover problems that you can solve with your product or service.
Problem Questions require planning. SPIN Selling suggests working backwards from the problems your products solves for a buyer to generate these questions. There is a full chapter in the SPIN Selling Handbook that explains how to work backwards to the problems your product (or service) solves.
So, what problems does your product solve? Write down your answers now.
SPIN also advises that after you identify a problem it’s important to continue revealing and clarifying the problem until you and the buyer share a thorough understanding of the problem.
This is not surprising, I well remember the quote, (but not the author), that says: People do not buy from salespeople because they understand their products but because they felt the salesperson understood their problems.
I can’t remember the number of times in my sales career that I said, “I get it”. Meaning I had arrived at a true understanding of what the prospect’s problem was. At that point I usually fed back an example of how the problem would function in their business which was greeted with smiles because they knew I had got it. I also think they smiled because so few sales people in the past had “Got it”.
The SPIN research uncovered that top salespeople tended to introduce solutions, products or services very late in the discussion after they had understood the problem and uncovered Explicit Needs.
They held back and discussed the effects of the problem before talking about solutions. They also uncovered several problems before asking implication questions. It can be dangerous to focus on one problem as it invites the buyer to raise another area where you solution does not fare so well. (Don't put all your eggs in the one basket)
Need-Payoff Questions
Need-Payoff Questions get the buyer to tell you about their Explicit Needs and the benefits your solutions offers, rather than forcing you to explain the benefits to the buyer. What these questions do is probe for explicit needs and getting the buyer to state the benefits has greater impact while sounding a lot less pushy.
It is often said that selling is not about convincing buyers but about creating the right conditions to allow buyers to convince themselves.
Needs Payoff Questions ask about the value, importance or usefulness of a solution.
For example: “How much would you save if we could reduce the return rate of your products?” “What effect would that have on your reputation in the marketplace?”
The thing is these questions focus on solutions and because of this buyers rate calls that are high in need payoff questions as positive, constructive and useful.
Need payoff questions are a mirror image of implication questions. For example an implication question might be “Could the higher return rate of your products add to your costs?” Whereas a needs payoff question might be “If you had lower return rates would that cut costs and improve profitability?”
These questions have a unique function in that they get the buyer to tell you about the benefits your solution offers rather than forcing you to explain the benefits. Getting buyers to talk about the benefits you offer is more impactful and seems a lot less pushy. It also has a tendency to reduce sales objections. And during the thinking process initiated by your needs payoff questions buyers often extend the payoff to new areas. Not only that but since they’ve thought of the payoffs they are more committed to your solution since they experience some sort of ownership.
Given that there are often no perfect solutions in a complex sale getting your prospect to generate a number of payoffs is wise because if you focus on only one positive result you run the risk of the buyer focusing on the areas that you don’t solve rather than the ones you do.
Once again the book goes into details about how to plan Need Payoff Questions (and using the ICE Method), how to phrase them, and when to use them.
Using the SPIN Model
Rackham and Huthwaite contend there are four stages to a sale:
Opening Investigating Demonstrating Capability Obtaining Commitment
They contend that, in small sales an order is a win and a no-sale is a loss. But in large complex sales it’s different because of the time required to complete the sale. In SPIN they write about An Advance or a Continuation.
Rackham defines success versus failure for larger sales by evaluating the level of commitment. An action that the buyer agrees to take which moves you closer to a sale, is termed an Advance and constitutes a successful outcome. A buyer's request for a proposal is not an Advance unless the buyer also agrees to take some action. The outcome of a call that does not reach agreement on action that moves the sale forward is termed a Continuation and considered unsuccessful.
So, in larger sales:
There are multiple meetings. The key is to obtain the right commitment. Success in Obtaining Commitment depends on skillfully conducting the Investigation It’s crucial to set realistic call objectives that make Advances possible.
And their research also shows that the Investigating stage is the most crucial in large, complex sales. This is in contrast to the belief held by many old-school sales trainers that closing is the most important
What is Investigating according to the SPIN model? It is defined as systematically discovering, exploring, clarifying and understanding the buyer’s needs and problems. Plainly, this is done by questions which are the most effective form of persuasion.
Interestingly, in looking at closed and open questions Rackham’s team discovered no evidence to establish a link between open questions and sales success.
Demonstrating Capability
There are three ways to describe capabilities:
Features Advantages Benefits
The book also proposes in relation to Demonstrating Capability that you need to sell Benefits rather than Features and Advantages.
In the SPIN model a Benefit shows how a product or service meets an Explicit Need expressed by the buyer. Moreover, the author contends that if you try to sell using Advantages it leads to objections which slow down the sales process.
The SPIN Selling Fieldbook offers explanations and exercises to make sure you can recognize a Benefit.
No matter how well you use the SPIN model and demonstrate benefits and use Implication Questions and Need Payoff Questions to build value some objections will occur.
You should develop your skills in handling objections BUT REMEMBER “it’s always preferable to prevent objections than to handle them.” (Yes, yes, yes = totally agree with this).
Rackham also contends:
Objections are NOT buying signals A majority of objections are caused by the seller Many objections occur because the seller offered a solution too soon
And also states there are two types of objections:
Value Objections – where the buyer raises doubts about the worth of your solution, “It’s good but too expensive”. Capability Objections – where the seller raises doubts as to whether the product will solve their problem or whether your organization can deliver on the promise, “I’m not sure it’s as easy as you claim.”
They also divide the capability objections into two types being “Can’t Objections” (you don’t have the capability to meet a need of high value to the prospect) and “Can Objections” (you do have the capability but the buyer doesn’t perceive you have it).
The SPIN Selling Fieldbook goes into how to handle these specific sorts of sales objections.
Wind Up
OK that summarizes what’s mentioned in the SPIN Selling Fieldbook.
The model is good. Much of what Rackham and his team states I discovered for myself during my years of business to business selling. I wish SPIN Selling was one of the trainings I did in those early days, it would have saved me a lot of time in trial and error learning.
I guess that’s the point. Following some aspects of the model could save you a lot of trial and error learning too.
Once again you need to keep in mind that reading this small summary in no way gives you the full story and you may like to consider buying the book so you can better implement the strategies and concepts. Better still, attend a Huthwaite sales training.
There is a caveat though. The SPIN model is not a panacea for all your sales problems. As mentioned earlier you should be very familiar with the model so you can be flexible in using it because it’s not a cookie cutter approach to selling like following a checklist.
OK here are some personal comments.
The whole focus of the book is on logical objective planning, investigation of the prospects needs and selling the Benefits of your offering (Benefits which are based on the prospects needs). I believe the results generated by the rational, objective approach of the SPIN Selling model could be enhanced by the application of various other selling techniques that focus on the individual in front of you.
After all I’m sure you’ve heard that most purchases are based on emotions and justified by logic. So, wouldn’t it make sense to make sure a prospect feels like buying your product from you?
Likewise, SPIN Selling is based on asking questions and there is a very large difference in the effectiveness of a question depending on how it is phrased. And such skill is easier learned from someone else than by trial and error over years of selling.
