Modern Sales Techniques- SPIN Selling

It is established that 70% of purchasing decisions are made to solve a particular problem. However predicting purchasing behaviour is very difficult because no two sales scenarios are alike, and neither are two customers.

Spin selling is a sales process created in 1988 to help anticipate and navigate tough sales situations. Developed by Neil Rackham, the spin selling method is the result of research culled from over 35,000 sales calls. It’s designed to take away some of the ambiguity and difficulty in closing a sale and identify common themes that can help a sales rep create a real connection with a customer. Intuitive in nature, spin selling questions can help you hone your sales skills. 

Grouped into four kinds of questions, SPIN stands for:

• Situation
• Problem
• Implication
• Need-Payoff

The following lucid chart illustrates the SPIN hierarchy.

The individual components of SPIN are explained in brief below;

1. S- Situation

What’s going on in the buyer’s world?

Gather facts about the buyer’s current situation to have a meaningful conversation with them. Here you need to get a good understanding of their background. It is the starting point of your conversation, so ensure you don’t bore the prospect with many irrelevant questions.

2. P- Problem

Your product will only be valuable to the buyer when it appears as a solution. For which you must understand what’s troubling your buyers. Problem questions can help you in this. Most of the buyers don’t even know what their problem is; some processes are going wrong, but they have no clue about the cause. So, be a helpful consultant and guide them. For others, who are aware of the obstacle, collect the details from them by asking relevant questions. The information you collect in this discovery phase can help in stimulating buyer’s interest in your product. As per SPIN selling model, it is better to unearth more than one problem before the implication stage.

3. I- Implication

In this phase, expert skills and knowledge about buyer’s present state are essential. Using implication questions, you can explore the source and effects of the buyer’s problem. Many factors can be responsible for the buyer’s pain.

4. N-Need-payoff

The final set of questions in the SPIN selling methodology is the need-payoff questions. You won’t face difficulty in this phase if you have handled the previous set of questions smartly. In a common sales scenario, it is the seller who presents the benefits of their product to influence a buying decision. But SPIN selling flips the script where it is the buyer who explains the benefits instead of the seller.

The following video demonstrates these components in the form of a role play

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Hunter vs Farmer - Strategy in sales

In sales and marketing circles, we may have heard that some business leader types are farmers and some are hunters. Some like to plant many seeds among prospects, water them, nurture them, and help them grow. Some prefer scouting for prospects and pursuing people who could become customers.

Let’s look at a few characteristics from each, starting with hunters:

• Hunters love to network.
• They enjoy being out in the field, scouting for the next customer.
• Hunters are decent at maintaining a client base, but prefer to keep exploring new areas.
• They are solution-oriented—willing to analyze problems and work on developing solutions.
• Hunters are usually bored with one task and some might say they suffer from an attention deficit disorder.
• They like to multitask and manage multiple leads and projects at the same time.

Farmers in general take a more steady approach:

• Like farmers in real life, these types often are happy working with one or a few customers.
• Farmers take a long-term view and will work for a long time to close a lead.
• They optimize sales opportunities by learning about the individual needs of each client (and are able to upsell and cross-sell).
• They are strongest at customer retention.
• Farmers are open to client feedback and will stay on task until they exhaust all options in serving the client.

However, modern research shows that contemporary business demands a combination of both to succeed. This hypothesis is illustrated in the following video by Dr. Martin Auer.

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