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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