Spin selling strategy

Agenda…
•The Sale and Buying Cycles
•The Implied and Explicit Needs
•The SPIN™ Questions
•Demonstrating Capability
•The Obtaining Commitment Stage
•Preventing Objections
•Developing New Skills
Tous droits réservés - Marc Lamarre

Planning
Prospecting
Opening
Investigating
Demonstrating
Obtaining
Commitment
Following-up

Changes over time
Recognition of
Needs
Evaluation of
Options
Resolution of
Concerns
Decision
Implementation
Major Account Sales Strategy -McGraw – Hill
......as it links to the seller’s sales activities
Planning Prospecting
Opening
Investigating
Demonstrating
Obtaining
Commitment
Following-up
Demonstrating
Demonstrating
The Buying Cycle...

The 4 Stages of a Sales Call - SPIN™
Opening Investigating
Demonstrating
Capability
Obtaining
Commitment
The Investigating is the most
important stage of a sales call –
This is where successful sellers
invest most of their efforts
A poor Investigating stage
will greatly compromise
the call’s outcome

Opening
Investigating
• Effective deployment of the SPIN™ Model
• The development of Implied Needs to Explicit
Needs
• Preliminaries
• Purpose of the call
• Permission to continue

Demonstrating
Capability
Obtaining
Commitment
• Presentation and/or Demonstration of the
solution by describing Features, Advantages
and Benefits
• Main source of objections in complex sales
A poor Investigating stage will greatly compromise the
call’s outcome
• Obtaining Commitment requires 3 steps :
1. Check that key concerns are resolved
2. Summarize benefits
3. Propose a realistic commitment

The Development of Needs
Problems
Difficulties
Dissatisfactions
Needs
Desires
Wishes
Unknown
Implied Needs
Explicit Needs
OK for Simple Sale -
Transactional Selling Approach
Required for Complex Sales -
Consultative Selling Approach

The SPIN™ Model
Effectively using the SPIN™ Model:
• S Situation questions
• P Problems questions
• I Implications questions
• N Need-Payoff questions

The Objectives and Value of the SPIN™ Questions
Situation Questions:
• Collect facts and background data about the customer’s existing situation
that is relevant to your products and services;
• While these questions are easy to ask, they bring little value to the buyer
and can certainly aggravate him if too many of these questions are asked;
• A good knowledge of the customer’s industry and/or the information
provided by an internal or external contact can help planning the call in a
way to reduce the number of Situation Questions required;
• The most effective Situation Questions are targeted toward customer
problems.

Problems Questions:
• These questions probe for problems, difficulties or dissatisfactions. They
prompt the buyer to state Implied Needs to which we can provide
solutions;
• These questions have a lot of value to the customer because of the
latter's interest to resolve its problems;
• It is essential to effectively plan these questions ahead of time, otherwise
the sales call will most likely remain in the Situation Questions stage;
• The best way to plan problems questions is to previously set a minimum of
three potential customer problems on a form and then planning examples
of questions that will be used to highlight these issues.

Implications Questions:
• Discover the implications of customer problems related to our business
solutions;
• These questions are very valuable because they develop the Implied Need
toward other potential problems;
• The Implications Questions are particularly efficient in a complex sales
approach;
• These questions, much more difficult to ask, requires careful planning
because of their importance in the development of Implied Needs to
Explicit Needs.

Implications Questions:
• As for Problems Questions, Implications Questions must be planned by
thinking of the possible impacts associated to the customer’s potential
problems.
• To begin your planning on the problems possible impacts, use the following
model:
B.O.T.C.H.
B Bottlenecks/ Backlogs
O Other People Affected
T Time Lost/ Wasted/ Needed
C Costs Associated
H Hassles

Need-Payoff Questions:
• Need-Payoff Questions are intended to develop the buyer’s desire for a
solution to their problems;
• When the Need-Payoff Questions are asked too early in the sales call, the
customer is naturally suspicious;
• Need-Payoff Questions, certainly the most difficult to ask effectively,
should start from the Implied Needs to develop toward Explicit Needs;
• Effective Need-Payoff Questions will engage the buyer to openly talk about
the benefits of solving their problems.

Need-Payoff Questions:
• Only when the buyer recognizes the severity of the problems and the
urgency to find a solution to them, it makes sense to ask Need-Payoff
Questions.
• To avoid a common discomfort in the deployment of Need-Payoff
questions and also to encourage the buyer to elaborate on the expected
benefits, it is easier to ask these questions by adopting the ICE method …
I.C.E
• Ask closed questions to IDENTIFY the Explicit Need
• Ask open and closed questions to CLARIFY the Explicit Needs and the
expected Benefits
• Ask open and closed questions to further EXPAND on the long-term
Benefits of a solution for the customer`s business environment

Demonstrating Capability
The 3 Ways to Demonstrate/Present a Solution
Features
• Demo/ Presentation of the features, price, accessories…
• Low impact in the customer’s buying experience
Advantages
• Demo / Presentation of the advantages linked to the features
• Sufficient impact in a simple/transactional sales call
Benefits
• Demo/ Presentation of the solution in response to the customer’s explicit needs
• High impact in the customer’s buying experience during complex/consultative sales call

Demonstrating Capability
Buyer’s reactions:
Features
• Objections related to the cost of the product/service;
Advantages
• Objections related to the value of the advantages mentioned;
Benefits
• Buyer’s agreement because it meets with his expectations.

Obtaining Commitment
The Call’s Outcomes in a Simple Sale:
2 Possible Outcomes
• Win the Sale
• Loose the Sale
The objective is to win the sale

The Call’s Outcomes in a Complex Sale:
2 other Outcomes:
• Advance
The buyer accepts to move to the next step
• Continuation
The discussion continues, but no action is agreed upon
The objective is to obtain an Advance

Opening
Investigating
Demonstrating
1. Obtaining Commitment starts before the call by
planning a realistic advance (and a plan “B”)
2. Obtaining Commitment is easier when the explicit
needs were discovered at the investigation stage and
that benefits were offered during the demonstrating
capability stage
3. Obtaining Commitment in 3 steps;
1. Check that key concerns are resolved.
2. Summarize the benefits
3. Propose a realist commitment (Advance)

Managing vs Preventing Objections
Situation Questions
Problems Questions
Implied needs
The seller offers
advantages
The buyer objects
The seller manages
the objections
Managing Objections Preventing Objections
The seller develops needs
with “Implications” and
“Need-Payoff” questions
The buyer express’
“Explicit Needs”
The seller offers
benefits
The buyer demonstrates
approval and agrees

How to apply new skills efficiently?
Rule # 1:
Practice one skill at a time
Rule # 2:
Try a skill at least 3 times
Rule # 3:
Concentrate on quantity before quality
Rule # 4:
Practice the new skill in “secure” situations

Advices
• Practice, Practice, Practice
- You don’t want to sound like a robot
• Study – Listen Great Interviewers such as:
- Charlie Rose
- Larry King
- Cesar Milan
• Do your homework and gather as much information you can…
- Validate this information with your customer without boring him.
• Know every aspect of your industry, company and competition
- Prepare a lot of questions… do not underestimate the length of a sales call!
- Build upon your company strengths and business opportunities…
Do not ignore your company weakness’ and business threats (S.W.O.T)
• Beware of condescending and hurtful questions…
… use open and close ended questions wisely
• Never Assume and Always Confirm
• Commit in developing these new selling skills thoroughly…

Good Selling!

Spin selling strategy

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Spin selling strategy

Similar to Spin selling strategy (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Spin selling strategy