Spin Selling is a sales methodology developed by Neil Rackham in 1988 and, despite its date, it is still completely current in the complex sales scenario. The methodology is based on the acronym SPIN, which defines 4 types of questions that should be used to understand your customer's pain points and show the value of your solution, following the theme: Situation, Problem, Implication, Need.
These questions will add more enthusiasm to your sales process and will be essential for making your customer see your company as having much greater market value than a simple supplier or vendor. They will move from one stage to the next and will see for themselves how your solution will solve the problem they are facing.
How to apply Spin Selling?
Check out these sample questions from the Spin Selling steps.
Situation
In this initial contact, questions are asked to gather information about the company and its background. This is the moment when the salesperson must get the customer interested in what he has to offer, opening up to talk about the company's issues.
The purpose of these questions is to profile the potential buyer, that is, to obtain data about the transaction and its current situation. More detailed information that will add to the initial research done by the seller.
Sample Questions
What difficulties does your company face today?
How long is your company's sales cycle?
Problem
In this phase we need to think of it as a Spin Selling usa business fax list investigation, our questions need to explore the customer's needs. Reread the answers given by the customer in the previous step, in this list of questions you will be attentive to identify pains and problems that your customer is having and make him see all these problems.
Avoid going into too much detail on too many topics. Identify the pain points that your product will best address and focus on that.
Once you have identified the initial problem, focus on questions that involve that problem. For example, we have identified that your client's problem is the lack of a reliable supplier.
Here are some questions that can be asked:
What problems does the lack of a reliable supplier cause in the quality of your product?
Have you ever lost a sales opportunity because of a problem with raw materials?
Implication
These questions will open your client's eyes to the problem they have. Throughout the process, Spin Selling will bring your client into the reality of their company. This reality check is important for them to see the flaws that your company can definitively solve.
At this stage, you will use questions to demonstrate that everything that has been happening so far cannot continue to happen. You will emphasize that the problems need to be resolved or the situation could get worse.
If you have real statistics (you can't make up numbers just to sell) in favor of your product or service, now is the time to show them to your future client.
Following the idea of lack of reliable supplier, you might ask:
How much time have you wasted every day trying to find a reliable supplier?
Do you have any idea how many sales you have lost to the competition because your supplier failed to meet deadlines?
Need
At this point, you should invest in questions that address the need for a solution. Insist that this part of the Spin Selling is about closing a deal. Try to get your prospect to talk and demonstrate what your company's product or service can do for their company.
During the other questions, you both discovered the problems of his company, at this point you need to show the solution to all the points raised during the conversation.
Examples of need questions
Do you believe that it would be possible to close more deals if your supplier delivered on time?
What if we could increase your sales by 30% just by keeping a reliable supplier?
With this list of questions, you will have an idea of what your client wants and whether they have shown interest in your product or service. This will help you demonstrate your company's capabilities. Of course, this demonstration cannot be just technical, because today's clients want to see results, statistics and truth in the statements of companies that are hired to provide a service or sell a product.
And this is where digital marketing comes in to give Spin Selling even more strength for the sales team to demonstrate its capabilities. Having e-books, infographics, a responsive website and a customer relationship strategy will provide support and sales support to demonstrate the added value of the brand.