SPIN Selling

Good book, a bit dated. Now that I actually have the job I can say that I learned more doing it than reading it.

I feel like 99% of self-help books, be it self-help in work, love, friendships, what have you, are useless. They always have fluff chapters of 'act motivated and be motivated!' or 'think like a winner!' and various platitudes of that nature. You wind up finishing the book and realizing you read nothing but pseudo-motivational dribble that will wind up having zero impact on whatever you were looking to improve upon.Enter 'SPIN Selling' - this book delivers where all of those other books have failed. In this book is a solid layout of how you should structure your sales calls, and not only that, but data to back up their claims and examples to on how to lead. Read this book, take notes, and I guarantee if you weren't already aware of how to sell in this style, your selling WILL improve.I'm a novice to sales. Last year when I was interviewing for a sales position I was asked to put together a sales presentation and to sell a product. I was given the product brochure and 1 day to come up with something. Using 'SPIN Selling' as my guide, I put together a list of ideas and pitched them in my presentation. My interviewer was blown away. After I got the job, my manager told me he had never had someone deliver such a good presentation - everyone always focuses on selling the product, but they never try and sell the customer. Taking a note from this book, I asked the questions I needed to ask, developed them into problems for the buyer, and then walked them through the solution with their own words. It was a total and complete win.I was tempted to give this book 4 stars because it really does falter in a few areas. For one, some of the research is tenuous at best - <100 sales calls that they then base their report on. That's frankly not enough data to prove or disprove anything.Secondly, this book is very weak on opening/closing a sale, which are both obviously rather important. The book mentions briefly what you shouldn't do to open a call, but doesn't really expand on good ways to introduce yourself. Even worse, it has a whole chapter on closing, but doesn't give you specific advice on what to do! It gives you a whole lot of data on why you shouldn't constantly close, why the worst sellers are always trying to close, how it annoys customers, etc. It never actually says 'Here is the best way we found to bring a sale to the next level: A/B/C". It kind of boggles the mind because the book even shows a study where sales that had no closers in them had something like 20% the success rate - obviously a close is necessary, but the book skimps a bit on that aspect. I couldn't bring myself to give it less than 5 stars because the meat of the book is just so good.

The main premise of this book is best summarized by the author in the first chapter of the book: "The traditional selling models, methods, and techniques that most of us have been trained to use work best in small sales. In this book I'll be showing you that what works in small sales can hurt your success as the sales grow larger--and I'll be sharing with you our research findings that have uncovered new and better models for success in large sales...One of the simplest models of a sales call does seem to be applicable to any size of sale; almost every sales call you can think of, from the simplest to the most sophisticated, goes through four distinct stages 1. Preliminaries: These are the warming-up events that occur before the serious selling begins...2. Investigating: Almost every sale involves finding something out by asking questions...3. Demonstrating Capability: In most calls you will need to demonstrate to customers that you've something worthwhile to offer...4. Obtaining Commitment: Finally, a successful sales call will end with some sort of commitment from the customer...We decided that the focus of our research would be to develop new and positive questioning models that could replace the old ones, which were proving so unsatisfactory...We found that questions in the successful call tend to fall into a sequence we call SPIN. In summary the SPIN sequence of questions is: 1) Situation Questions: At the start of the call, successful people tend to ask data-gathering questions about facts and background.... 2) Problem Questions: Once sufficient information has been established about the buyer's situation, successful people tend to move to a second type of question... 3) Implication Questions: In smaller sales, sellers can be very successful if they just know how to ask good Situation and Problem Question...4) Need-payoff Questions:Finally, we found that very successful salespeople ask a fourth type of question during the Investigating stage... is that they get the customer to tell you the benefits that your solution could offer."Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:1- "The psychological effect of pressure seems to be this. If I'm asking you to make a very small decision, then--if I pressure you--it's easier for you to say yes than to have an argument. Consequently, with a small decision, the effect of pressure is positive. But this isn't so with large decisions. The bigger the decision, the more negatively people generally react to pressure."2- "By forcing the customer into a decision, closing techniques speed the sales transaction...Closing techniques may increase the chances of making a sale with low-priced products. With expensive products or services, they reduce the chances of making a sale."3- "The first step in successful closing is to set the right objectives. The starting point for obtaining a commitment is to know what level of commitment from the customer will be needed to make the call a success."4- "So what's the test of closing success? What's the result, or outcome, that allows us to say that one call has been successful while another has failed? The method we finally chose involved dividing the possible outcomes of the call into four areas: 1)Orders: Where the customer makes a firm commitment to buy... 2)Advances: Where an event takes place, either in the call or after it, that moves the sale forward toward a decision... 3)Continuations: Where the sale will continue but where no specific action has been agreed upon by the customer to move it forward...4)No-sales: Our final category is where the customer actively refuses a commitment."5- "Obtaining Commitment: Four Successful Actions 1. Giving attention to Investigating and Demonstrating Capability...2. Checking that key concerns are covered..3. Summarizing the Benefits... 4.Proposing a commitment"6- "The purpose of questions in the larger sale is to uncover Implied Needs and to develop them into Explicit Needs."7- "Demonstrating Capability Effectively: 1.Don't demonstrate capabilities too early in the call...2. Beware Advantages...3. Be careful with new products."8- "Making Your Preliminaries Effective: 1. Get down to business quickly...2. Don't talk about solutions too soon...3. Concentrate on questions."9- "The Four Golden Rules for Learning Skills Rule 1: Practice Only One Behavior at a Time Start by picking just one behavior to practice...Don't move on to the next until you're confident you've got the first behavior right.... Rule 2: Try the New Behavior at Least Three Times...Never judge whether a new behavior is effective until you've tried it at least three times...Rule 3: Quantity Before Quality...When you're practicing, concentrate on quantity: use a lot of the new behavior. Don't worry about quality issues, such as whether you're using it smoothly or whether there might be a better way to phrase it. Those things get in the way of effective skills learning. Use the new behavior often enough and the quality will look after itself...Rule 4: Practice in Safe Situations...Always try out new behaviors in safe situations until they feel comfortable. Don't use important sales to practice new skills."10- "The most important lessons come from the way you review the calls you make. After each call, ask yourself such questions as these: Did I achieve my objectives? If I were making the call again, what would I do differently? What have I learned that will influence future calls on this account? What have I learned that I can use elsewhere?"