SPIN Selling

The SPIN Selling process was developed following the careful observation of 35,000 sales calls carried out by experienced, professional sales experts. It was created as a method of helping salespeople understand the questions they were asking, and teaching them how to utilize targeted questioning to earn more sales. The quality of the question matters, so to improve your sale, learn how to ask better questions! The SPIN method of questioning can help.

1. (S) Situation questions: This kind of question is about asking situation type questions in order to get an understanding of context. You are looking for answers that give you general information. You can use more specific questioning to get more specific answers. An example of a situation question is, “how do you currently manage your customer’s contact details?”
2. (P) Problem questions: Use this question to discover challenges, shortcomings, and difficulties. As a salesperson, your goal is to help a potential customer solve their need. If they don’t understand that they have a problem, they will be less likely to seek solutions. An example of this kind of question is, “was the amount of training you needed to get up and running with your CRM ever a problem?”
3. (I) Implication questions: Implication questions get the buyer to state the costs of consequences of the problem that you established with the problem questioning. These questions make the customer eager to solve the problem that you have identified. An example is, “if you can’t accurately see your performance to date, how much response time do you have to implement a fix if you anticipate your sales are falling short of the target?”
4. Need Pay-off Questions: These questions make up the final stage of the SPIN selling process. The goal is to help the customer focus on the solution (which is what you’re selling!) An example is, “why is being able to have an overview of your sales pipeline important to you?”

Here is an instant tutorial on SPIN Selling, and why the questions matter! For more on SPIN selling, check out Why Questions Matter in Selling – A Synopsis of SPIN Selling.