SPIN MODEL
of Selling
• SPIN selling is research-backed. Neil Rackham and
Huthwaite International studied 35,000 sales calls
to see what tied the most successful of them
together.
• They also performed a behavioral analysis on the
salespeople they studied. They found they could
model the success of top-performing salespeople.
• This approach also builds rapport with the
prospect, making the prospect more patient and
amenable to communication.
Introduction
• The SPIN sales methodology comes from Neil
Rackham’s 1988 “SPIN Selling” bestseller. It’s a
research-based selling process, created from the
study of 35,000 sales calls.
• SPIN selling guides sellers through the sales process
from discovery to close.
• It does so by giving them the right types of questions
to ask.
• SPIN selling is very effective during high-price,
complex sales processes. So sales reps need to be
both trustworthy consultants and B2B salespeople.
• SPIN selling helps reps become understanding
consultants. It does so by giving them a
framework of questions to ask. These fall
under the four SPIN categories.
• SPIN stands for:
• Situation
• Problem
• Implication
• Need-Payoff
• The key with all these categories is to keep
questions open-ended. This gets your prospect
talking frankly about their organization and needs.
• Generally, the SPIN methodology calls for reps to
ask questions from each category in sequence.
Start with situation questions, move to problem
questions, then to implication questions, before
capping off with need-payoff questions.
1.Situation questions examples
• Situation questions are aimed at helping the sales rep understand
the prospect’s current situation. While asking these types of sales
questions, a rep will look to understand the organization’s current
processes and how things actually work in that company. Examples
of situation questions include:
• What’s your approach to [your product’s use case]?
• What does your role in the company involve?
• What tool are you currently using for [use case]?
• What’s your org’s budget for [problem]?
• What’s your top priority for this quarter/half/year?
• Who in the business is responsible for [use case]
• Problem questions examples
• Once a rep has discerned the general situation at the lead’s
company, they can move onto the next group of questions.
2.Problem questions
•Problem questions are pretty self-explanatory — they’re all about
discovering the prospect’s problem. By asking these questions, a rep
can find out whether your product or service could solve those pain
points.
Examples of problem questions include:
•Are you happy with [process]?
•What’s your biggest pain point on a day-to-day basis?
•What gets in the way of you achieving [important business goal]?
•Do you think [pain point] is solvable?
•What are your biggest challenges in dealing with [problem]?
•An expert-led practical guide to understand, design, build, implement
and reinforce winning GTM methodologies that lead to revenue
acceleration and repeatable customer success.
3.Implication
• Showing your client the possible causes and
effects of their most pressing pain points
supports the sense of urgency you laid out in
the problem questions step.
• Once again, avoid mentioning your product—
at this point, the call is still about the
customer and their needs.
Implication questions examples
By asking these questions, reps drive a sense of
urgency and help encourage the potential
customer to make a decision quickly.
• How much time is wasted on inefficient
communication each week?
• How much more could your teams achieve each
week without those time sinks?
• Have communication problems ever delayed
product rollout?
• Examples of implication questions include:
• How does [pain point] impact your ability to hit KPIs?
• Does [pain point] hurt your customer’s experience as well?
• What’s at stake if you fail to solve [pain point]?
• How much time/money is [issue] costing your company?
• What goals or successes is [issue] blocking you from
achieving?
• How is [problem] affecting you and your team’s work?
• Need-payoff questions examples
4.Need-payoff
• The seller needs to show how their current situation and
future challenges can be solved, using your service as
the best solution to their present and future challenges.
• If your sales team had the confidence to delve deeper
and explore opportunities, what value would this have
on long-term customer retention?
• If you could instill a behavior change mindset using a
well-researched sales methodology, how would that
help your strategic business direction?
Stage 1: Opening
• The opening stage isn’t about pushing your product or
making your sales pitch. Like some of the other
methodologies we’ve looked at (such as the Sandler selling
system, for example), this first stage is about building
rapport and creating a relationship with the prospect.
• Don’t bombard your newfound lead with talk about how
great your product or service is and how much more
efficient it will make their team.
• Instead, get high-level information that’s relevant to
closing the sale further down the line.
Stage 1: Opening
• In the beginning, don’t push your product
• Focus on building a sincere relationship
• Gather as much information as you can
• Ask questions and show interest in your leads
Stage 2: Investigating
• Once you’ve created that relationship with the prospect, you build on
that trust and integrity by asking your problem questions.
• Working to understand your prospect’s pain points will build your
credibility further, help you uncover valuable information and context,
and qualify the appropriateness of your solution for this prospect.
• Sometimes, the prospect won’t just outright tell you their explicit
needs, so your reps may have to infer and read between the lines to
fully understand the true issues in the organization.
• You have to know what roadblocks your prospect and the prospect’s
organization are facing before you can start touting your product or
service as the solution.
Stage 2: Investigating
• Find out what’s frustrated leads in the past
• Investigate pain points to build trust and
credibility
• Reassure leads that you have their best interests
in mind
• Overcome objections
Stage 2: Investigating
• What issues do you have with your current processes
for time-tracking?
• How time-consuming or cost-prohibitive is it for your
team to track their time accurately?
• Has your current time-tracking process ever failed?
• What are the biggest challenges your company faces
with tracking time?
Stage 3: Demonstrating capability
• Moving onto stage three of four in the SPIN selling method:
Demonstrating capability. At this point, you’ve built a credible
relationship with the prospect and understand their pain points.
• Now, it’s time to start talking about your product or service, and
how it can benefit their organization and help solve those pesky
problems. Remember the old saying of "benefits over features"
here.
• While fast processing times might be a feature of your software,
the benefit is that you can get more work done, faster. Your
prospect wants to know how it’ll benefit them in their day-to-day
work.
Stage 3: Demonstrating capability
• Tie your solution to the prospect’s problem
• Demonstrate value and capability
• Showcase features
• Provide product demos
4. Obtaining commitment
• Encourage a small step forward with Need-Payoff
questions.
• This could be a trial, follow-up meeting, or a final
deal.
• This step guides the client to move forward to the
next steps.
• At this point, it’s important for your sales team to
reflect on what worked and what didn’t in each
customer interaction to make future deals even
better.
• Obtain commitment and receive payment
• Handle the paperwork
• Thank the new customer
• Celebrate!
• Per Rackham, there are four outcomes for a SPIN sale:
• Advance: The prospect does not make a purchase but
wants to move forward.
• Continuation: The prospect does not buy but requires
you to continue reaching out in the future.
• Order: The prospect purchases the product or service.
• No-sale: The prospect outright declines the purchase.
