SPIN SELLING: the method for successful complex sales

What is the SPIN Selling Method?

SPIN Selling: Definition of a Sales Technique Born from Research

It all began in the 1970s for Neil Rackham, author of the book SPIN Selling. As a young researcher with support from major corporations (IBM and Xerox notably), he embarked on extensive research into sales techniques.

Working with him for over ten years, thirty people analyzed 35,000 sales interviews conducted across different countries. The study's goal? To validate the effectiveness of traditional sales techniques of the era.

Rackham's Study Conclusions

Neil Rackham was far from imagining that his research conclusions would come to criticize and challenge traditional sales methods! His study swept away numerous certainties:

• No, how you close a sales interview is not the most important step

• No, asking many open-ended questions doesn't always increase sales

• No, being able to prevent customer objections doesn't necessarily lead to a purchase

Neil Rackham demonstrated that while the previous findings might be true for "small sales" (priced under $109), this wasn't the case for "big sales."

"Big sales" or complex sales require more than a simple phone call and don't work under aggressive marketing pressure... Instead, you need to let the customer decide for themselves by asking the right questions at the right time.

This is the foundation of the SPIN Selling method.

By focusing on people's real needs and asking relevant questions during the discovery phase and throughout the sales cycle, salespeople achieve better conversion rates!

SPIN Selling Process: The Four Phases of SPIN Sales

Neil Rackham describes 4 phases present in all B2B sales cycles:

• The Opening Phase (Opening stage)

• The Investigation Phase (Investigating stage)

• The Demonstration Phase (Demonstrating capability stage)

• The Commitment Phase (Obtaining commitment stage)

The B2B sales world is complex, and your customer can move from stage 1 to stage 4 in one month or two years.

What's important is that they progress regularly from one stage to another. This progression happens through their actions and engagement. For example, by requesting a quote or starting a free trial.

Rackham calls these actions "advances"—you should propose maximum relevant advances in your sales processes to increase your closing chances.

Why? It's a well-known cognitive bias called the commitment effect. Each advance is actually a positive decision. And each positive decision (however small) makes the next one more likely. Worth noting...

SPIN Sales: The Opening Phase

The first thing to know is that you shouldn't start by talking about yourself and your products. Not only is this aggressive and will drive away your prospect, but you'll also lose your chances to learn more about the prospect and their challenges. Ultimately, you could work against yourself by trying to sell the wrong service.

The objective of this phase is therefore to capture your prospect's attention and gain their trust. How? By showing interest in your prospect, asking them questions, and sharing relevant information about their business.

The Gap Selling method, whose objective is to understand the prospect's real needs, can help you during this opening phase.

SPIN Sales: The Investigation Phase

This second phase is the most important. And no, you're still not talking about yourself. This phase is where you investigate to understand what your prospect's real challenges are. How will your products or services actually help them? What are their priorities? How will they choose a solution? With whom?

You can draw inspiration from the MEDDIC method to identify all the elements you need to qualify your prospect at this stage.

SPIN Sales: The Demonstration Phase

Here we go—now you can talk about yourself. Now that you've perfectly understood your prospect's needs and challenges, you have all the tools to present your solution. You can use the right arguments and highlight the right aspects so it's more easily identified as the best option.

To be more impactful, you can draw inspiration from the CAB SONCAS method, which will give more weight to your arguments.

SPIN Sales: The Commitment Phase

This phase is both the final step and a continuous stage.

Your ultimate objective in a sales process is to obtain an order. The ultimate commitment.

In reality, with each exchange with your prospect, you have 4 possibilities:

• The order: You've won, congratulations!

• An advance: The client progresses in their sales process (provided you've mapped it out)

• Continuity: No significant change, the project is still ongoing

• End of process: You've lost

You should have a clear engagement objective from your prospect with each exchange. And this advancement objective must be aligned with your prospect's maturity.

You can't get a sale from the first exchange, nor can you nurture your prospect for decades.

Taking Action: The 4 Types of SPIN Selling Questions

Okay, so SPIN Selling described 4 major phases in the B2B sales cycle, but how do you advance through these different phases? How do you ask the right questions?

Thanks to "SPIN questions"—the 4 fundamental types of questions.

SPIN is simply the acronym for the four types of questions that should be asked by a salesperson to a prospect to establish a trust relationship in a sales process:

1. "Situation" questions (Situation)

2. "Problem" questions (Problem)

3. "Implication" questions (Implication)

4. Need-payoff or "Result" questions (Need-Payoff)

SPIN Selling: "Situation" Questions

Let's start with situation questions. They allow you to establish an initial connection with a prospect and provide answers about the context in which they operate.

They concern, for example, processes, tools, or the prospect's responsibility in their organization.

We seek to gather facts, figures, and elements about the work environment. Here are examples of situation questions:

• What is your position?

• How is your industry performing?

• What's your revenue this year?

• How many people do you employ?

Of course, these questions are a goldmine for you as a salesperson... But for your prospect, they can quickly become boring or leave a bad impression. You're not conducting an interrogation, so it's time to move on to more constructive questions.

SPIN Selling: "Problem" Questions

Problem questions highlight the prospect's explicit and implicit needs to bring out a major problem to solve.

The idea is to understand the current challenges and difficulties for your future client.

Often, more experienced salespeople are more comfortable conducting this type of interview. For example, we might seek to know:

• Are you satisfied with your X tool?

• What are the disadvantages of using your X solution?

• Does your X machine give you reliability problems?

SPIN Selling: "Implication" Questions

Implication questions are useful for making your prospect aware of the consequences of the problems they enumerated during the previous question phase.

These questions are very powerful: they offer real awareness of a problem initially perceived as minor. In essence, you'll help your future client gain perspective.

In the section devoted to these questions in the book, the author highlights an example of a sales conversation guided by implication questions. Rather than directly asking the client if they're interested in a new machine that could help them better use a tool, the salesperson raises numerous questions:

• How do you train your employees to use your tool?

• What are the training costs involved?

So we move from a negative and deliberate response: "No, your machine costs too much!" (see left figure below)... To a more moderate posture because the prospect becomes aware of the hidden costs of their tool (see right figure below).

SPIN Selling: "Results" Questions ("Need Pay-off")

"Need-payoff" or "needs to fulfill" questions obviously come at the final stage.

Now, your prospect has become aware of the difficulties they're experiencing. Initially, they might not have even existed for them.

With need-payoff questions, you'll help them project through solutions. These questions naturally prepare your client for purchase.

Examples of need-payoff questions:

• Why is it important to change X in your company?

• What would be the benefits if we changed X together?

However, make sure to wait until the end of the questions to finally present your product's benefits using the CAB method, for example.

SPIN Selling Example: How to Use It Today

The SPIN Selling book was written over 30 years ago. The work remains highly relevant. However, certain questions are no longer as essential (situation questions) in the current process because salespeople have powerful digital tools at their disposal!

The End of Situation Questions...

Today, is it appropriate to question your future clientele about their revenue, team, or offering? This data is so easily accessible... It can therefore serve to break the ice during a sales prospecting meeting and demonstrate your interest in their daily operations.

And the Beginning of Real Vision Provided by Sales Teams

Your prospects don't want to see you point out problems they're already aware of... They want your salespeople to answer their future questions by understanding their upcoming challenges! During your interview, therefore provide relevant facts and statistics about the prospect's industry or advise them with innovative strategies.

Social Media Essential in Your Prospecting

Don't spend too much time on situation questions... This could send a negative signal about you.

To avoid this, go read your future client's posts on LinkedIn—do they talk about their challenges? On their company's Facebook page, what does their community say? And on X, what national event did they recently participate in? Don't hesitate to interact on these networks—after all, this plays an important role in social selling.

Monitor Your Prospect's E-reputation

Before a meeting, don't neglect other easily accessible tools on the web:

• What questions are frequently asked on forums or Facebook groups in a specific industry?

• Is your prospect hiring? Perhaps you could offer them a new service capable of helping them in this approach?

• Are reviews left by your prospect's clients on sales or review sites positive? Do they give you information about obvious problems?

Leverage a CRM for Your Sales Team to Prosper

A CRM tool (customer relationship management tool) will help your entire sales team determine which questions generate sales. Indeed, you can't necessarily automate this sales technique, but you can feed your CRM with useful information to refine your sales funnel.

As you'll understand, the impact of the SPIN Selling method on the world of complex B2B sales remains undeniable, even several decades after its first introduction by Neil Rackham. By adapting the four fundamental questions to the digital age, salespeople can now navigate more easily in a saturated and complex commercial environment. SPIN Selling therefore continues to serve as a compass for sales professionals, guiding their approach not toward a simple transaction, but toward creating trust relationships and lasting value for both parties involved.