Tag Archives: Spin Selling

Neil Rackham is known throughout the world as a speaker, writer, and seminal thinker on sales and marketing issues. Three of his books have been on the New York Times best seller list, and his works have been translated into over 50 languages. He has been Chairman and CEO of three international research and consulting firms.

In the 1970’s Neil first gained international recognition for his studies of sales effectiveness, when he led the largest ever research study of successful selling. This massive project, supported by major multinationals including Xerox and IBM, involved a team of 30 researchers who studied 35,000 sales calls in over 20 countries. The research took 12 years at a cost of $30 million, in today’s dollars. From the results of these studies he published the groundbreaking classic SPIN® Selling (McGraw-Hill, 1988) and Major Account Sales Strategy (McGraw-Hill, 1989). His books regularly rank among business best sellers, and SPIN® Selling is McGraw Hill’s best selling business book ever. He is author of over 50 influential articles on marketing, selling and channel strategy.

Neil’s other books include Managing Major Sales and Getting Partnering Right: How Market Leaders Are Creating Long-Term Competitive Advantage. His recent book Rethinking The Sales Force has received wide acclaim from critics, academics, and salespeople. It is required reading at many leading business schools.

He has worked closely with many leading sales forces such as IBM, Xerox, AT&T, and Citicorp. He has also been an advisor on sales performance to several of the largest Fortune 100 companies in the United States.

Neil has worked extensively with senior partners in some of the world’s most successful professional services organizations including McKinsey & Company, where he was for many years a member of the Sales and Channel management Group. He currently serves as Executive Advisor for Go To Market Partners, a market strategy and sales effectiveness research and consulting firm.

Neil Rackham is also widely recognized as a highly original and creative trainer and communicator. His work in sales training won him the Instructional Systems Association award for Innovation in Training and Instruction, and more than half the Fortune 500 train their salespeople using sales models derived from his research.

He is a sought after conference speaker who receives top reviews from participants for his capacity to take complex issues and make them accessible and interesting. He uses a combination of humor, passion, and group interaction to stimulate and challenge his audiences.

Neil has a farm and winery in Northern Virginia and, when not working on improving sales performance, he writes poetry and science fiction, plays medieval musical instruments, and walks the Appalachian Trail.

There are millions of sales jobs around the world today, but a large number of those are disappearing every year. As technology advances and consumer demands increase, the idea of a salesperson as a “talking brochure” is no longer valid. World class sales forces understand this and are making every effort to adapt and maintain their positions of leadership in the marketplace. There is no greater authority than Neil Rackham on where the selling profession is headed and what individuals and organizations must do to distinguish themselves from their fierce competitors.

Having conducted the largest-ever study of professional selling – observing more than 35,000 sales calls in over 20 countries, at a cost of $40 million in today’s dollars – Neil presents objective, quantitative insights in a dynamic, interactive fashion that brings true learning to the audience. (The effectiveness of his teaching and training methods earned him the Instructional Systems Association’s lifetime award for Innovation in Training and Instruction.)

Many of of the Fortune 100’s largest companies in the United States, including IBM, Xerox, AT&T and Citicorp, have engaged Neil Rackham as an advisor on sales performance. More than half the Fortune 500 train their salespeople using sales models derived from his research. As a sought-after conference speaker, Neil has shared the platform with notable leaders such as Tom Peters, General Colin Powell, Philip Kotler and many others. Using his signature combination of humor, passion and group interaction, he stimulates and challenges his audiences to reach new heights in the world of professional selling.

Research

While a Post-graduate Research Fellow at Sheffield, he developed new research tools to study areas such as selling and negotiating where success depended on complex interpersonal skills. From watching top performing salespeople in action, Neil became convinced that much of the traditional wisdom on how to sell was inadequate and often downright wrong. He put together a research consortium, supported by major multinational companies including Xerox and IBM, raising the funds needed to mount the largest ever research study of successful selling. This project involved a team of 30 researchers who studied 35,000 sales calls in over 20 countries. From the results of these studies he published the groundbreaking classic SPIN® Selling[2] and Major Account Sales Strategy

Publications

Rackham’s books regularly rank among business best sellers, and SPIN® Selling[2] is McGraw Hill’s best selling business book ever[4], with sales increasing each year since its publication. SPIN® Selling[2] was also one of the first models of consultative selling.

Rackham has written over 50 articles on marketing, selling and channel strategy for publications such as Harvard Business Review[5] and McKinsey Quarterly[6].

His other books include Managing Major Sales[7] and Getting Partnering Right: How Market Leaders Are Creating Long-Term Competitive Advantage[8] . More than half the Fortune 500 train their salespeople using sales models derived from his research. His book Rethinking The Sales Force[9] has received wide acclaim from critics, academics and salespeople. It is required reading at many leading business schools.

The master piece of Neil Rackham

SPIN selling combat manual

Major account sales strategy

Manage customer sales

Get the right partner

Marketing revolution

What is SPIN?

The SPIN selling model has been developed through research studies of 35,000 sales calls. The objective of the research was to answer a question that had been troubling many people in high-end business to business sales.

SPIN Selling was created by Neil Rackham.Neil Rakham’s SPIN Selling was successful under the support of IBM and Xerox and lots of Hi-tech skillers.

marketing activities are generally go through four cycle stages: 1, opening start-up phase; 2, the exchange phase of research; 3, the ability to show stage; 4, the sale of commitment stage.Only on completion of one stage to enter into the next stage.However,It is the most important key of the second stage,The performence of this stage would decide your success or failure.Lots of failure marketing is that they put thekey to the other stages.SPIN Selling provides a effective system method.

SPIN selling method is actually Situation，Problem,Implicatio,Need-Payoff.So SPIN Selling law refers to the process in marketing professional to use the truth inquiry, problem diagnosis, inspire and guide and demand recognition techniques to identify four broad categories of questions，guide the client needs and expectations, so as to continuously push forward the marketing process for the marketing success create base.

4 Steps of SPIN Selling

Situation questions

In big sales, minimize the small talk and focus on finding background detail that can be used to make sense of the buyer’s business situation. Context creates meaning. This is about understanding the wider context before you zoom into the details.
Problem questions

Ask questions to uncover problems which your product can address. If you are selling tractors, ask about maintenance costs, breakdowns and so on. If you are selling life insurance, ask about how many dependents the person has.

A trap here is to dive straight into presenting the benefits of what you are selling. You may know the problem, but they do not! Going straight to the sales pitch will just get you objections.

Implication questions

Instead of telling them the problem they have (which is also likely to raise objections), the goal is now to get them to see (and feel!) the problem. By asking questions which draw out the implications of the problem, they get to feel the pain that will drive them towards your product. This is the ‘hurt’ of Hurt and Rescue.

For example, the person selling tractors might ask about implications of unplowed fields whilst the life insurance salesperson could carefully ask what would happen to the children if the target person died or became very ill.

Need-Payoff questions

Having hurt the target person with your implications, you now give them a straw to grasp at by asking how their pain could be resolved. With careful questions, you can get them to the state where they are asking for your product even before you show it to them. This is a very neat ‘rescue’ of Hurt and Rescue, where they either rescue themselves or ask you to rescue them.

For example, the tractor sales person can ask how much better the tractor was like when it was new, or whether any of the farmer’s neighbors have solved problems of old and problematic tractors. The insurance sales person could ask questions that build pictures of the target person’s children being safe and secure whatever curve-balls the world might throw at the family.