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Creating major salesOverview - SPIN® selling

*Creating Major Sales 12/9/03 12:28 PM

What a question! Just stupid, or impertinentas well? But think about it for a moment. Asa sales professional, selling a high-valueproduct or service, you’re a very expensivepiece of hardware. So what’s the realreason your company invests so muchmoney to have you around?

You look after your customers, keep themhappy, try to develop them. Certainly, butcustomer care could be done by a muchcheaper resource. Maybe you writespecifications and proposals. But thosecould be prepared more cost-effectively bysomebody in a technical department. You

negotiate contract terms. Fine; that’s a skill,but it could be done by your legal orcommercial people.

Ever wonder why you're employed?

The most fundamental reason why you'reemployed, the unique function that youalone fulfil, which could not form part ofanyone else’s job description, is the creationof sales where they would not otherwiseexist. Not passively responding to requestsfor proposals, but creating a need fromscratch, developing it into a desire forpositive change and demonstrating that yourproduct can meet the need by giving thedesired change.

Next question: If creating major sales is theunique contribution you bring to the party,how do you do it? Not vaguegeneralisations, but blow-by-blow detail.How do you open a sales call? Do you askquestions? How? What kind? What about?What responses do you listen for from theprospect? What do they indicate? When doyou present your product or service? Whatdo you say about it? How do you gain theprospect’s commitment? Why do somesales calls succeed and some fail? How doyou measure success or failure? What doyou do that causes success or failure?

Got all the answers? OK. But are you surethey’re right? Would you bet your house?Worrying isn’t it? Because if any of youranswers are wrong it means you’ve lostyour house and you don’t totally understandthe most important function of your job.

Huthwaite has the answers. And we’re surethey’re right – so sure we’d bet ourcompany on it.

Let us explain why.

Creating major sales

SPIN, Huthwaite and the Buying Cycle are trademarks of Huthwaite Research Group Ltd and are registered in many countries throughout the world.This publication may not be reproduced (whether in whole or in part) in any form or by any means whatever without the permission of the copyright owner.

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Almost thirty years ago Huthwaite wasapproached by several major multinationals.They asked us to investigate the process ofcreating major sales, with a view to definingonce and for all the skills used by the mosteffective sales professionals.

These multinationals did not come toHuthwaite because we were acknowledgedexperts in sales training (we certainlyweren’t!) but because we had a uniqueresearch methodology, which had alreadyproven itself by providing revolutionaryinsights into interactive management skills.

Developed as an aid to behavioural scientificresearch, Behaviour Analysis was pioneeredby Huthwaite as a method for observing,categorising and quantifying objectively whatpeople say to each other in interactivesituations such as meetings, job interviews,appraisals – or sales calls.

When we have observed enoughinteractions and analysed them statisticallywe can isolate very accurately the pattern ofbehaviours that is most likely to produce asuccessful outcome in a meeting, interview,appraisal, sales call, etc. We call this idealpattern of behaviour the Success Model.

Once we have a Success Model for aparticular skill we can train people tomodify their behaviour to match the SuccessModel more closely and so improve theprobability of success. And that’s what ourmultinational clients wanted: the SuccessModel for creating major sales.

Science applied to major sales

Very early in the research project it becameapparent that there is a great differencebetween what top sales performers say theydo and what they are actually observeddoing in front of customers. The problemseems to be that the things that make topperformers consistently good are the thingsthey do naturally, whereas the points theywill stress in an interview, or pass on toothers as tips, are the small extrasophistications they have either inventedthemselves or had to work hard to master.

Having identified this discrepancy betweenperception and reality, the Huthwaite teamimplemented a programme of fieldaccompaniments to conduct live BehaviourAnalysis of sales transactions. Socontroversial were the initial findings intheir contradiction of conventional salestheory that the scope of the study wasexpanded several times until the researchresults were statistically incontrovertible.

The process is on-going. For nearly thirtyyears Huthwaite has analysed over 40,000sales interviews in 27 countries and studied116 factors, which might play some part inimproving sales performance. This remainsthe largest ever investigation into salessuccess.

The nine key behaviours that lie at the heartof the SPIN® selling model are the distilledresults of this research.

The SPIN® research

Not surprisingly, this invaluable research hasbeen turned into a training programme,which gives all sales professionals the

opportunity to optimise their performanceby adopting the SPIN® Success Model. Anoverview of the SPIN® Selling Skills

programme is overleaf, followed by asummary of some of the key researchfindings.

Optimising skills with SPIN®

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ObjectivesBy the end of the programme eachparticipant will:

• have analysed the strengths andweaknesses of their present selling style

• be able to describe the psychology ofcustomer needs

• be able to describe the key behaviours,or skills, used by effective salespeople intheir interactions with customers

• have a framework for planning sales callsin terms of these behaviours

• have frequently practised using the skillsto develop customer needs in a waythat greatly reduces the likelihood ofobjections

• have a strategy for dealing with difficultcustomers whoraise objections or havelow reaction levels

• have measured objectively theirperformance compared with the SkillModel and created an Action Plan forcontinued development of the skillsafter the programme.

Target audienceAny employees involved in the sale of goodsor services, which are seen as high-value,important decisions by the buyer. Inaddition to the obvious audience of salesexecutives and sales managers, thisprogramme can be very beneficial toengineers, technical specialists or salessupport staff who are involved in the sellingprocess or who may be exposed to sellingopportunities in the course of their workwith customers.

Programme content

• Basic principles of Behaviour Analysis –how it is used in research and skilldevelopment.

• Understanding your present selling style– are you a natural ‘pusher’ or ‘puller’.

• The psychology of customer needs –Implied and Explicit Needs defined –what they tell you about the customer’sstate of mind – which needs predictsuccess in the sale.

• Opening the call – avoiding a ‘canned’approach – establishing the right to askquestions.

• The SPIN® Model for developing needs:

• Situation Questions

• Problem Questions

• Implication Questions

• Need-payoff Questions.

• Demonstrating your capability – the realdefinition of a Benefit – dangers ofFeatures and Advantages.

• Objections – the myth exploded; theydon’t indicate interest or opportunity –how to prevent them – how to handlethem.

• Low Reactors – how to identify them –why they are dangerous – how tohandle them.

• Closing – why early, frequent closing isdangerous – the one, simple way to gaina commitment.

Overview – SPIN® selling

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Training design andmethodologyThe objective of this programme is to teachskills, to change trainees’ behaviour so thatthey perform more effectively. The trainingdesign is therefore based on the principlethat learning is doing.

The Skill Model is introduced incrementallyin ‘bite-sized chunks’, with a roleplaypractice opportunity at each stage.Participants are not required to perform infront of the training group. Roleplays areconducted one-to-one and tape recorded.Trainees are also taught the rudiments ofSPIN® Behaviour Analysis so that, aided bythe trainer, they can analyse the recordingsof their roleplays and give each otherobjective feedback on their actualperformance compared to the SuccessModel.

This repetitive cycle of input–practice–feedback helps trainees match theirbehaviour ever closer to the Success Modelas the course progresses and equips themwith the tools for continuing skillimprovement post-course.

MaterialsThere are comprehensive exercises andtranscripts of sales calls to test and refinetrainees’ understanding of the Skill Model,plus a library of user-friendly referencematerial giving detailed explanations of keyconcepts.

Roleplay scenarios can be customised tosimulate the sale of the trainees’ ownproducts or services to typical customers intheir market.

DurationNormally four days, other timing designs arepossible to suit individual clientrequirements.

Faculty and group sizeThe SPIN® programme is delivered by asenior Huthwaite consultant experienced,whenever possible, in the client’s industrysector. To ensure that each participantreceives individual attention and feedback,training group size is limited to a maximumof twelve.

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The full, fascinating story of the researchstudies and the development of the SPIN®

Selling Skills model can be found in MakingMajor Sales, written by Neil Rackham,founder of Huthwaite. Here we have spaceto mention only a few of the researchfindings which gave the world a new insightinto high-value selling skills.

All ‘needs’ are not the sameConventional training treats all needstatements as generic: ‘Find a need, meet itand you have a sale.’. Yet common sense saysthat there is a clear difference between acustomer who complains, "My present systemis a bit slow” and one who says, "I need afaster system immediately.”

Huthwaite’s research proved that there is aclear distinction between statements ofdissatisfaction, called Implied Needs, andstatements of desire for a solution, namedExplicit Needs. In major sales Implied Needshave no statistical relationship with success,whereas Explicit Needs are key indicators ofa successful outcome. Successful salespeopleuse a questioning technique to convertImplied Needs to Explicit.

Conventional ‘probing’ doesnot workProbing (sales jargon for asking questions) issupposed to uncover customer needs. Toachieve this, traditional training uses aseventy year old theory that dividesquestions into two types:

• Closed questions, which can have yes/noanswers, and

• Open questions, which require a longeranswer.

The research revealed two major problemswith this approach: 60% of Closed questionsactually receive long answers, because peoplelike to talk, and, not surprisingly, there wasno identifiable pattern of Open or Closedquestions in successful sales calls. Classifyingquestions by their form, Open or Closed,has no relevance in creating major sales!

Successful salespeople use afour-stage questioning modelRather than classifying questions by theirform, exceptional sales performers use fourtypes of questions, which are categorised bytheir purpose:

• Situation Questions – to gatherbackground information and understandthe context of the sale.

• Problem Questions – to explore thecustomer’s dissatisfactions and concerns.

• Implication Questions – that developapparently isolated problems byexamining their ‘knock-on’ effect onother areas of the customer’s business.

• Need-payoff Questions – that invitethe customer to consider the benefits ofsolving his or her problems and, havingdone so, to express an Explicit Need fora solution.

‘Benefit’ statements are themajor cause of objectionsGenerations of salespeople have beentaught to make ‘benefit’ statements byexplaining how their product is intended tohelp or be of advantage to the customer.Yet the Huthwaite studies showed that theeasiest way to create an objection is tooffer the customer an advantage that hasnot been asked for.

The true Benefit statement, the behaviourmost closely associated with success, showshow your product or service satisfies anExplicit Need for which the customer hasexpressed a desire for a solution. Goldenrule: no Explicit Need; don’t talk aboutyour product!

SPIN® research highlights

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Understanding the SPIN® Selling Skills Modelis relatively easy. But, even for experiencedsalespeople who are already using SPIN®

behaviours unconsciously, putting the modelinto practice at a consciously competentlevel is fiendishly difficult.

We also recognise that implementing aSPIN® culture is further complicated by thevery diverse sales structure, internal trainingresources and budget requirements ofdifferent clients. Huthwaite has thereforeprovided several implementation methods,offering considerable flexibility, but retainingthe content and delivery quality of theprogramme overviewed in this brochure.

• Huthwaite consultants can train yoursalesforce directly, running a four-daycourse in-company.

• We offer 'Spin®-Online' – a technology-enabled solution, more details areavailable on request.

• We can train your trainers to run thesame course and supply them withmaterials.

• We offer regular Public Courses forclients with only small numbers ofsalespeople.

• To ensure post-course support forSPIN® trainees we offer a four-daycourse to give sales managersobservation, feedback and coaching skills.

• Huthwaite consultants are alwaysavailable to assist in fieldimplementation, coaching or refreshertraining.

• For multinational clients we have thecapability to deliver SPIN® training inlocal language throughout most of thedeveloped and developing world.

The ultimate objective is to ensure thatSPIN® works for our clients. Experience, andsome very objective measurement, includingindependent studies by third partyconsultants (ask for copies of our reportson WF Electrical or Motorola), show that itdoes. Which probably explains why theworldwide list of SPIN® users includes suchcompanies as ABB, Bayer Diagnostics,Baxter Healthcare, Eversheds, GeneralElectric, IBM, Oracle Corporation, Peugeot,PricewaterhouseCoopers, Royal Bank ofScotland, Shell, SKF, Sony, Standard LifeHealthcare, Sun Microsystems, UPS.

If you’d like to join them, contact us andarrange a meeting with a HuthwaiteInternational consultant to explore howSPIN® could help you improve your saleseffectiveness.

Developing SPIN® selling skills

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• Developing majoraccounts

• Coaching skills

• Key accountmanagement

• Negotiation

• Presentations &proposals

• Sales management skills

• Sales awareness formarketing

• Selling skills

• Winning business fromcorporate entertaining


Huthwaite International,Hoober House,Wentworth, South Yorkshire S62 7SA, United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0)1709 710 081 Fax: +44 (0)1709 710 065 Email: [email protected] Website: www.huthwaite.co.uk


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