Reviews
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The canon of Sales Lit goes back only a couple of decades. In that canon, Neil Rackham's first "Spin Selling" takes a special place as one of the classics or founding texts. So, if you need help preparing a meeting with one of your largest accounts, take the time to re-read this classic text.
Sure, we all know how to ask questions, but Neil is the first to make the point that the wrong kinds of questions will more likely kill the deal than win it.
Neil's classic distinction between "implicit" and "explicit" needs -- what I like to call "surface" vs. "deeply-held" need -- will help focus any salesperson's line of questioning. With each deeply-held need uncovered, the likelihood of closing the sale rises exponentially.
For instance, I recently went into a meeting with one of my largest accounts knowing the company needed an easy-to-use storage software solution. If I based my proposal on this explicit need, the meeting would have gone nowhere fast.
But, during the meeting, I uncovered the deeply-held needs that the software needed to work with the Mac and Linux OS's, and be localized for Chinese and Japanese, as the company was preparing for the Asian market.
As I walked out of the meeting, I felt secure in the knowledge that I had uncovered more than three deeply-held needs. Confident of my line of questioning in that meeting, the rest of the sales process went swimmingly.
Anyone who manages large accounts needs to keep reading -- and re-reading -- Neil's classic text.
Sure, we all know how to ask questions, but Neil is the first to make the point that the wrong kinds of questions will more likely kill the deal than win it.
Neil's classic distinction between "implicit" and "explicit" needs -- what I like to call "surface" vs. "deeply-held" need -- will help focus any salesperson's line of questioning. With each deeply-held need uncovered, the likelihood of closing the sale rises exponentially.
For instance, I recently went into a meeting with one of my largest accounts knowing the company needed an easy-to-use storage software solution. If I based my proposal on this explicit need, the meeting would have gone nowhere fast.
But, during the meeting, I uncovered the deeply-held needs that the software needed to work with the Mac and Linux OS's, and be localized for Chinese and Japanese, as the company was preparing for the Asian market.
As I walked out of the meeting, I felt secure in the knowledge that I had uncovered more than three deeply-held needs. Confident of my line of questioning in that meeting, the rest of the sales process went swimmingly.
Anyone who manages large accounts needs to keep reading -- and re-reading -- Neil's classic text.
reviewed by geo on November 16, 2006 9:03 AM
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SPIN Selling illustrates the validaty of the method by showing how real Fortune 500 sales forces have improved by asking the right questions to uncover customer pain.This book will enlighten sales managers and any representatives who manage large sales transactions. Also, executives can benefit from the insights about large sales. I have personally improved my sales numbers greatly after utilizing the ideas in SPIN Selling.This book deserves a place in all-time sales manual classics.
reviewed by ladyrunner on November 25, 2006 3:38 AM