The SPIN Question Sequence

by Graham Denton

The "SPIN" selling system was developed by British research psychologist Neal Rackham, whose company, Huthwaite Inc., has taught it to hundreds of corporations worldwide. At the heart of the system, as it is explained in Rackham's book SPIN Selling, is a precisely defined sequence of four question types that enables the salesperson to move the conversation logically from exploring the customers' needs to designing solutions, or to in Rackham's terms, to uncover Implied Needs and develop them into Explicit Needs that you, the salesperson, can resolve. Here are the four types of questions:

Situation Questions. Example: "Would you describe your current account documentation system?" Every good seller begins the sales call by assessing the terrain, by asking questions to clarify the customer's current situation. So Situation Questions are essential, but here's the surprise. Huthwaite's research found that, as valuable as they are, Situation Questions also can be overused, and often are by inexperienced salespeople. In fact, one characteristic of unsuccessful sales calls, they found, is that they contain a higher than average number of Situation Questions. Their advice: Do ask Situation Questions, but be sure they're necessary ones. Don't ask a question to elicit information that you easily could have obtained before beginning the call. And know that, when overused, these questions bore the customer.

Problem Questions. Example: "So you're having trouble retrieving account-sensitive data on a timely basis?" Questions that are designed to identify a customer's problem are more often asked -- and asked more often -- by experienced salespersons. The reason seems obvious enough. Inexperienced reps hope to "sail through" the call; they are tempted to see the customer's problems as a distraction or threat. The more experienced you become, the more you want to uncover difficulties: The more you realize that customer difficulties present you with an opportunity to be of service. One caveat, though: Huthwaite's research suggests that the effectiveness of these questions is inversely proportional to the size of the sale under consideration. They are most effective in smaller-ticket transactions.

Implication Questions. Example: "What kind of closing opportunities do you think your people have missed because of the data-retrieval problem?" These are questions about the "effects, consequences, or implications of the customer's problems." They are strongly linked to success in larger-ticket sales, and yet they're more difficult to phrase than either Situation Questions or Problem Questions. But they are essential to moving larger sales forward, because they help to make the customer (and the seller) conscious of hitherto hidden complications or of potential difficulties that may arise if steps are not taken to remedy the immediate problem. The virtue of this question is therefore also the risk: They make the problem seem more acute to the buyer.

Need-Payoff Questions. Example: "If you could get quicker, more reliable retrieval, what overall gain in revenues might you realize?" Like Problem Questions, which they naturally follow, Need-Payoff Questions are linked to success in more complex sales. They can be especially useful when you're talking to top decision makers (or those who will influence them), and they increase the likelihood that your solution, if accepted, will provide the payoff that answers the need. These questions focus the customer's attention on the solution rather than the problem, and they encourage him or her (with your assistance) to outline the benefits that your solution will provide his or her company. Thus a good Need-Payoff Question both preempts objections and enlists customer buy-in.

Putting these four questions together in an orderly sequence, Rackham gives the following thumbnail definition of the SPIN Selling model:

The seller uses Situation Questions to establish a context leading to Problem Questions so that the buyer reveals Implied Needs which are developed by Implication Quesitons which make the buyer feel the problem more clearly and acutely leading to Need-Payoff Questions so that the buyer states Explicit Needs allowing the seller to state Benefits which are strongly related to sales success.

As long-winded as that summation may be, the logic of the process is common sense. As Rackham acknowledges, the SPIN model isn't a revolutionary discovery. It's simply "the way most successful people sell on a good day when the call is going well."