Neil Rackham, the author of the ground-breaking Spin Selling strategy will be speaking at the Move Ahead 1 live seminar in New Jersey on December 4, 2008. So who is Neil Rackham and why are so many Sales Managers disciples of his Spin Selling Theory?

Neil Rackham’s 12 year, $1 million dollar massive research project revealed how the larger sale requires a different approach to be successful. This research produced the unique sales strategy Spin Selling, Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Payoff.

In this blog post we have interviewed Sales Professionals that have successfully used Spin Selling and have asked for their input and comments to examine the benefits of Neil Rackham’s revolutionary theory.

The Basic Spin Selling Theory

Spin Selling teaches us that there is a difference in how we approach the larger sale. Conventional wisdom has taught sales professionals that the techniques for small and large sales are the same. Salespeople have been sold this philosophy that the same objection handling and closing techniques should be used, regardless of the size of the sale.  

Low value sales are generally quick decisions, with a predetermined need and are successful with many of the traditional closing techniques taught to Salespeople. Customers see very little risk in these decisions and therefore do not give a great deal of thought to this purchase.

High Value or the larger sale are more complicated and generally require an investigation of needs, relationship building and multiple steps. Spin Selling teaches that powerful probing and investigation questions are critical components of a positive outcome and that using tradition methods of closing can reduce your sales success rate in the larger sale. Customers are much more conscious of value and risk in a major sale. This makes their decision very public and visible to others in their organization and makes them much more cautious.

There are four stages of a sales call:

1. Preliminaries
2. Investigating
3. Demonstrating Capability
4. Obtaining commitment

Spin Selling reveals that the larger sale requires more emphasis on the Investigation Stage. Some closing techniques are regarded as pressure by the customer and with the larger sale this is more apt to cause a negative reaction to the pressure. Spin Selling teaches us to obtain a commitment, but to make sure you are obtaining the right commitment. To do this, we must define success in obtaining the commitment. Perhaps this is a product demonstration, a meeting with someone further up in the decision process, etc. This is determined in the investigation phase. Using a closing technique prior to this can have a disastrous effect.

Ok, this is the basic theory of Spin Selling, now lets examine how it is working in real life. I would like to thank the Sales Professionals that participated in this research that made this blog post possible.

Results of interviews with Sales Professionals

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Chris O’Hara

Senior Vice President at Reviewed.com
Columnist at Canvas Magazine
Author at Random House 

“For me, Spin Selling, is simply putting a process behind the fundamental habits of the successful salesman: finding out what your customers’ problems are, before trying to ‘solve’ them with your products. I have always used a version of the Spin process with customers, and am finding the consultative approach quite effective as we launch a multitude of global review sites.”

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Karen Cooper, MBA

Senior Account Executive, Transworld Systems Inc
Edison, NJ
Top 5 order writer (out of 700 national salespeople) for 6 consecutive years
 

“I found the book “Spin Selling” to be the most useful sales book I’ve ever read.  While most other sales books are primarily motivational and designed to make you think positive thoughts toward reaching your goals, Spin Selling is pragmatic and provides specific advice to improve sales skills.  The advice is based on years of research analyzing actual sales calls by top salespeople and less successful salespeople which resulted in concrete evidence of the differences in approaches.”

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Chad Malchow

Vice President, U.S. Sales - Direct
Return Path

“SPIN Selling is a core component of our sales and client services training at Return Path.  Neil Rackman provides an easy to understand process on how we can improve our effectiveness as sales professionals.  SPIN Selling brings the ”conversation” back into sales process and turns the focus away from us and to the client.”

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Spin Selling Blog Post By Industry

• Spin Selling and Recruiting
• The Medical and Pharmaceutical Sales Interview: How to Sell
• What Lawyers need to know about Spin Selling
• Real Estate Sales - How to approach with Spin Selling

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Neil Rackham Live Seminar on December 4, 2008

Time: 8:00 a.m. to 12 noon

Location: Radisson Hotel

21 Kingsbridge Road

Piscataway, N.J. 08854

Price: $99.00

More Information

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