Is SPIN® Selling still relevant? Interview with Neil Rackham — Transcript

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1. 0:04the spin model is about understanding
2. 0:08I suppose the breakthrough with spin was
3. 0:12it's no longer about persuading
4. 0:14customers people persuade themselves
5. 0:17it's about really understanding them and
6. 0:20their needs so they could do a good job
7. 0:23of creating value that hasn't changed
8. 0:26but some other things have changed which
9. 0:30make the spin model probably more
10. 0:32relevant today than it was thirty years
11. 0:35ago one of those things is that the
12. 0:39products have become commodities so that
13. 0:41salespeople are the differentiator
14. 0:43if salespeople the differentiator then
15. 0:46how do they differentiate they
16. 0:47differentiate by really understanding
17. 0:49the customer much more deeply than the
18. 0:52competition by being able to create new
19. 0:54creative solutions by being able to
20. 0:57bring value and the spin models are very
21. 0:59helpful way to do that but we are in the
22. 1:0321st century and the spin models got to
23. 1:06change way back when we did the original
24. 1:10spin research we found that situation
25. 1:13questions questions about fact were
26. 1:16slightly negatively correlated with
27. 1:19success you could ask too many often
28. 1:22today they're actively positively
29. 1:27negatively correlated that is if you ask
30. 1:30a lot of situation questions and the
31. 1:32customer will come really impatient
32. 1:34they'll say you should have done your
33. 1:35homework you should have known that
34. 1:37because a lot of the things that you
35. 1:39found out with a spin model 30 years ago
36. 1:42you found out face to face with the
37. 1:44customer because there was no other way
38. 1:46to do it today
39. 1:49you can research that you don't have to
40. 1:52ask those many situation questions so
41. 1:54situation questions change problem
42. 1:57questions change to one of the things
43. 2:00which we found 30 years ago was if you
44. 2:05ask customers about problems you find
45. 2:08out their needs you find out information
46. 2:11which helps you sell which helps them
47. 2:13understand their own problems you get
48. 2:16into areas where they have
49. 2:18and where they have interest but in
50. 2:22those days it was enough to ask problems
51. 2:26about how things are now you could ask
52. 2:32problem questions like are you happy
53. 2:35with your present supplier are you
54. 2:39getting the right kind of performance
55. 2:40out of the equipment you're using to get
56. 2:45the right service levels 24/7 from your
57. 2:51your present way of doing things your to
58. 2:54uncover problems that way no what's
59. 2:59happened is this those problem questions
60. 3:02aren't quite as easy to ask and surefire
61. 3:07as they used to be if you say do you
62. 3:10have problems with your present
63. 3:12equipment know most people say no it's
64. 3:15working okay whereas 30 years ago when
65. 3:18things were much less reliable you could
66. 3:20be pretty sure there'd be an answer
67. 3:22there that you could use so that's one
68. 3:25change but another change is this is a
69. 3:28curious one research done in the last
70. 3:31three or four years shows that customers
71. 3:34rate the added value of salespeople as
72. 3:39highest when salespeople ask about
73. 3:42future problems not just about present
74. 3:46problems I remember I interviewed one
75. 3:49buyer in this research and he said to me
76. 3:52you know if I fall into a pit there's 50
77. 3:56salespeople who can sell me a ladder to
78. 3:58help me climb out there's only one in 50
79. 4:00who can stop me from falling into the
80. 4:02pit in the first place there's a way of
81. 4:05saying I'm interested in people who can
82. 4:08help me with the problems that have not
83. 4:10yet occurred not just the problems that
84. 4:12have occurred so that's how problem
85. 4:15questions change in this new world of
86. 4:18selling spinning in the 21st century
87. 4:21implication questions are even more
88. 4:25important now than they were when we
89. 4:28first did this implication quest
90. 4:31proved to be most powerful in the
91. 4:33original research when people were
92. 4:35selling complex solutions the solutions
93. 4:39today compared with 30 years ago are
94. 4:42even more complex it's even more
95. 4:45important to ask implication questions
96. 4:47and finally need payoff questions
97. 4:50questions about value we live in a world
98. 4:53driven by value almost the definition of
99. 4:57selling today is creating customer value
100. 5:00and how could you create it if you don't
101. 5:03ask about it so neat payoff questions
102. 5:05are as powerful or more powerful today
103. 5:08in the 21st century they were back in
104. 5:11the 20th century when we discovered the
105. 5:13spin model