SPIN is a way to plan the questions in a sales conversation. It comes from the British researcher Neil Rackham, who published it in his book SPIN Selling (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988). The book reports that his team observed more than 35,000 sales calls over twelve years to find out what successful sellers did differently in large, complex sales.
One finding was that successful sellers in large sales did not talk more about their product. They asked better questions, in a pattern Rackham named after the four question types.
The four question types
Type | What it asks about | Example (a printing company talking to a law firm) |
|---|---|---|
Situation | Facts about the buyer's current situation | "How many documents does your office print per month?" |
Problem | Difficulties, dissatisfaction, things that do not work | "Which printing jobs cause you the most trouble?" |
Implication | The effects and consequences of a problem | "What happens to a court deadline when the printer breaks down that morning?" |
Need-payoff | The value of solving the problem, in the buyer's own words | "How would it help you if broken printers were replaced the same day?" |
Situation questions are needed, but buyers find many of them boring, and you can often find the answers before the call. Ask few, and only the ones that matter.
Problem questions uncover what Rackham called implied needs: statements of problems, difficulties or dissatisfaction, such as "our printer is slow".
Implication questions make a problem bigger and clearer. A slow printer is a small annoyance; a missed court deadline is serious. Rackham found that in large sales, successful sellers asked many more implication questions.
Need-payoff questions ask the buyer to say what a solution would be worth. When the buyer says the benefit, it is more convincing than when the seller does. They turn implied needs into explicit needs: clear statements of a want, such as "we need a printer we can rely on".
SPIN is a guide for planning, not a script. Real conversations jump between types, and a good seller follows what the buyer says.
The scenario for the tasks
Fabrikam is a fictional company that sells software for planning delivery routes. A Fabrikam seller talks to the logistics manager of Wide World Importers, a fictional wholesaler with twelve drivers and about 300 deliveries a week.
Write your own SPIN questions
This task is not scored. Write your answers on paper or in a document, then compare them with the model answers.
The scenario. You work for Relecloud, a fictional company that sells an online appointment booking system with automatic reminders. You are talking to the practice manager of Lamna Healthcare, a fictional group of six physiotherapy clinics. Before the call you know:
Patients book appointments by phone. The phone lines are busy every morning.
The receptionists also welcome patients and handle payments.
Some patients do not turn up for their appointment and do not cancel.
Write two questions of each type for this call, eight in total. Use open questions where you can. Then write one sentence on which of your questions you would ask first, and why.
Model answers
Many other questions are just as good. Check that each of yours fits its type.
Situation
How do patients book an appointment with you today?
How many receptionists work at each clinic, and what else do they do?
Problem
What happens at the reception desk when the phone rings while a patient is paying?
How often do patients miss an appointment without cancelling?
Implication
What does an empty appointment slot cost a clinic, for example in a therapist's lost time?
How do busy phone lines affect patients who want to book? Do some give up and go elsewhere?
Need-payoff
How would it help your receptionists if most bookings arrived online, without a phone call?
What would it be worth to you if patients got a reminder and could cancel with one click, so the slot could be given to someone else?
Which first? One situation question to start (question 1), because the answer shows whether booking by phone is really the main channel. After that, the buyer's answers decide where to go next.
Common mistakes when learners write their own:
A "need-payoff" question that is really a sales pitch: "Wouldn't our system with automatic reminders save you lots of money?" It describes the product and puts words in the buyer's mouth.
An "implication" question that is really a second problem question: "Are no-shows a problem?" An implication question asks what the problem leads to.
Situation questions that research could answer: "How many clinics do you have?" when the website lists all six.
Teacher notes
How to run it. Read the introduction and the table together (5 minutes). Learners then do the four scored tasks (15 minutes) alone or in pairs, and write their own questions (10 minutes). Share the class link from "Use it with a class" if you want to see results.
Common mistakes.
Sorting "How often do customers complain about late deliveries?" as a situation question because it asks for a number. It asks about a difficulty, so it is a problem question. The test: does the question point at something going wrong?
Confusing implication and need-payoff questions. Implication questions look at the cost of the problem; need-payoff questions look at the value of the solution.
Thinking a closed question cannot be a SPIN question. Type and form are separate: "Is planning a problem?" is a closed problem question.
Follow-up questions.
Why might buyers trust a benefit more when they say it themselves?
Can implication questions be used unfairly, for example to frighten a buyer? Where is the line? (A good answer: the consequences must be real and the buyer's own. Exaggerating risks to create fear is manipulation.)
Rackham's research looked at large sales. Would you use SPIN to sell a coffee in a café? Why or why not?
Going further. Use the questions in the role play of the discovery call lesson. Source for the method: Neil Rackham, SPIN Selling, McGraw-Hill, 1988.