1.

SPIN selling

SPIN selling is about asking the right questions. The wrong

questions can decline your entire sales process or even bring it to an
unfortunate standstill. With SPIN, you let the buyer do the talking.

SPIN is an acronym for 4 different types of sales questions designed

to spark a prospect’s interest and push him or her closer to a
sale: Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Payoff.

1. SITUATION questions lay the very foundation of a sales cycle.

The goal is to understand the prospect and their situation and check
whether your offering can serve their needs. This information
plays a vital part in the rest of your sales cycle. The more legwork
you put in determining which questions you should ask, the more
useful the information.

So don’t ask “Who’s responsible at your office for new purchases?”.

Instead, ask: “What’s your decision-making process for new
purchases?” to identify a decision-maker.

Another simple example:

“How do you currently organise your business printing?”

2. PROBLEM questions help make your prospect aware of a
problem that needs to be solved and identify problems that are often
overlooked. These pain-points will be used to accelerate a deal.
“What’s the biggest problem you have when managing all your
office printing?”
3. IMPLICATION questions focus on the negative impact of
issues and highlight the urgency.
“If you don’t implement a new printing solution soon, how will
this impact your business?”
4. Once a prospect realises how the situation might
deteriorate, NEED-PAYOFF questions help them grasp the value of
a real solution. The secret to success is to help the buyer to specify
the benefits themselves. Get these questions right, and a prospect
will tell you how your product helps them.
"If you cut the amount of time spent on printing, how would that
impact your business?”
These 4 questions will help you discover what your buyer needs and
what the best way is for you to help him. If you use SPIN as a sales
tactic, asking the right questions will prospect to the right answers.

2. SNAP selling
Before modern buyers make a purchase decision, they’re overloaded
with information urging them to buy solution X or Y. This makes it
hard to get buyers’ attention, since they are wary of salespeople and
their tactics. SNAP selling focuses on the way customers make
decisions: influence them positively, so in the end they feel they
made the decision on their own.

Customers make 3 decisions before they decide to work with you:

1st decision - allow access: Understand that customers are

bombarded with interruptions and distractions, and might think of
salespeople as a pure waste of time. In order to earn access to their
time, convey relevant information in every touchpoint -- via
phone, email, etc.

Examples: Instead of using buzzwords in your communication, use

more honest low-key wording:

Bad: “As an industry-prospecting company, we deliver world-

class printing technology.”
Good: “We’re dedicated to help you save money with efficient
printing.”
Moreover, quit sending generic “just checking in” follow-up emails,
instead send an email with useful resources to educate and influence
such as a customer testimonial with tangible results. To respect a
prospect’s limited time, only ask for 5-minute mini-meetings. The less
time you ask for, the more likely they’ll want to chat.

2nd decision - initiate change: Once customers want to speak with

you, salespeople need to demonstrate the value of your offering
to the bone. What’s the ROI? How much time does it cost to
implement your solution?

Examples: Crazy-busy people are always interested in new insights

to achieve their business objectives. Share resourceful and bite-size
research to provoke your prospects’ thinking. Guide them through the
complexity of a decision with a straightforward overview of the steps
to take (i.e. a step-by-step guide on how to digitise office documents).

Also, keep your ears open for words like “dissatisfaction, bottleneck,
challenges, issues, frustration, trouble, concern” so you can dive
further into the problems and solve them with your business solution.

3rd decision - select resources: At this stage, prospects decide

which products to choose; they’re looking for ways to justify their
choice and try to minimise the risk. According to this principle, one of
the biggest mistakes salespeople make is being too nice, so focus on
helping the prospect make the decision: be flexible and willing to
collaborate, but clearly draw the line about what they can or
cannot expect from your offering.

Examples: Sketch out the competitive landscape, make an overview

of the pros and cons of you and your competitors’ offering and
prepare yourself to combat objections. If a customer wants
something you can’t offer, walk away. But if you have something
different to offer, highlight this added value.

Create a decision map for yourself from a buyer’s perspective that

maps out the different roads that lead to a closed deal. In addition,
provide them with a roadmap with an overview of characteristics and
benefits that helps buyers summarise what you have to offer.

Throughout these decision phases, there are four basic components

to bear in mind:

 keep it Simple: respect your buyers’ time and make it

incredibly easy to adopt what you’re selling. Pack information
into snackable thirty-second phone messages, ninety-word
emails, or one-page letters.
 be iNvaluable: rapidly build trust and showcase the value of
your offering. Demonstrate that you truly understand their
business, objectives, and priorities - and you’ll set yourself
apart. If a business is really concerned about their team’s
welfare, highlight how your solution will help them improve in
this area.
 always Align: align with your customers’ needs, issues, and
objectives. Make people want to work with you and you’ll
quickly gain access to the decision-maker.
 raise Priorities: A buyer always has certain priorities. Selling
successfully means understanding them and tapping into them.
Tie the organisation's priorities into your messaging. For
example, if saving costs is a top priority, highlight this aspect
throughout the entire sales process.

SNAP selling helps you to focus on the way a consumer thinks.

Respond to their thoughts, priorities and objectives to win their trust
and truly show them the value of your offer.

3. Challenger Sale
The Challenger Sale steers away from the idea that a good sales
approach starts with building a relationship with a prospect. The
reason: customers are too busy, too well informed, and have too
many options to invest in a relationship.

The model splits B2B salespeople into 5 personas: relationship

builders, hard workers, lone wolves, reactive problem solvers, and
challengers. After an in-depth assessment, challengers are by far the
most successful. Salespeople can adopt this by using a three-part
sales model: teach-tailor-take control.

1. Teach: For well-informed potential customers, you need to

bring unique, educational information or a new approach to
their problem to the table. The Challenger Sale method
educates prospects on how they can overcome their challenge
differently and uncovers needs they don’t know they have.
They have a competitive mindset and are careful observers to
deliver insights that make customers re-think their business
and their needs. Prospects are brought to an “A-ha”
moment: the new or innovative approach is eye-opening.
2. Tailor: Throughout the sales cycle, you might talk with different
people. Each person requires a tailored approach. To make
your message stick, personalise conversations: make sure
your communication is in tune with both the
organisation and your contact person’s individual goals,
motivations, needs, and concerns. Take a look at the
company’s website: what’s their look and feel, do you get a
sense of what their company culture is like? Try to mimic this
as much as possible.
3. Take control: The key to ultimately close a deal is to pursue a
goal in a direct, yet nonaggressive, two-sided way. To take
control, you need to talk to the right people; decision-makers or
people than can influence decisions. When a prospect pushes
back, the Challenger Sale method shifts the conversation
from price to value and challenges a prospect’s thinking.

Concrete tips to put the Challenger Sale technique into action:

 Create a plan for each conversation with a desired end goal and notes on ho
 Make sure there’s always a two-way exchange of information and value.
 A transaction should be mutually beneficial to each party. If not, walk away.

Some people hold onto a certain way of thinking. In an assertive yet

non-aggressive way, this method strives to challenge that. Change a
potential buyer’s viewpoint, and prospect them to an “A-ha”
moment.

4. Sandler Sale method

The Sandler Sales method encourages salespeople to act as a

reliable, trustworthy source: the buyer actually convinces the
seller to sell. To get to this point, Sandler-trained salespeople
facilitate an in-depth, heart-to-heart discussion moving beyond
technical issues, and focusing on the impact of a challenge on a
business.

Next to discussing the technical side of an issue, the buyer

emphasizes the high-priority needs, not just for the company, but for
themselves. In order to get this point, a seller should focus on 3
levels of pain:

1. Technical: the seller explores the very details of a technical

issue and encourages the buyer to outline the problem on a
business and personal level. This way, the buyer actually
convinces the seller they should invest in your offering. First
meetings with prospects are about discovering their needs, so
jumping right into a demo is out of the question.

1. The business-financial impact: buyers usually aren’t

convinced to buy something just because it helps solve their
technical issues. However, if a solution actually brings business
value like saving time and money you can spend on other,
more relevant projects, this is when you can really get your
buyer’s attention. Go beyond cost-saving arguments, and
quantify the impact of a solution such as being able to focus on
priorities. E.g. by being able to print x times faster, you’ll save x
amount of time and x amount of money.
2. Personal interest: next, try to put these problems in a
personal context. People sometimes make decisions for their
own personal reasons, not just for the company. “How is this
issue making your life more difficult?”. A potential buyer who
can personally gain something from your solution (e.g. like
being able to work less after hours or reducing work frustration)
will be much more committed to the deal. The only way to get
to this point is if a buyer convinces you, and more importantly
themselves, that a solution is a very high personal priority.
Identifying these 3 levels is the most important part of qualifying to
move beyond a technical issue and magnify the importance as well
increase the sense of urgency.

In short, the Sandler Sales technique not only focuses on the

technical aspects, but helps you outline the financial and personal
impact a sale can have on your prospect.

5. Consultative or solution selling

With this technique, a salesperson acts as an expert consultant and

asks questions to determine what the prospect needs. The focus is
on how the prospect feels when he or she’s talking to you. The
goal: forming a long-term bond by putting the customer first.

The consultative selling process focuses on 6 principles:

1. Research: In the first step, you gather all the information you
can get about a prospect before you start a conversation to
help you stack up on ammunition for your prospect
qualifying process. In addition, you need to look for
information about your competitors: how do you rank up
against a competitor? Before you establish a connection with a
customer, you need to become an expert in the buyer’s
business as well as anticipate any questions they might ask.

1. Ask: the key lies in asking the right questions about their needs
and pain-points. Start with more basic and general questions
and move onto more specific ones. Go from “How do you
currently manage your office printing?” to “How much time do
you spend on it daily?”. This will help you frame the
situation and get an idea of what your solution does
differently.

1. Listen: be genuinely interested in your prospect and absorb as

much information as possible. Identify what’s said, and more
importantly, what not. Nonverbal cues like tone of voice are just
as important too. Let the buyer do most of the talking. Ask
clarifying questions like, “Can you expand on this?”, as well as
summarise key takeaways from what your buyer said to avoid
misunderstanding. Keep your ears open for what’s important to
their business and its people: productivity, cost-efficiency, team
welfare, etc.
 1. Teach: Don’t teach about your product or service, but help
them overcome a business challenge and build a plan to
reach their goals. Make sure your ‘why’ is clear throughout
your conversations: clearly stress that you’re here to help
someone improve.
2. Qualify: if you have a chance to help, dedicate your time and
attention to those that are a fit. Next, it’s important to follow
through: don’t come across as too pushy in the run up to
closing a deal, but you want to stay top-of-mind too. If you’ve
carefully listened and clearly jotted everything down, you can
use this “juice” to send them relevant information in case you
haven’t heard back from them in a while. Think about what will
interest or help them and make sure you stand your ground.

1. Close: sealing the deal should be fairly easy to qualified

prospects as they typically have the budget and power to
decide in place. If there’s a push back, you can decide to dive
right in and point out the consequences of leaving the
situation as is. “What will happen if you can’t reach your
goal?”

According to this technique sale should result in one of these three

things, at all times:

 a customer achieves their goal (i.e. printing more efficiently)

 you solve their problem (i.e. printing no longer lags behind)
 you satisfy their need (i.e. save money)

Solution selling has the intention to create a long-term relationship

between a business and a customer. The solution salesman lets
buyers feel successful throughout the entire buying process. The only
way to do that, is to listen to them.

These 5 techniques all stretch the importance of qualifying potential

customers. Don’t sell to everyone you encounter, but talk to
prospects to figure out if you can offer them what they really need.

 SPIN will help you ask the right questions to uncover their
needs.
 SNAP focuses on the way a customer thinks and how you can
react to that.
 The Challenger Sales tactic also zooms in on a specific way of
thinking, in order to challenge and create a new perspective.
 The Sandler Sale creates that new perspective by showing
potential customers the technical, financial and personal impact
their choice can have.