SPIN Selling - Neil Rackham

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Here is a summary of the key points from the chapter:

• The author was hired by a Fortune 100 company’s VP of Sales to conduct research on why the company’s sales were 30% lower than expected, despite large investments in recruiting and training.

• The author’s organization, Huthwaite, had developed a method called behavior analysis to observe salespeople and identify which behaviors were most linked to sales success.

• They observed 93 sales calls by traveling with some of the company’s top performers and lower performers.

• When presenting the findings to the VP, the author expected he wouldn’t like what they found. They discussed successful calls first.

• Contrary to the VP’s assumption, the research found the top performers were not using many closing techniques. In fact, successful calls had fewer closes than unsuccessful ones.

• This countered the conventional wisdom at the time that assumed closing skills were the key to sales success, especially in major sales.

• The chapter sets up an exploration of what behaviors did differentiate successful from unsuccessful salespeople in the study, challenging traditional sales models and assumptions. It introduces the idea that success in major sales may require a different set of skills than smaller sales.

• The vice president (VP) of the company was convinced that their sales training, which focused on closing skills, objection handling, and probing with open/closed questions, was effective based on their success and the practices of other major companies.

• However, the researcher’s findings from analyzing over 35,000 sales transactions showed that these traditional selling methods did not actually correlate with success and that top salespeople were not using them, especially for larger deals.

• This went against the VP’s beliefs and experience, so he rejected the findings. The meeting ended poorly for the researcher.

• Since then, the researcher has gathered much more evidence from extensive research. They now have convincing answers they could provide to the VP based on a better understanding of what actually drives success in large deals.

• For example, they could explain that the traditional methods work for small deals but not large, complex ones. They could also describe the powerful SPIN probing strategy used by top salespeople.

• Interestingly, many of the major companies cited by the VP ended up coming to the researcher to redesign their sales training based on the new research findings about larger deals.

So in summary, the researcher was initially unable to convince the VP due to lack of evidence, but has since gained compelling proof that could change the VP’s perspective on what really drives sales success, especially for important deals.

• The passage criticizes traditional sales training programs for treating major-account salespeople like used car salesmen and viewing customers as simpletons to exploit. This approach is a recipe for disaster in major sales which require high-level business interaction.

• Major sales are different from small sales in characteristics like longer selling cycles that can span months with many calls, larger customer commitments requiring value to be built, and ongoing relationships rather than one-time transactions.

• Factors like forgetting most of a sales pitch over time, customers disliking a pushy style requiring repeat meetings, and need to demonstrate value for large commitments mean techniques for small sales may backfire in major sales.

• An anecdote illustrates how a salesperson’s focus on product knowledge failed to address a customer’s lack of perceived value in a large copying system sale. Building value is key for larger deals.

• Another anecdote from the author’s experience as a buyer contrasts a successful quick small sale versus a more important accounting system sale requiring an ongoing relationship with the vendor.

• The passage describes a salesperson’s hesitation in making a large purchase decision for a new computer system over just a smaller purchase like an overhead projector.

• With a large purchase, the salesperson is essentially entering into an ongoing relationship with the seller over months to implement the system, rather than just a one-time transaction. This makes separating the seller from the product much harder.

• Larger decisions carry more risk since mistakes are more public and visible to the whole company/organization. Customers become more cautious with larger decisions due to higher stakes.

• The passage outlines four typical stages of a sales call: preliminaries, investigating, demonstrating capability, and obtaining commitment. While present in all calls, the importance of each stage varies depending on context.

• Larger sales involve intermediate commitment steps called “advances” toward the final decision, rather than always being an outright purchase order. Closing techniques taught for smaller sales may not work as well for major sales.

• Relationship building is more important for larger sales compared to just focusing on the product alone. Selling style needs to change accordingly.

• The passage discusses the four stages of a typical sales call: Investigating, Presenting, Dealing with Objections, and Obtaining Commitment.

• It argues that Obtaining Commitment may be the most important stage for smaller sales, as closing the sale is crucial. However, for larger sales, Investigating is most vital to success.

• The passage then focuses on the Investigating stage and questions the classic distinction between open and closed questions. Research found no correlation between using open questions and call success.

• It introduces a new framework called SPIN for questioning in successful calls: Situation Questions to gather facts, Problem Questions to uncover customer issues, Implication Questions to explore the impact of problems, and Need-payoff Questions.

• Implication Questions in particular are cited as important for larger sales, where sellers need to help customers understand how problems will affect them. The SPIN model aims to provide a better approach to questioning than the open/closed distinction.

Here is a summary of the key points about closing the sale from the passage:

• Closing refers to behaviors used by the seller to get the buyer to commit, either by accepting or denying a commitment.

• Many sales experts and writers consider closing to be very important to sales success. They believe successful sellers close more often, use more closing techniques, and close frequently during a sales call.

• The author’s initial research into closing techniques involved talking to salespeople, who frequently discussed closing techniques, indicating it was an important topic. Salespeople also seemed more knowledgeable about closing techniques compared to other selling skills.

• While many experts touted the importance of closing, the author planned to use empirical research studies to determine which closing behaviors actually correlated with sales success in larger, more complex sales. The passage sets up that the author will challenge some existing assumptions about closing.

• The group conducted initial research to investigate the link between closing techniques and sales success. Contrary to expectations, they found that sales calls with fewer closes were more successful than those with more closes.

• Through observing sales calls, the author began having uneasy feelings about closing techniques beyond simply asking for the order, as some customers reacted negatively.

• The group conducted a study with a chemical company to assess salespeople’s attitudes toward closing using a scale. Surprisingly, they found salespeople with more favorable closing attitudes were below sales targets, not above.

• Research at the time was showing attitudes did not accurately predict behavior. So assessing closing attitude may not indicate how often someone actually closes in calls.

• The initial studies raised doubts about the effectiveness of traditional closing techniques, contrary to what textbooks claimed. More research was still needed to firmly conclude closing techniques were not linked to sales success.

• The researchers conducted a study to evaluate closing training provided by a high-technology company. They observed sales calls before and after the training to see if closing increased and if it impacted sales success.

• They found that after the training, sellers used more closing techniques but fewer calls succeeded, resulting in decreased overall sales. This challenged the idea that closing training improves sales.

• Trainers suggested the drop could be temporary as the new skills felt unnatural. Researchers agreed to re-evaluate after 6 months when skills would be more natural. But a company reorganization prevented this.

• A new opportunity arose to study closing for small vs large sales decisions. Researchers hypothesized closing may work better for small decisions due to less pressure feeling.

• An ideal opportunity presented itself with a photo store that rotated sellers between low and high value product counters, allowing control of decision size.

• Initial results showed closing training increased sales for low value items by shortening transactions, increasing closes, and modestly improving success rates. The real test would be high value items.

So in summary, the researchers found mixed results on closing training but a new hypothesis emerged about decision size impact, which a unique photo store study could help test more systematically.

• Studies found that using closing techniques reduced the average transaction time after training when selling both low-value and high-value goods. Shorter transaction times are good for retailers but not for larger sales contexts where more time with customers is usually preferred.

• Closing techniques increased sales success rates for low-priced products but decreased success rates for more expensive products ($109 on average in the study). Pressure seems to work better for small decisions than large ones.

• Closing may be less effective on more sophisticated customers like professional buyers. A study found most professional buyers reported being less likely to buy if closing techniques were detected.

• A follow-up study of retail customers found lower satisfaction ratings among those who interacted with salespeople trained in closing techniques. This suggests closing could negatively impact future sales relationships by reducing customer satisfaction with the initial purchase.

• In summary, while closing speeds up transactions for small retail sales, it may reduce success rates, customer satisfaction, and future relationships for larger and more complex sales involving sophisticated buyers. More research is still needed.

• The passage discusses why most sales training puts too much emphasis on closing techniques, even though research shows they are generally ineffective, especially for large, complex sales.

• It explains that closing techniques seem effective at first because a sale may be rewarded just from using a closing line, even if the closing itself didn’t cause the sale. This positive reinforcement encourages salespeople to keep relying on closing techniques.

• However, simply not closing at all can also be problematic, as customers may get impatient and sales could be lost. The research with American Airlines found that calls with no closing had a much lower success rate than calls with a single close.

• The effective approach is to obtain the right level of commitment from customers without relying on traditional closing techniques. This involves clearly defining what level of commitment is needed for the specific sale to be considered a success.

• The key is obtaining commitment by focusing on understanding customer needs rather than through pushy sales behaviors like excessive closing questions.

This passage summarizes how sales call outcomes become less straightforward in major sales compared to smaller sales. It discusses four potential outcomes of a sales call in the context of major sales:

1. Order - The customer commits to purchase. Very rare in major sales.

2. Advance - An event that moves the sale forward, like agreeing to a demonstration or meeting with a higher-level decision maker. Obtaining an Advance is often the objective in major sales calls.

3. Continuation - The sale will continue, but no specific action is agreed to advance it. These are considered unsuccessful closings.

4. No-sale - The customer actively refuses commitment. Also considered unsuccessful.

It notes top salespeople understand these outcomes and use them to close calls more effectively by targetingAdvances rather than just positive feedback (Continuations). The passage contrasts the understanding of an inexperienced salesperson, John C., with how a experienced person would approach objectives and closing success in major sales contexts.

• John C felt his sales call was successful because the customer liked his presentation and said they would meet again in a few months. However, the customer did not agree to any specific actions as a result of the call.

• According to the interviewer, John’s call only resulted in a “continuation” rather than an “advance” in moving the sale forward. John focused too much on relationship building rather than getting a commitment from the customer.

• Successful salespeople like Fred F aim to get an “advance” or specific action on each call, even if the original objective is not met. Fred was able to pivot and still get a new meeting scheduled when his initial objective did not work out.

• The interviewer advises teaching salespeople the difference between continuations and advances. Salespeople should set call objectives focused on getting advances rather than just continuations through information gathering or relationship building.

• Four actions successful salespeople use to obtain commitment are: focusing on investigating needs, checking all concerns are addressed, summarizing benefits, and getting agreements before closing. Rushing through stages or using closing techniques prematurely can backfire.

Here are the key points about committing to a sale and summarizing the benefits:

• Successful sellers don’t ask for a commitment, they propose or suggest the next step. This feels more natural and effective than just asking.

• When proposing a commitment, it should advance the sale process in some way, like scheduling a demo or site visit.

• The proposed commitment should be the highest realistic one the customer can realistically make at that time. It shouldn’t push them beyond what they are able to commit to.

• When summarizing before proposing a commitment, emphasize the key benefits the customer would get from the solution. Relate it back to their specific needs, problems and concerns that were discussed earlier.

• Summarizing the benefits helps get agreement from the customer that there is value in moving forward. It adds to their motivation to commit to the next proposed step.

• The overall goal in closing the sale is not just to “close” but to strengthen the customer relationship and keep the process moving positively toward a purchase decision.

In summary, successful sellers skillfully propose the next logical step in the sales process after recapping the key benefits, rather than simply asking for an order or commitment from the customer.

• In small sales, the number of implied needs (problems/dissatisfactions stated by the customer) uncovered predicts success - the more implied needs uncovered, the better the chances of a sale.

• However, in larger sales, the number of implied needs uncovered does not predict success. Implied needs are just a starting point, not what determines the outcome.

• For larger sales, what matters is what the salesperson does with the implied needs after uncovering them - how they develop the needs further.

• The size of the customer’s perceived need must outweigh the cost of solving it for a purchase to happen. In small sales where solutions are cheap, implied needs alone can justify a purchase. But in large sales, where costs are higher, needs must be developed into explicit needs (specific wants/desires) to justify the higher cost.

• Studies showed in large sales, it is the number of explicit needs uncovered, not implied needs, that predicts success. Successful questioning in large sales depends on developing implied needs into explicit needs.

• Explicit needs become the key “buying signals” that predict success in large sales, while implied needs serve that role in small sales. Experienced salespeople recognize this difference.

• Situation questions gather background information about the customer’s business and existing situation. They are important early in the sales process but can bore customers if asked too many.

• Inexperienced sellers tend to rely heavily on situation questions because they seem safe, but this is not as effective as focusing on problems.

• Problem questions directly probe for difficulties, dissatisfactions, or problems the customer is facing. They are more strongly linked to sales success in smaller deals.

• Experienced sellers ask fewer situation questions and a higher ratio of problem questions, as they have learned to get to the heart of the matter - the problems they can solve for the customer. Uncovering implicit needs through problem questions is key to developing opportunities.

• While implied needs uncovered through problem questions are important, truly successful sellers focus on developing these into explicit needs stated by the customer, such as talking about plans to take action. Explicit needs are a better indicator that a sale may be successful.

The passage discusses the importance of asking problem questions and implication questions when selling, especially in larger sales. While problem questions may be sufficient for smaller sales, they are not enough on their own for major sales.

The example illustrates how a seller could uncover an implied need (the machines were hard to use), but offering a $120,000 solution would seem unreasonable to the buyer as they saw the problem as small. A more skilled seller would use implication questions to get the buyer to recognize the seriousness and costs of the problem.

Through a series of implication questions, the seller gets the buyer to acknowledge problems like high turnover costs, production bottlenecks, overtime expenses, loss of quality control from outsourcing work, and delivery issues. This helps the buyer see the problem as much larger and more costly than initially perceived. Implication questions are crucial for larger sales to develop the problem fully and make an expensive solution seem justified to the buyer.

• Implication questions are used to build up the size and seriousness of a customer’s problem by exploring implications and potential downsides. This helps justify taking action to solve the problem.

• Even small non-sales conversations can use implication questions effectively to uncover needs, as demonstrated in the example conversation about buying a new car.

• Implication questions work particularly well for selling to decision makers and in high-tech sales contexts.

• While implication questions make the problem seem more serious, this risks depressing the customer. Need-payoff questions are then used to focus on the benefits and value of the proposed solution to offset any negativity.

• Need-payoff questions get the customer talking about the usefulness and importance of solving the problem. This keeps the conversation solution-focused in a positive problem-solving atmosphere.

So in summary, implication questions are used to amplify problems, while need-payoff questions balance this by highlighting the value and benefits of the solution, preventing customer negativity. This strategy of jointly using these two question types is effective for developing implicit needs into explicit needs justification for a sale.

In this extract, the seller is attempting to prepare the buyer to effectively “sell” the proposed system internally to others in the company. However, the buyer seems unclear and lacks confidence in some of the key selling points provided by the seller. A better approach would have been for the seller to use Need-payoff Questions to get the buyer to explain in their own words how different aspects of the system could help address specific issues or needs. This would help rehearse and empower the buyer to confidently discuss the potential benefits when speaking to others internally. Need-payoff Questions help surface the real “payoffs” and make the internal selling process much smoother.

• The meeting is about a downtown property issue. The buyer will speak to the VP of Finance to try to get support for the proposal.

• Using Need-payoff questions, the seller helps the buyer understand the benefits of the proposal for the VP of Finance. Specifically, how it could help reduce inventory levels and allow them to close an expensive downtown warehouse, saving $250,000 per year.

• Need-payoff questions focus the discussion on solutions and benefits rather than problems. This helps increase the acceptability of the solution and prepares the buyer to effectively promote the proposal internally when selling to others.

• The distinction between implication questions (problem-focused) and need-payoff questions (solution-focused) can be difficult but is important. Need-payoff questions are more “happy” and solution-centered compared to implication questions which are more “sad” and problem-centered.

• In larger/complex sales, much of the internal selling will be done by the buyer when the seller is not present. Need-payoff questions help rehearse and prepare the buyer to promote the benefits internally.

• The SPIN model proposes a questioning sequence for salespeople to uncover customer needs: Situation questions, Problem questions, Implication questions, and Need-payoff questions.

• Situation questions establish background but shouldn’t be overused as they can bore customers. Problem questions uncover implied needs by exploring problems, difficulties, and dissatisfactions.

• Implication questions make problems seem larger and more urgent by exploring related implications. Need-payoff questions get customers focused on solutions by having them describe desired benefits.

• Successful salespeople broadly follow this SPIN sequence, though it’s a guideline not a rigid formula. The power lies in asking questions that are psychologically important to customers.

• To use SPIN effectively, recognize your role is solving customer problems. Plan potential problems and relevant questions before each call.

• Implication questions are underused but powerful - plan them in advance by considering implications of problems.

• Need-payoff questions are also powerful but should generally be avoided early before problems are uncovered, and used instead once a problem is deemed serious enough to address.

• Features are factual descriptions of product/service attributes. They are considered low-power and generally don’t help or harm sales presentations. However, in small sales they may have a slight positive impact.

• There is no universally agreed upon definition of a “benefit”. Sales literature provides many different and sometimes conflicting definitions. This causes problems in understanding what defines an effective benefit statement.

• The research found benefits as traditionally taught (linking features to customer advantages) are ineffective in larger, more complex sales and may cause negative responses from customers. Defining a true benefit is also harder than presented.

• Several alternative uses of features were identified that can have positive impacts in certain sales situations, such as during technical phases where customers want more product details, or when responding to user-level versus decision-maker objections.

• Overall, the research challenged conventional wisdom about benefits always being more persuasive than features. Effective demonstration of capabilities requires a more nuanced understanding of how and when to present product/service attributes to customers. A single definition of “benefit” may not accurately capture what resonates in different sales contexts.

• The passage describes research studying the impact of different types of product statements (features, advantages, benefits) on sales call success.

• Advantages show how a product can help a customer. Benefits directly address an explicit need expressed by the customer.

• Research found advantages had more impact on smaller sales but less impact on larger sales. Benefits had very strong impact on all sale sizes.

• This is because in larger sales, simply offering solutions to implied needs (which could be addressed through advantages) is not effective. You need to uncover and address explicit needs through benefits.

• Getting customers to express explicit needs requires using implication and need-payoff questions to develop needs from implied needs or problems.

• Once you’ve uncovered an explicit need, it’s easy to make a benefit statement by showing how your product meets that need. But benefits require this explicit need development process.

• Further research confirmed the strong positive impact of benefits on call success across different industries and sale sizes. The ability to use benefits depends on effectively developing customers’ explicit needs.

Here is a summary of the key points about benefits in the passage:

• Research showed that stating benefits (showing how customer needs can be met) during sales calls led to significantly better outcomes like orders and advances, compared to just stating advantages (how the product can be used).

• Early in the sales cycle, advantages can be somewhat effective, but their impact decreases over time. Benefits have a consistent high impact throughout the cycle.

• When selling new products, salespeople tend to get excited and focus on the product’s features and advantages rather than asking questions to understand customer needs. This “bells and whistles” approach contributes to poor initial sales performance of new products.

• In an experiment, training a group of salespeople to discuss a new product in terms of the problems it solves and how to discover needs led to 54% higher sales, compared to conventional product-focused training.

• Focusing on benefits and needs, rather than advantages and the product, is important for successful selling, including for new products.

Here are the key points from the passage:

• The common belief promoted in sales training that more objections mean easier sales is misleading and untrue. In reality, skilled salespeople receive fewer objections.

• The instructor acknowledged that when he was new and less successful, he received many more objections than he does now as a high performer. So the “more objections = easier sales” idea does not match his own experience.

• Objections are often created more by the seller than the customer. Skilled salespeople are better at objection prevention rather than just objection handling.

• There can be large variations between individual salespeople in the same team - one person may get 10x as many objections per hour as others.

• To be truly effective, salespeople need to focus on objection prevention, not just handling objections that arise. This involves using Features, Advantages and Benefits properly to uncover and meet customer needs from the beginning.

The key message is that sales training overemphasizes objection handling, when the more important skills are objection prevention through truly understanding customer needs and demonstrating how your product meets them directly. Skilled salespeople receive fewer objections because they prevent them from happening in the first place.

• Linda Marsh conducted correlation studies and found that different selling behaviors (Features, Advantages, Benefits) produced statistically different customer responses.

• Features tended to increase customer price concerns, especially for higher-priced products. Advantages tended to produce more objections from customers. Benefits produced the most support/approval from customers.

• The article provides an example of a company that recruited top salespeople from a Japanese competitor to sell a new, more expensive product with more features. However, these salespeople continued using a features-heavy style and encountered more price objections. Retraining them in benefits-focused questioning helped reduce objections and increase sales.

• Treating the underlying cause (too many features) was more effective than just teaching objection-handling skills, which would have treated the symptom (price objections) rather than the cause.

• Advantages, while positive for small sales, were found to create more objections which hinders their effectiveness for large sales. An example sales call extract is provided to illustrate this.

• The seller is having trouble closing sales and keeps facing objections from customers. Simply learning objection handling techniques would only treat the symptom rather than the underlying cause.

• The cause of the objections is that the seller is jumping straight to presenting solutions (like the new word processors) without first building sufficient need/value with the customer.

• By using probing questions from the SPIN model (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff), the seller can better uncover the customer’s true needs and problems. This builds more value for the proposed solutions in the customer’s mind.

• When the seller probes more deeply in this example conversation, it is revealed that the customer’s office has problems like wasted time proofreading, low productivity, demotivated staff, lost business from mistakes, etc. These needs outweigh the customer’s initial concern about cost and hassle.

• By understanding and building upon the customer’s needs, the seller can prevent objections from arising in the first place rather than just learning to handle them after the fact. Objection prevention is a superior strategy to objection handling alone.

• Research found enormous differences in the number of objections individual salespeople received per selling hour, even within the same team. Some received 10 times as many objections as others.

• The initial assumption was that those receiving many objections needed objection handling training. However, analyzing the data showed those individuals were using more advantages (benefits) in their calls.

• An experiment was conducted training 8 salespeople who received high objections in objection prevention rather than objection handling. This included training them in developing explicit needs and offering benefits using the SPIN model.

• After the training, the average number of objections per selling hour fell by 55% for those 8 salespeople, confirming that objection prevention through understanding customer needs is more effective than handling objections.

• While training can reduce objections by addressing the root causes, some “true” objections will always exist when customer needs are not fully met. The goal should be cutting unnecessary objections caused by prematurely offering solutions.

Here are the key points about how important the warming-up stage (or preliminaries) is in a sales call, based on the passage:

• The traditional wisdom is that first impressions and openings are crucial to sales call success, but research suggests first impressions have less impact than previously thought.

• People have limited attention and often don’t notice or quickly forget details in early interactions, so small details likely don’t make a big difference to sales success.

• Relating to a buyer’s personal interests may help in small sales where relationships are important, but there’s no clear relationship to success in larger sales where buyers value their time more.

• Buyers can view attempts to discuss personal interests as wasting their time or as manipulation, so it needs to be used carefully in larger sales.

• Opening benefit statements aim to grab interest positively, but research doesn’t clearly show this approach is more effective for larger sales call openings.

So in summary, while a solid warm-up is still important, the passage suggests preliminaries and first impressions may have less impact on larger sales call success than traditionally believed. The buyer’s time and interest need to be carefully considered in openings.

• The opening benefit statement technique became popular due to the Xerox Learning Systems Professional Selling Skills (PSS) program, which claimed research showed calls were more likely to succeed starting this way.

• However, Huthwaite’s own research found no relationship between using opening benefit statements and call success in larger sales contexts with longer average call lengths.

• Less effective salespeople tended to open every call the same way, whereas more effective salespeople varied their openings. Opening the same way with the same customer multiple times can be irritating.

• Opening benefit statements risk forcing discussions of product details and solutions too early in the call before understanding customer needs, allowing the customer to take control of the discussion.

• Effective openings establish the seller’s role as information seeker from the customer and gain agreement to ask questions, without delving into solutions. They should get straight to the point quickly without wasting too much time.

Here are four key actions recommended in the text for turning theoretical sales knowledge into practical skills:

1. Practice one new selling behavior at a time, rather than trying to change multiple behaviors simultaneously. Focus on mastering one skill fully before moving to the next.

2. Try using any new selling behavior or technique at least three times before judging whether it is effective. The first attempts will likely feel awkward but that is normal when learning new skills.

3. Prioritize quantity of practice over quality initially. Emphasis should be on using the new skills frequently in sales interactions, even if mistakes are made, rather than perfection. This facilitates learning through repetition.

4. Be diligent and patient with practice. Translating sales knowledge into practical abilities requires focused, tedious practice over time, just like other skills. Success requires sustained effort and most will fall short of practicing adequately.

• Researchers from Huthwaite conducted a training program for salespeople that focused on asking high-quality questions. However, when evaluating the salespeople after the training, they found no improvement in the number of problem-solving questions asked per call.

• Huthwaite was then tasked with informing the company’s leadership that the $650,000 training program was ineffective. The leadership was understandably upset but open to suggestions.

• Huthwaite proposed a much cheaper alternative program focused on quantity over quality. They advised concentrating on getting salespeople to ask more questions, even if the quality was poor, as quality would improve over time with practice and feedback.

• The new quantity-based program was successful, with salespeople asking around a dozen questions in practice sessions by the end. In the field, customers provided feedback that helped improve question quality.

• The key takeaway is that when learning a new selling skill, the focus should be on practicing the skill frequently to build quantity, not worrying about quality initially. Quality will improve on its own with sufficient practice and real-world feedback.

Here is a summary of the key points from the selected section:

• It discusses the importance of rigorously measuring and testing sales models and methods to prove their effectiveness, rather than just making claims.

• Many sales training programs claim dramatic results like doubling or tripling sales, but when examined closely these claims often do not stand up to scrutiny and are similar to unfounded “snake oil” claims from the past.

• Simply giving a training and then seeing sales increase afterward does not prove the training caused the increase - the sales may have increased anyway due to other factors. More rigorous testing is needed.

• The author’s research company, Huthwaite, aims to be the first to scientifically test sales skills and establish whether they truly lead to measurable improvements in productivity and sales results.

• Testing and proving models empirically is important, as claimed by Lord Kelvin, but often lacks the excitement and priority it had in the golden age of science.

• The appendix discusses Huthwaite’s efforts to rigorously evaluate and prove the SPIN model through quantitative measurement of its impact on sales outcomes.

• The author discusses many attempts to prove that sales training programs like the SPIN model are effective at increasing sales, but most claimed increases could be attributed to other factors.

• Early studies claiming increases of 58% or 20% from SPIN training did not have control groups and did not account for things like new product launches or territory changes that could explain the sales increases.

• Even studies with control groups are difficult to interpret conclusively because of potential confounding factors like the maturity level of sales branches or changes in management.

• Attempts to control for other variables, like not changing products/management for 6 months, were still derailed by unforeseen events like competitors cutting prices.

• Interviewing salespeople about the causes of increases led to non-definitive responses like attributing 50% to training, indicating they did not really know the cause.

• In general, the author argues it is extremely difficult to isolate the impact of any single sales training program given all the variables that can affect sales performance.

• The author and colleagues were writing a book on training evaluation in 1970. They concluded it was almost impossible to conclusively prove that training increases productivity due to difficulties controlling variables.

• They discussed designing the “perfect” evaluation study by trying to disprove any effect on productivity rather than prove it, as suggested by philosopher Karl Popper. But they didn’t develop this idea further at the time.

• Years later, as the author was evaluating the SPIN sales model, he remembered this discussion about focusing on disproof rather than proof.

• He outlines a multi-step approach to evaluating the SPIN model that focuses on opportunities for disproof at each stage before measuring productivity gains. This includes first establishing the skills work for the specific group, then confirming the skills are being used after training.

• They took this rigorous evaluation approach to clients but most found it too expensive. They almost conducted a full test with Kodak but it is unclear if all stages of evaluation were completed.

So in summary, the passage discusses the author’s perspective that evaluation should focus on disproving effects rather than proving them, and outlines a staged approach focusing on disproof that was almost carried out with Kodak.

• Motorola Canada hired an independent evaluator to rigorously test the effectiveness of the SPIN sales training program.

• The evaluator found that the SPIN behaviors were used more frequently in successful sales calls based on observations before training.

• After training, the salespeople were observed using the target SPIN behaviors like questions and benefits more in their calls compared to before training.

• When comparing sales results of the trained group to an untrained control group, the trained group showed significantly higher gains in total orders, new business orders, order dollars, reversing declining trends in the difficult market.

• This provides strong evidence that the salespeople were successfully adopting the SPIN behaviors after training and it led to measurable productivity improvements.

So in summary, the evaluator found the salespeople were now using more of the successful behaviors than they were before the training, leading to better sales results.

• The study looked to address potential flaws in an earlier Motorola study that found SPIN sales training improved productivity. Specifically, it wanted to test using a matched control group and measuring any Hawthorne effect.

• With a new client, the study was able to match the control and experimental (SPIN-trained) groups based on initial order levels, addressing one criticism of the Motorola study.

• To measure the Hawthorne effect, the SPIN-trained group was divided into higher- and lower-skill subgroups based on SPIN usage. Performance gains of just the higher subgroup continuing after training would suggest impact beyond Hawthorne effect.

• Results showed the lower-skill subgroup gains disappeared after training, indicating a Hawthorne effect, while higher-skill subgroup continued improving. A control group showed declining performance.

• This allowed the study to isolate and measure the Hawthorne effect for the first time in sales training. The effect was short-lived, and SPIN skills led to sustained gains beyond this effect.

• The study further strengthened the case that SPIN training causally improved productivity over criticisms of earlier Motorola study’s methodological flaws. However, the author still desired more testing to be fully satisfied.

• The passage describes how evaluation studies are like boat trips on the rivers in Borneo, where at any point in the journey if you asked the boatman how far, the answer would always be “One more bend.” Similarly, in evaluation studies you may think you have all the proof you need, but there is often one more question or issue that arises.

• Huthwaite has explored the effectiveness of their sales training models carefully through objective evaluations to try to get around that “final bend.” This has helped them become better researchers, improve their models, and increase the practical effectiveness of their approach.

• Ironically, going through rigorous academic-style testing has improved their understanding of what makes practical sense for sales training measured by impact on sales results.

• The author hopes more training organizations will take a similar evidence-based approach through research. Doing so could stimulate more research into effective selling and eventually help demystify the major sale process.

• In summary, the passage advocates for rigorous evaluation of sales training models to continually improve understanding and prove effectiveness, while acknowledging there may never be a perfect or complete answer, similar to never reaching the final river bend in Borneo.

Here is a summary of the key points from the passages:

• The passages discuss Neil Rackham’s SPIN selling model, which involves using different types of questions (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff) in a specific sequence.

• SPIN was evaluated through a study at Motorola Canada that found it increased sales productivity by over 25%.

• Objections from customers can be reduced by using need-payoff questions early in calls to uncover the real needs and benefits. This was found to be more effective than a sales-training approach.

• Learning new skills requires practice of one behavior at a time in safe situations, along with strategies like breaking skills into steps.

• Large sales involve determining explicit and implicit customer needs through questions. Giving benefits and problem-solving conversations increase success.

• Closing success depends on factors like obtaining commitment through actions, focusing on objectives, handling objections, and demonstrating value.

• SPIN provides a structured model for sales calls, questions, handling objections, and increasing effectiveness and success. It has been empirically tested and shown to improve metrics like productivity.