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Porter's Six Principles and Sun Tzu
Balance Score Card and Strategy Maps
SPIN Selling and Front-Line Strategy
Miller-Heiman and Classical Strategy
SPI's Solution Selling
SPIN Selling and Front-Line
Strategy
The SPIN selling model began with a large survey by Huthwaite that
showed that in successful sales calls the buyer does most of the
talking. This led to the SPIN sales system, which identified a more
effective way for
salespeople to ask questions and get buyers talking. SPIN selling is a
powerful system, especially for a specific kind of solution selling. This critique is meant to
explain its power in the larger context of classical front-line strategy and
how the process of SPIN becomes even faster and more effective when coupled
with classical front-line strategy.
SPIN Selling explains that by asking questions the salesperson build
rapport with the buyer and gathers information. Classical strategy specifically defines
“rapport” as coming from a sense of
shared mission. In using SPIN Selling and asking
questions, you are communicating the larger idea that you and the buyer are
working together on a shared mission of solving the buyer's problems. Classical strategy teaches that a
shared mission creates focus and power. This distinguishes the SPIN sales
approach from most selling which simply focuses on making the sale. The
original
survey recognized that selling works differently when questions are asked.
Front-line strategy explain why: a shared mission is being created by the
process.
The power of combining SPIN Selling with classical front-line
strategy is easy to explain and understand. Four types of questions are identified by the acronym SPIN:
situation questions, problem questions, implication questions,
and need-payoff questions. While SPIN offers a very valuable approach
for using and formulating these questions, classic strategy offers the
salesperson trained in SPIN additional powerful insights to offer his
prospects with this process. This article explain this below in
examining each category of SPIN questions.
Situation Questions
Situation questions are the most general, gathering facts about the
buyer's situation. The Huthwaite survey showed that the more situation
questions asked, the less likely it was that the sale would close.
Front-line strategy explains exactly why this is true.
Front-line strategy teaches that there are an infinite number of facts
involved in any situation. Just asking about “facts” doesn’t create sales
progress. You cannot get you anywhere unless you have a way of
organizing the information and identifying what is important and what is
not. Most inexperienced salespeople ask so many situation questions because
they don't know is important. Front-line strategy identifies exactly
what is important and in what order, working through the five factors
starting with philosophy, going to climate, then through ground, command,
and methods.
Most salespeople asked more situation questions because most salespeople
lack a focus and want the customer to give them one. The SPIN process, which
leads to problems, implications, and needs, is good, but the classical
strategy is even better because it brings in other elements, such as changes
in climate, that really drive urgency.
Huthwaite's survey showed that the more senior the buyer, the less they
like answering factual questions. This is because senior people realize that
there are an infinite number of relevant facts and that the salesperson who
is asking aimless questions is incapable of helping the buyer help with the
issue of making decisions. When a salesperson masters front-line strategy,
senior people love talking to them because the questions they ask have a
clear purpose and goal. Questions directed by front-line strategy
illustrates how to fit together pieces of information into a meaningful
picture. In putting together that picture, the buyer gets
valuable perspective, making the process well worth his or her valuable
time. .
While SPIN selling teaches that successful salespeople ask fewer
situation questions because of their good planning, according to the more
precise definition of classical strategy, gathering relevant information
does not come simply from research. The most relevant information, the
buyer's subjective judgments about their situation, cannot be research
except through questions. The secret is not simply avoiding such questions,
but making them more productive for both the salesperson and the buyer.
Problem Questions
SPIN selling defines problem questions as the second step in the
questioning process. During this step, salespeople ask about the buyer's
pain. SPIN teaches that people buy when the pain of the problem is greater
than the cost of the solution. While this focus on "pain" can be useful,
classical strategy teaches that it is too narrow for most forms of selling.
Classical front-line strategy teaches that people buy when no other
alternative, including keeping their money, will give them as much benefit
or pleasure.
Problem or pain questions assume that the buyer feels the pain or
recognizes the problem. Classical strategy teaches that this is not
always the case. Pain is most likely to be felt when buyers are responsible
for internal processes that are going wrong. When this happens, people
realize their pain, but they don't necessarily know the causes, which leads
to the implication questions that follow. Certainly Huthwaite's work with
Xerox Corporation in the 70s and 80s influenced their thinking here. Those
who bought reproduction equipment in this timeframe were dealing with
internal constraints and conflicts that caused pain.
However, many buyers are not in this situation. Some buyers are looking
for ways to advance their position to address there desire for gain rather
than to address the pain of loss. Even in business-to-businesses
sales, buyers should and must be motivated by more than simply “solving
problems.” Looking at the buyer's situation from perspective of front-line
strategy tells us more. The buyer is looking for ways of building up or
advancing their existing position in the direction of their mission. They
may or may not have a problem they need to solve, but they always have to
make choices about how to use their resources to achieve the best results.
If there is a universal “problem,” it is deciding which management
decision is the best at any given point in time. Among those decisions,
there is always the choice of simply doing nothing, operating under
the current system. People with “pain” are motivated to make a change, but
so are people who are doing well and want to do better. This is true even
for consumers. People who want to buy a new car aren’t in “pain,” but they
want to have something better and they have to make a decision to get it.
Seeing all buying decisions in terms of problems and pain can hide as much
as it reveals.
SPIN Selling teaches that it is better to uncover more then one problem
before asking implication questions because focusing on only one problem can
by myopic. A salesperson trained in front-line strategy could not make this
mistake because they know to seek information in all five key areas. They
take into account the totality of the customer’s position, which is designed
to weigh a variety of weaknesses and strengths against each other.
Huthwaite' teaches that more experienced salespeople ask more
problem questions and to ask them sooner. What this means from the aspect of
the science of strategy is that experienced people learn from trial and
error that their job is balancing what Sun Tzu calls "emptiness" in
the market with the "fullness" of their offering. Without having the
terminology for it, salespeople learn to look for the emptiness or needs.
SPIN Selling suggests working backwards from the problems that your
products solves for a buyer to generate problem questions. This works and is
necessary as far as it goes, but front-line strategy can make it more
powerful. The SPIN approach says that by looking at your products, you can
know before talking to customers what needs they will fill. Front-line
strategy says that this "planning" approach will miss most opportunities.
You need customers to tell you how your product fits their needs. This
requires the front-line focus of exploration rather than the SPIN focus of
simply planning.
The job of front-line strategy is to learn from customers the types of
needs your product fills. You then take that knowledge to similar types of
customers with similar types of needs.
Implication Questions
SPIN Selling uses implication questions to learn about the effects of the
problem. This is necessary before talking about solutions. It also
develops the seriousness of the problem to increase the buyer's motivation
to change. These type of questions are necessary to identify the source of
the buyer's pain.
In SPIN Selling, implication questions are needed because the system
doesn't recognized the need to understand specific issues of the
buyer's philosophy, change in climate, the economics of leadership, and
methods. Since these key factors have been overlooked by the process thus
far, the SPIN process asked about implications hoping to pinpoint one of
these issues as the real problem. If the issue is increasing the buyers'
motivation to change, front-line strategy teaches that the salesperson
should focus on change in climate rather than the general implications of
the problem.
SPIN Selling teaches that implication questions are the most powerful
sales questions, but they are even more powerful when they focus on the
specific information needed to define the position of the buyer.
Understanding the factors that define the position makes SPIN selling much,
much more effective. These question are so powerful because what buyers are
looking for is insight into their problems. As SPIN Selling teaches, buyers
are trading information for insight. One of the easiest ways to gain
and offer insight is by doing a more comprehensive job in analyzing
positions using classical formulas of front-line strategy.
Need-Payoff Questions
The final questions in the SPIN Selling process are the need or payoff
questions. The questions are designed to get buyers to tell salespeople
about their explicit needs. This identifies the real benefits the
salesperson's solutions. Instead of having the salesperson explain those
benefits, need questions get the buyer him or herself to explain those
benefits. This has a much greater impact than the salesperson stating the
benefits.
Classical strategy cuts more quickly to the core issues of a buyer's
needs or desires. Classical strategy teaches that customer needs
represent their emptiness. All decisions that people make reflect a desire
to fill an emptiness. Salespeople offer “fullness” in the form of their
products or services to fill these needs. Front-line strategy teaches that
product features and benefits are best understood only in terms of fullness
that fills a specific form of emptiness. The process of asking need
questions is instantly more understandable once you add the framework of
emptiness and fullness from classical strategy.
SPIN and Classical Strategy
Salespeople trained in the "SPIN" average of 17% improvement in sales
results. This number bothers me. Salespeople that are also trained to
combine SPIN with front-line strategy can easily double or triple this
improvement.
People do not buy from salespeople because they understand their products
but because they feel the salesperson understands not just their problems
but their goals. Sales rapport comes from goals shared by the salesperson
and his or her customers. The job of salespeople is not just communicating
the value of their products, but communicating that information in the
context of sharing the customer’s goals.
The advantage in using front-line strategy in the sales process is that
it immediately aligns goals and offers a comprehensive view of buyer's
situation. Using it, salespeople can be confident that all major elements,
especially that pesky element of change, are taken into account. SPIN
teaches that top salespeople discuss the effects of the problem before
talking about solutions. Classical front-line strategy teaches that
customers want to buy from top salesperson because the salesperson seems
understand their situation as well as they do.
A Bigger Picture
There are no perfect solutions in a complex sale but classical strategy
teaches that there are valuable relative comparisons. The SPIN model doesn't
specifically look at a buyer’s other options in making a decision. These
options apply both to addressing the specific problems identified by SPIN
and for using resources outside of that problem entirely.
The SPIN universe is limited to the buyer's needs and the salesperson's
product. The real world must address the position of competing products and
alternative choices including the choice of "no decision." All alternatives
must be positioned appropriately by the sales process. This requires a more
comprehensive analysis of the buyer’s other options to create a ideal
positioning for your product. SPIN is a great start to this process, but it
works better in the large context of good strategy.
One of the best tools in SPIN selling is the idea that salespeople need
to evaluate a buyer's commitment to finding a solution. In SPIN, an action
that moves a salesperson closer to a sale is called an "advance." A buyer's
request is not an advance unless the buyer also agrees to take some action.
This fits exactly with the classical strategy model that defines progress as
a series of many smaller steps. Each step requires a list-aim-move-claim
cycle where the . the “claim” stage demands a response. In classical
strategy, actions speak louder than words. In sales, a claim requires
getting this commitment to action from the buyer. No advance is completed
without a successful claim.
However, strategy extends the SPIN model. It says that these steps should
be as small and quick as we can design them for a given situation. We don’t
want to try to get BIG commitments that require a long-time, but a series of
smaller, quicker, easier, hard to deny commitments, using openings to take
us where we want to go. Asking for hard, risky commitments kills the process
and are a failure of strategy. Salespeople and all front-line people must
continually listen and aim for the small wins that keep the process moving
forward until it builds momentum.
The idea that this process can be “planned,” as often stated in SPIN
Selling is not very precise. The process itself opens up the paths that the
salesperson needs to explore. Those paths cannot be known beforehand in any
specific sale. What is mistaken for “planning” is what we call a situational
response: rehearsing certain methods that automatically come into play in a
given strategic situation.
SPIN Selling is correct when it says that asking good questions doesn't
come easily for most people. This is why SPIN emphasized planning. However
classic strategy says that salespeople find asking good questions difficult
because they lack a standard framework for analysis. Classical strategy
provides such a framework. Without that framework, the SPIN process of
starting with problems and working to need can uncover some of the key
factors. However, if you couple those processes with the more direct
approach of classical strategy, they both speed and focus the sales process.
The whole focus of SPIN Selling is on a logical process that investigates
the prospects needs and selling in light of those needs. This process is
more powerful when you add the more comprehensive framework of relative
positioning from classical strategy and look at sales as a process of
advance the position of your offering so that it surpassed all other
alternatives. |
