4The SPIN Strategy

Chapter 3 concluded that the purpose of questions in a sales call is to uncover Implied Needs and to develop them into Explicit Needs. In this chapter we’ll be looking at how the four SPIN questions—Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-payoff—can each be used to help this needs-development process.

Situation Questions

In our research at Huthwaite we found that very early in the sales call, particularly with new accounts or new customers, salespeople’s questions tend to follow an identifiable pattern. Suppose, for example, that you’re calling on me for the first time. What questions would you ask? You might want to know something about me, so you’d ask questions like:

What’s your position?

How long have you been here?

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