SPIN Selling

By: Neil Rackham

Narrated by: Eli Woods

Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Written by Neil Rackham, former president and founder of Huthwaite corporation, SPIN Selling is a must-listen for anyone involved in selling or managing a sales force. Unquestionably the best-documented account of sales success ever collected and the result of the Huthwaite corporation's massive 12-year, one-million-dollar research into effective sales performance, this groundbreaking resource details the revolutionary SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff) strategy.

In SPIN Selling, Rackham delivers the first book to specifically examine selling high-value product and services. By following the simple, practical, and easy-to-apply techniques of SPIN, listeners will be able to dramatically increase their sales volume from major accounts. Rackham answers key questions such as “What makes success in major sales?” and “Why do techniques like closing work in small sales but fail in larger ones?”

You will learn why traditional sales methods that were developed for small consumer sales just won't work for large sales and why conventional selling methods are doomed to fail in major sales. Packed with real-world examples and informative case studies - and backed by hard research data - SPIN Selling is the million-dollar key to understanding and producing record-breaking high-end sales performance.

©2014 McGraw-Hill, Inc. (P)2014 McGraw Hill-Ascent Audio

Sales and Science

The only sales book, I know of, based on scientific proof.

Joe Snyder - Marketing And Training Manager
Daimler Trucks North America

Essential for Major Account Sales

With 30 very successful years in giant & well funded mid-market sales this is backbone of Upper end B2B selling.

BEWARE of WHAT YOUR CZhOSEN AUTHOR SELLS WHEN SELECTING A BOOK !!!
Knowing our Pastor Zig Ziglar, being student of Tommy Hopkins, along with the others listed as in reviews as recommended study - the Truth is those authors sold real estate, vehicles and other goods where ‘seller meets directly with buyer Who IS the Decision Maker in transactions which the buyer is primary beneficiary or money supplier. That’s pure definition of ‘simple sales’.
SPIN Selling is focused on a reality of sales rep “Does Not” get direct access and must provide recognition of high priority condition warranting change to occur. Essentially the Go-Getter sponsoring this change is risking their career that it’s going be successful. As seller we have to point at that Noble Objective & provide resources with supporting evidence/analysis to disarm or prevent objections.. in a process that requires 5~10 meetings over several months before it gets a green light approval to proceed.

Compared to Simple Sales where deal is direct contact usually with 1 person, then meet approver and deal is done in 1-2 meetings. Simple sales is very common in Small business & Consumer sales. Those simple sale techniques are Attention, Interest, Conviction (why buy vs not), Desire (lets do it) and Close (sign here). A-I-C-D-C is all about citing Features & Benefits to justify a low price as bargain.... yet fails terribly when selling big deals and multiyear deals. SPIN Selling is 100% about mature sales to larger mature account. In SPIN all the sales cycle aids and materials are professionally prewritten for sales rep to simply deliver as needed including professional competitive analysis with Return On Investment (ROI) calculator showing when buyer’s team will reach full realisation of the full benefit.

‘The Challenger Customer’ is great companion to SPIN on how to provide advanced insider view of what’s wrong with target account or what opportunity are they missing. MA Sales rep needs read both, then put Product Development creatives developer & campaign administration to the task of packaging & delivering that fabulous content to Go-Getter Sponsor with Authority at target account.

As Instructor in various years for majority of different authors the real shift is going from solo seller to interdependent team seller and then to Official Head of the Sales Team which is like pro sport team owner, process developer and disciplinarian as needed.

Ask yourself this question: Are you paid by unit, simple percentage or volume? Then you are in Simple Sales. If you are paid on ‘advancing though steps or purchase, have base pay and also get paid on Net-Net Retained Revenue (slice of profit in each deal) then you are definitely in SPIN Selling Territory. I pay my team in latter with all holidays off, 8-5 weekdays with special celebration days off, and most hit a high quota by 10th of each month. That’s where you own your schedule, don’t hammer cold calls, work where deep pockets live. Semper fidelis, Dave Cannon

Instructions for Big Sales

I listen to many sells books, and believe this to be the most effective sales novel for larger items! I will listen to this many times as I try to implement its premise

Great!!

I learned a lot of new things about selling, the selling cycle, and actionable tips that I actually want to use. Talking about statistically significant data points makes it even more so worthwhile to listen to because you know you’re learning facts that actually work for selling and a lot of thought was put into collecting these data point on selling. I recommend for beginner and intermediate sellers in any industry.

Insightful

One of the best books I’ve ever read.

I’m not much of a salesperson but I believe this book can help anyone in life with some general life lessons.

It contains useful knowledge to apply across the board.

Seriously, one of the best!

Very fact based, scientific look at Sales

I found the book to be interesting and helpful. There is a lot to unpack but thousands of studies in their consulting practice to learn from.

From a sales newbie..

This was a great book for me to read as a newbie in sales. It helped me see both sides of major sales and lower pricing sales using research, examples, and quotes.

could have been 1 chapter

if you like reading research papers from someone that must be paid by the word. feel free.
it's so hard to get through and the narrator is the most boring reader I've ever heard.
the food info is hidden in so much fluff it's almost impossible to sift out. if there is a cliff notes, it would be 100% better.

He explains his method to a fault

You can’t fast forward through his trial and error testimony because right in the middle, he places a good quote or reference. Don’t know why he took so much ink to tell us the starts and stops of his scientific method. Otherwise, great book.

Great Resource

I’ve been doing outside sales for one year. The company I work for teaches the spin message without citing it specifically. This went in such detail. It was wonderful to get the background reasoning behind many of my companies processes. It was also nice to hear concepts any more generic sense, rather than just through the lens of what I’m doing right now, I listened to this over several weeks and was able to implement things on a daily basis during my cold calling and presentations. if you enjoy studies and understanding the science behind your tactics, you will love this book everything is vetted and based on science.