Spin Selling

SPIN Selling is considered to be the Bible of all sales books and was written by Neil Rackham. The book, published in 1988, emphasizes the importance of asking the right sales questions. Inspirational books on sales do not come along every day. This one forced me to come up with the best questions to ask customers so as not to appear so much like the dreaded sales person we all tend to run from. The word S.P.I.N. conjures up many images for me. As we all know putting the right S.P.I.N. into your business can change your attitude and improve your selling results.

With the acronym S.P.I.N. we can actually see the four pieces to the selling puzzle.

S = Shrug it off
Let’s face reality… most of the world's news is not positive. In the US the real estate market is really at one of it’s all time lows, the financial markets are in chaos, and gasoline prices are at an all time high. Shrug it off.
Making the connection to dismiss the bad news is key. If you don’t it will eventually overtake you in a negative way. There will always be bad news so to counteract that is to do something that picks you up. Common sense dictates that if you're an entrepreneur or a professional sales person you can't afford to be down and negative. When you're working with your sales prospects and customers you must project a positive and engaging attitude.
People by nature get stuck in the same routine… but it’s best to try to switch it up on a daily basis. Get out of the rut with exercise, reading motivational books, or get a book of inspirational quotes. The ones that have been most helpful to me are by the individuals who have overcome some type of adversity.
It’s best to stay away from negative people. Negativity can be contagious… is it something that you want to catch?

P = Preparation and practice
It’s best to inject a little Preparation and practice into each and every selling day. When planning sales calls for the next day, you can prepare several questions in writing. Practice the questions you want to ask, if you don’t you end up practicing on your sales prospects and customers. That’s a disaster that’s just waiting to happen
• Prepare and practice how you will present the benefits of your products.
• Prepare and practice how you'll deal with the price objection.
• Prepare and practice how you'll ask for the appointment.
• Prepare and practice how you will ask for the business.

I = Initiative 

S.P.I.N. selling includes "Initiative," personal initiative. Professional selling has its ups and downs. When the going gets tough the tough get going.
Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t follow the crowd. Take the initiative to learn more about personal salesmanship and selling skills. Notice how I use the word “personal”, you are unique and your prospects and clients are too.
Those to take the initiative to cross sell and up-sell whenever possible are the ones who ‘get it.’ Do everything imaginable to help your customers solve their problems, that’s just one of the ways you show initiative. The trick is to exceed your sales prospect's and/or customer's expectations.

N = New
The forth and final piece to S.P.I.N. selling is the word "New." Did you know that the two most popular words in the English language are "New" and "Free?" Many sites give away stuff that’s free. Free e-books, free assessments, contests to win free tickets to an event, etc. always focus on “what's new.”
When prospects and clients ask "What's new?" you must be ready to show them new products, new technology, new methods to solve old problems, new programs. So, ask yourself do you have anything that's new?

When you get excited when you're talking about “what's new” to your sales prospects and customers, it’s contagious! When you're excited, they'll become excited, too. Try not to talk about issues that are problematic… it’s a turn off and you will turn off your prospects before you’ve had the chance to turn them on.

When you have new attitude about everything your world begins to change. I don’t need to remind you about the economy and the debt crisis, we hear it every day. As sure, as I’m writing this, Warren Buffett is seeing many buying opportunities right now.

Foreclosures are at an all time high, the real estate market has not rebounded, and the future looks bleak for many. On the other hand, there are many shrewd investors who enjoy buying properties at bargain basement prices. They know, that at some point the market will go back up, after all, as we all know the real estate market is cyclical.

At times it will be tough to remain positive when the news is so negative. You have the ultimate control over your thoughts. Choose optimism over pessimism, positive over negative, sunny versus gloomy, and winning over losing.

Here’s what sets you aside from everyone else. Tell your prospect right away that it's ok to tell you No, that you will not be offended. By giving your prospect a way out you are going to save yourself a lot of grief.

Your goal is to learn how to build a long-term relationship with this prospect, so make sure that you are selling to the right person.

If you pretend that your independently wealthy and you don't need their business you will not come across like a salesperson, and people will like you. What’s most important to remember – people buy from people they like.

Growing your business, increasing your sales, and making more money is a lot easy when you put the right S.P.I.N. on it. Don’t you think?