SPIN Selling
by Neil Rackham
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Book Reviews of SPIN Selling
Book Review: How to Find the Hot Issues that Mattered Most to Your Customers
Summary: 5 Stars
If Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets is the comprehensive guide to selling intangible, complex solutions, then SPIN Selling is the comprehensive guide to asking customers questions to find our what mattered to them most.
SPIN Selling is definitely NOT the first book that guides sales people in the art of asking questions, but it's definitely the one that puts it in the most elegant way.
That said, it will be a mistake to assume that SPIN Selling is the cure-all for asking customers. The Science of Influence: How to Get Anyone to Say "Yes" in 8 Minutes or Less! will be a good companion to better understand the human psyche.
Book Review: Given the subject's limitations, as good as it gets!
Summary: 3 Stars
Having some knowledge of the subject, I am of the mind that selling is next to impossible to teach, learn and predict. This may raise eyebrows, but let's deal in veracity, shall we?
Man has not invented or perfected the science which can predict human behaviour, reaction or rsponse. Psychologists and sociologists may well be the first to tell you so.
Given this context, no text can claim to have mastered the art of selling - it just is not a possibility.
Having said that, SPIN Selling does as good a job as any; having researched and field-tested its recommendations and results. That is as good as it will ever get - and yet, as mentioned earlier, there are no guarantees.
As such, I admire the book for being best-of-breed, but have to believe that neither this nor any other method will come close to covering it all or covering it precisely.
Book Review: Great methodology
Summary: 5 Stars
As a sales trainer, I found this book to present a wonderful methodology for both salespeople new to the business as well as seasoned salespeople. The SPIN principle (Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-payoff) works in almost any sales environment whether you are selling big ticket items to large accounts or volumes of small ticket items. Overall, I found "SPIN Selling" to be a great book for addressing the strategic and tactical aspects of selling. In addition to this book, I highly recommend the book "Cognitive Selling: Proven Fundamentals and Techniques of the World's Most Effective Salespeople" by Todd Bermont. "Cognitive Selling" is the perfect complement to "SPIN Selling" as it provides a methodology for maintaining a winning attitude and frame-of-mind which is essential to succeed in selling.
Book Review: A sales book a techie type can stomach
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm a geek, but, due to circumstances beyond my control, I was forced to create some sales training. I had this book recommended to me, and it saved my sanity.The title is very unfortunate. "SPIN" in this book doesn't refer to the stuff that White House flunkies and PR flacks do...it's an acronym for the components of Rackham's sales methodology.
If you're not a sales type, you may have been grossed out by the high B.S. level of most books about selling. This book, on the other hand, is very factual and direct, and it's free of hoopla, glittering generalizations, and vacuous, trivial "case studies." Most amazingly, it presents sales in a way that makes it seem not so morally repellent. If it's humanly possible for sales to be a customer-service function, it's by following the practices in "Spin Selling."
Book Review: Ignore the unfair criticisms.
Summary: 5 Stars
Before you buy into some of the very negative recent reviews, take note of the overwhelmingly favorable reviews of this book that have been posted over the years. I personally think the book is awesome. I have a pharmaceutical sales background and for the past eight years have taught a personal selling course at the university level. I have used this needs-based selling book extensively in that course. Perhaps the poor reviews are due to the fact that effective implementation of the SPIN system is not easy, as it requires questions be thoughtfully and carefully formulated prior to making each call. However, those willing to work the system in an analytical manner may be rewarded with exceptional sales results. If you prefer a more pushy and rah-rah "check up from da neck up" approach to sales, perhaps you should look elsewhere.