Stages of a SPIN sale

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According to the author of this book, there are four basic stages of every sale:

spin-selling-stages

Opening (also called “preliminaries”).
Investigation.
Demonstration capacity.
Obtaining commitment or engagement.
Transactional salespeople often move through commercial property owners database all four stages in a single sales call. However, reps working on larger, more complex deals can take anywhere from two months to two years to complete.

On the other hand, to help mid-market and enterprise sellers measure their progress, Rackham uses the concept of “advances.” An advance is an action where the buyer commits to making a purchase.

So it's tempting to interpret your prospect's request for an advance for more information or a proposal as a buying signal.

An example of advancements includes when a buyer has the idea to check out your pricing page and send you their questions, sign up for a free trial, and explore the tool.

When your lead rejects one of your advances, you will have to calmly accept the rejection and then propose something else.

An order is the third potential outcome of a sales call. The buyer agrees to buy your product and shows his or her strong desire by signing paperwork. For larger deals, this is usually the last outcome in a series of progressively larger closings.

A NO sale is the fourth (and least desirable) outcome. Your prospect rejects your request in a number of ways, such as them not scheduling another meeting, or at the most extreme, saying there is no chance you two will work together.

So let's go through each of the stages in detail so we can identify them when we have them in front of us.



Opening
In SPIN Selling and inbound sales should be taken slowly and reps should not immediately jump into the features and benefits of their products on the call.

Not only will this overly aggressive strategy disappoint buyers, but sellers will miss out on the opportunity to gain valuable information.

The purpose of the lead call is to get the buyer's attention and begin to gain their trust . You should try to lead with compelling insight.



Investigation
Research is the most important phase of SPIN Selling, as it is equivalent to what is called discovery: you will be finding out how your product can help the buyer, identifying their priorities and purchasing criteria, and gaining credibility by asking relevant strategic questions.

According to Rackham, a strong questioning strategy can improve your closing rate by 20%.



Demonstration capacity
After you've connected the dots between your solution and your buyers' needs, you'll need to prove that the connection exists.

There are three basic ways to describe your product's capabilities, according to Rackham:



Characteristics.
Advantages.
Benefits.


Features are most useful when selling simple, low-cost products. It is imperative to keep in mind that end users tend to find features more appealing than decision makers who care about the bottom line.

Advantages describe how a product's features are actually used. Like benefits, they are useful for small purchases, but less compelling with larger ones.

Benefits go a step further and show how a feature can help the prospect. They usually have a financial component and meet your customer’s needs.

A well-crafted benefit gives the buyer a reason to buy your product.