Customers are Willing to Pay More!

Last week I had the revealing experience to attend SPIN Selling Conversations, the new updated version of this global sales program. It took me to a new level of skill as a sales leader to come to collaborative, mutually beneficial decisions to move a sale forward.

Jeffrey Gitomer taught me “Ask the wrong questions, Get the wrong answers. If you can’t ask effective questions, you won’t be successful in sales.”

Professional Selling Skills taught me how to use Open and Closed Questions to create business discussions with customers.

SPIN has just enlightened me to employ questions to help customers to gain new insights into their situation and problems and new ways to improve and achieve success and pay a premium for your solution.

Let me repeat what SPIN research reveals:

Your customers are willing to pay a premium when, you, the salesperson, are able to create value by helping them to gain new insights into their current situation and show them ways to improve.

SPIN research reveals customers are willing to pay more to purchase a product or service when they received extra value in addition to the benefits inherent in the product or service if you help the customer explore and act on the 4 Value Drivers.

Four Value Drivers

The salesperson reveals to the customer an Unrecognized Problem that the customer or the customer’s organization is experiencing or is about to experience. You help the customer understand a problem about their own businesses that they didn’t see themselves, or uncover the magnitude of a problem they do see.

The salesperson establishes for the customer an Unanticipated Solution for the customer’s problems. You help the customer see a solution to their problems that they didn’t know existed.

The salesperson creates or reveals an Unseen Opportunity for the customer’s organization. You help the customer see that they can gain more from the marketplace than they are currently doing.

The salesperson serves as more than just a vendor of products or services, but instead serves as a Broker of Capabilities. Specifically, you make available the full range of your solutions blended in a way that supports and contributes to the expansion or redefinition of the customer’s success.

In B2B selling, salespeople create and build value with each sales call by asking questions across the 4 Value Drivers to create customer stronger needs.

Customer needs are not equal. They have priority and impact bounded by cost, risk, ease or hassle of making a change. For a customer to buy, he/she must have a strong want or desire to act to improve or accomplish a change for the better, for organizational success.

The perceived value of your solution will be greater depending on the priority and impact of the customer’s need, especially if this impact is across one of the Four Value Drivers.

Effective B2B world-class sellers engage the customer in a deep discussion about the customer’s business issues and needs. This is done using SPIN question process. SPIN questions persuade more powerfully than any other form of verbal behavior. In other words, seeking information is more powerful than giving information (or telling) when it comes to persuading.

SPIN questions allow the business discussion to evolve and lead to better decisions for both you and the customer to move the sale forward. Let’s look at the four kinds of SPIN questions and how each can be used in the needs development process.

Situation Questions

Situation Questions ask about background, facts and context of the customer’s current situation.

Problem Questions 

Problem Questions ask about problems, difficulties or dissatisfaction with your customer’s current situation.

Implication Questions

Implication Questions ask about the effects, consequences or impact of not solving your customer’s problems or difficulties.

Need-Payoff Questions

Need-Payoff Questions ask the customer about the value or payoff of resolving the problem or difficulty the customer is facing.

These four questions are known collectively as SPIN.

The SPIN questioning process is based on the powerful idea that seeking information is more persuasive than giving information. When you employ SPIN to uncover stronger customer needs across the 4 Value Drivers, our SPIN research reveals customers will pay a premium for your solution, helping you and your customer in the journey of mutual success.

If you want to find out more about SPIN, our research, and how you or your organization may employ SPIN for sales success, contact me at no obligation by email michael.griffin@elavateglobal.com