Help with formulating SPIN questions

#1

Hello everyone

I am new to SPIN selling and I need help with formulating SPIN questions for client meeting.

The opportunity: selling project management services to a client. Customer challenge: current team if opoject managers us not experienced enough and there us a risk of projects failure or delays.

Our cost is going to be significantly higher than what they are paying today, so I need to justify cost.

Help with Problem, Implied and Needs Payoff questions and general approach would be highly appreciated.

#2

Anyone, it is fairly urgent :slight_smile:

#3

Hi Saint! SPIN is a great selling approach. Here are some questions for each stage that you can consider.

Situation Questions: The answers to situation questions form the foundation of a sales cycle. The purpose of these questions is to develop an understanding of the prospect, their pain-points, processes, goals, etc. Examples:
-What is your role?
-How do you do X?
-What’s your process for X?
-How much budget do you have assigned to X?
-How important is X to your business?
-Who uses X most frequently?
-Who is your current vendor for X?

Problem Questions: The idea behind problem questions is to make the prospect aware that their problems-even if previously overlooked-needs to be solved, and that your product provides the solution. You can emphasis the consequences of not meeting project deadlines here. Examples:
-How long does it take to do X?
-How expensive is X?
-What happens if you’re not successful with X?
-Are you happy with your current supplier?

Implication Questions: These questions should bring to attention the potential impact of the problem if not addressed. Figure out how serious it is by asking questions that reveal the depth of your prospect’s pain-points, bringing urgency to the problem. This usually makes it easier to justify price objections!
Examples:
-What’s the productivity cost of doing X that way?
-Would your customers be more satisfied if you didn’t experience [problem related to X]?
-If you didn’t experience [issue], would it be easier to achieve [primary objective]?
-How is [issue] impacting your team members?

Need-payoff Questions: In this stage, convince your prospects of how valuable a solution is. For pay-off questions, ensure that your buyer can specify the benefits of your product themselves, which is far more convincing than you harping it at them. Encourage them to imagine the difference with that problem solved.
Examples:
-Would X make it simpler to achieve [goal]?
-Would your team find value in … ?
-Do you think solving [problem] would significantly impact you in X way?

Hopefully these are helpful! Hubspot also has a great article on more SPIN questions here. Good luck!

#4
From my experience, this is what I know about SPIN Selling:

Situation- Here, try to get a feel for what your prospect does and how they do it. A brief run-down on their process gives you context so you can ask the right questions moving forward.

Problem- This is the most important part of SPIN Selling in my opinion. You want to ask questions that will help you understand the issues your prospects is facing in their particular situation. Without knowing what problems they’re having, you won’t be able to personalize your pitch and really sell them on your product.

Implication- Here, you want to show your prospect the consequences of their problems. Your prospect may understand what their problem is, but might not realize how much of an impact it’s having on their results. In your case, you can get at how project failures could hurt could hurt your prospect’s company as a whole. Would they lose revenue? Waste resources? Damage their brand? By explicitly emphasizing how their problem is hurting them, you create a sense of urgency to find a solution. This will help you in the next phase.

Need/payoff- Get your prospect to understand exactly how they would benefit from a solution to their problem. For example, this time, you could show a prospect how better project management could increase revenue, put resources to good use, and nurture their brand. Ideally, they’ll automatically see how your solution, specifically, would help them, but you may have to do some hand holding.

A good rule of thumb is to try and quantify your prospect’s losses and potential gains whenever possible. Try to show them, in numbers, how much they are losing by leaving their problems unsolved, and how much they would gain by buying your solution. This will really drive the point home.

Here’s a great article with some sample questions you can ask during each phase: https://www.yesware.com/blog/spin-selling/