Spin Selling: Pitch Early, Lose Often!

By Huthwaite (Creator of Spin Selling):

We all know that selling features too early is an ineffective and counter-productive selling technique. But if you’re being totally honest with yourself have you allowed some bad habits to creep back in, particularly during the boom years? Could it be that these bad habits are now preventing you from winning business in this tougher and more demanding market? The truth is we all were spoiled by the good times and probably all became a little lazy in our approach. Not convinced? Ask yourself the following questions:

• Did you pitch too early in the last sales call you made?
• Did you pass along a brochure at the outset of the meeting?
• Did you tout the impressive bells and whistles of your product or service as opposed to focusing the conversation on the problems that your product or service solves?
• Did you end up going down any rabbit holes because you didn’t prep the call properly?
• Did you default to your well-worn talk track and lose the audience?

We’re willing to wager that there are a lot of people who have fallen back into these traps even when they know better! If you have the slightest inclination that you may be one of those people then the solution is very simple – go back and revisit the fundamentals of selling. Yes, it’s all about back to basics! There is no great secret or new technique and as Neil Rackham likes to say, “Good selling is good selling regardless of the market conditions.”

So dust off your copy of SPIN Selling and refresh your memory. The beauty of Neil Rackham’s research is that it is perennially true because it is based on behavioral psychology. It is based on human nature. The principles don’t change with the dynamic—or entropic—marketplace and economy.

Let’s revisit a bit of the research on Features:

Overall, the levels of Features presented are slightly higher in unsuccessful calls. But the difference is small enough for us to conclude that the conventional wisdom is right—Features are neutral. They don’t help the call, but they don’t harm it much either. In larger sales, Features have a negative effect when used early in the call and a neutral effect when used later. Users respond more positively to Features than do decision makers. Features are low power statements that do little to help you sell. It’s better to use Benefits than Features.

A Benefit shows how a product or service meets an Explicit Need expressed by the customer.


      

Now go back to the list of questions at the beginning of this piece and on your next sales call, check yourself if you start to fall into one of those traps.

When you get in front of a client resist the temptation to wow them with those cool features you’ve been told will sell the product for you. Focus on digging into the client’s business drivers and map the benefits of your solution to those explicit business drivers. Be disciplined in your approach and above all else, be patient – it’s often one of the key differentiators between average and excellent sales people.

Remember whenever you feel yourself about to pitch ask yourself, “Is what I am about to say driven by my own impatience or the client’s explicit need?” If it is the former, stop yourself and instead ask some better questions.

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