Based on extensive research,analyzing more than 35,000 sales calls in more than 23 countries and 24 industries over a period of 12 years, Neil Rackham developed a strategy that has become the new standard in sales performance in today's competitive and constantly changing business environment. Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff: these are the precepts behind SPIN® Selling. It was built on extensive research, proven over twenty five years in the marketplace, and achieved acceptance among large-sales professionals across all industries. SPIN® Selling is what successful sales people do that their less successful counterparts do not.

Founded by SPIN® Selling author,Neil Rackham, Upjoin is the acknowledged thought leader in the sales performance improvement industry worldwide. It provides the expertise and resources to help organizations put SPIN® Selling into practice, and apply industry leading strategies to all facets of sales performance.

The 3 C's of Professional Selling The extensive research of Huthwaite involved the observation and analysis of more than 35,000 sales calls in a wide variety of industries around the world. Both successful and unsuccessful calls were examined in order to identify the factors that differentiated the two. The 3 C's of Professional Selling are based on research findings which show that the most successful sellers consistently demonstrate the following principles during the selling process:     ·Candor — being honest and straightforward; never bending the   truth; never pretending to know what they don't know; not exaggerating or practicing any form of deception, thus earning a high level of trust and credibility with their buyers.     ·Concern — being more interested in their buyers' needs than in just  "pushing"  a particular product/service; making a sincere effort to understand buyer problems and why they matter, thus being able to recommend highly effective solutions.     ·Competence — knowing their products/services; understanding their applications, the buyer needs they meet and the business problems they can solve, thus being able to bring value to the sales interaction and offer high-value solutions. Buyer Needs The single most important factor in the success of any sales call is that of uncovering Buyer Needs. Buying decisions are driven by needs. Buyer problems, dissatisfactions or difficulties with the existing situation provide the reasons why a buyer might feel the need to change. Your ability to identify and develop buyer needs, and to demonstrate the capability of your product/service to address those needs, is vital to your selling success.     ·Implied Need — a buyer problem, difficulty or dissatisfaction which can be addressed by your product/service.     ·Explicit Need — a clear buyer problem, difficulty or dissatisfaction which can be addressed by your product/service, plus a clear buyer statement of their desire for a solution. Demonstrating Capabilities There are three different ways to describe the capabilities of a product/service in SPIN selling:     ·Feature—facts or characteristics of a product/service ( "Our  system has a high speed processor …")     ·Advantages—how a feature can be used or can help the buyer ( " That will give you fast performance and virtually instant response …" )     ·Benefits—How a feature or advantage meets an Explicit Need ( " This will provide the efficiency you said you're looking for..." ) The least successful sellers tend to focus on product Features. The most successful sellers used significantly more Benefits when describing their capabilities. Of course, the only way to describe a Benefit is to first uncover an Explicit Need. Investigating in SPIN Selling The term "Investigating" refers to the stage of a sales call devoted to asking questions. These questions are used to uncover background facts and needs. Investigating is the single most critical skill area impacting the outcome of sales calls. This means that your sales success (or lack thereof) is directly related to how effectively you investigate, using the SPIN process to gather information and develop Explicit Needs. The SPIN process is composed of four types of questions, each of which has a different purpose:     ·Situation Questions — uncover relevant background facts about the buyer, the buyer's organization, and the buyer's current situation.     ·Problem Questions — uncover and understand buyer problems, difficulties or dissatisfactions which can be addressed by your product/service.     ·Implication Questions — uncover the consequences, effects, or implications to a buyer of not solving a problem which can be addressed by your product/service.     ·Need-Payoff Questions — get the buyer's perception of the payoff, usefulness, value or desirability of solving a problem. Taken together, these four types of questions provide a powerful and flexible process for effective selling

Best known as the creators of SPIN Selling®, Huthwaite is the acknowledged thought leader in the sales performance improvement industry worldwide. Over 25 years ago, Huthwaite founder Neil Rackham began a 12-year, groundbreaking research study that analyzed over 35,000 sales calls conducted in 20 of the world's leading selling organizations in 23 countries, and evaluated 116 factors that may impact selling behaviors. The study's objective was to determine the distinct behaviors of successful sales people. The results identified key behavioral differentiators and challenged the view that good closing techniques are the key to successful sales. These findings gave rise to a revolutionary and now famous selling model SPIN®. The research, considered the most important study ever conducted in the sales field, is summarized by Mr. Rackham in SPIN Selling, McGraw Hill's all-time #1 bestselling business title. Huthwaite has worked with hundreds of world class sales organizations, helping them meet their business objectives, dramatically improve sales effectiveness and productivity, and ultimately increase profits.

Since the 1970's, sales models have been pursued mostly in accordance with the principles laid down in Sales Psychology written by U.S. sales psychologist E. K. Strong in the 1920's. This book served as a basis for sales learning programs in the 50 years later on, whose core constitutes what is known today as Professional Sales Skills. Xerox developed and introduced the training program in the most systematic and integrated way With More complex purchasing process, multiple layers of decision-making, longer time and higher risk to make the decision, and tougher technical issues, the Professional Sales Skills focused on external sales technique become insufficient to ensure sales success. A good number of companies have begun to introduce the modern behavioral science and psychology to optimize sales models and drive up sales performance so as to deal with the increasing number of large sales and major accounts. Neil Rackham has brought about a revolution in the sales history with his book SPIN Selling, which fundamentally transformed conventional sales concepts and methods. Rackham renovated the traditional sales theory in both sales technique and concept, and proved with hard research data that the traditional theory is deficient and outmoded, laying a foundation for the advisory sales theory. Neil Rackham has therefore been recognized as authority in the study of sales worldwide. Neil Rackham is president and founder of Huthwaite, Inc. His organization researches, consults, and gives seminars for over 200 leading sales organizations around the world, including Xerox, IBM, AT&T, Kodak, and Citicorp. His academic background is in research psychology. It was at the University of Sheffield, England, that he began his research into sales effectiveness that resulted in SPIN. He is the author of over 50 articles and several books which have been translated into a total of 11 languages. The SPIN selling strategy is not product-dependent. It applies smoothly so long as the potential customer has a long decision-making time or a large number of decision makers, the salespeople concerned are absent when a decision is made, and a product or service involves great purchasing risks. There are plenty of opinions on how to sell, but a real shortage of well-researched facts. Neil Rackham and his team carried out a 12-year research to make his findings based on facts. Just as he said:  "Because I wasn't satisfied with opinions. I wanted proof."   They kept quiet about our findings for 7 years, testing out the practical value of the ideas before ready to publish them. During that time Huthwaite trained several thousand salespeople with SPIN Selling, continuously experimenting to find the best way to turn the theoretical knowledge of sales success into simple and practical methods that could help anyone become more effective in major sales. They measured the productivity gains of the first thousand people they trained, comparing them with control groups from the same companies. The people we'd trained showed an average increase in sales volume of 17 percent more than the control groups. Consequently, Neil Rackham was confident that SPIN Selling would give well-tested methods for increasing sales results. It's already helped thousands of people be more successful in larger sales.

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