Try These 5 Ideas, Adopted From SPIN Selling, To Improve Customers Engagement And Sales

Improving the customer's engagement is highly likely to improve sales. An engaged customer is easier to work with. Many selling strategies have now shifted the focus from the product to the customer. To learn all these strategies are near impossible, so one of the best ways to benefit is through selecting workable ideas from these strategies.

Here are 5 ideas adopted from the infamous SPIN selling that you can try on as ideas to improve your customers' engagement and sales.

1. Take note of your customer's position in the Sales Cycle

Yes! There's a thing called the Sales Cycle. At any point in time, your customer is at a different point in the sales cycle. S/he could be at discovery, inquiry, or commitment. Different period calls for a different plan of action and approach. In fact, diverse customer needs to be approached differently regardless of their sales cycle. But being aware of the cycle can improve engagement and ultimately buy-in.

2. The main aim of every sales call is
to move prospect up in the sales cycle

Some companies give too much focus on closing even though prospects are not yet ready to commit. Prospects need to hit a certain confidence threshold that comes from understanding the offer, and they will delay decisions up to that point. That's why taking note of their position in a cycle is essential, doing what's necessary to address their need in that cycle is equally important.

The whole process takes a longer time frame for institutional or B2B selling...

Pushing things through only leads to early disengagement, and in most cases, frustration for sales reps.

It's wiser to take the baby steps towards a commitment through moving prospects one level at a time.

3. Offer solution only when
customers are ready

From their research, the SPIN Selling team observed that high sales performers did not offer their solution hastily. They get to understand the prospects, build value and impact, then provide the answers. Other reps just dump all the info about what the product does, how it differs from competitors, and go for closure. And that leads to often poor sales performance.

High sales performers build values and then offer solutions, mostly in the later stage of engagement or sales cycle.

4. Not all questions are
created equal

The different question carries different value. It's important then to know what type of question to ask at a different point of interaction. There are questions to discover needs, there are questions to identify unique situation prospects is in, and so on.

If you feel like your selling stay static, there's a good chance that you're not asking the right question thus putting further engagement to a halt.

Ask a different question, get a different answer, and take a different action. That's how you progress in sales.

5. SPIN Selling Model is
just a framework

Selling models are not something static that sales reps need to follow to the letter. Models are there to assist selling. If you find yourself stuck, you can be unstuck by tracing back your previous steps and take it from there. It's a means, a tool, not an end to be achieved.

You can try on the ideas brought forth by these selling models, and see which suits you best in your selling situation. The simple plan is to start somewhere, see what's working or not working, and adjust until you get to your own sales goal.

That's the plan ...

Which of these ideas you see can be applied to your next sales call?

How are you going to use it?