by Neil Rackham
ISBN: 0070511136
Buy on Amazon
Found in 7 comments on Hacker News
Leftium · 2024-02-09 · Original thread
SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham[1]

This site give a good preview/summary of the book/method: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/spin-selling-the-ultimate-gui...

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/SPIN-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/00705111...

That's a great summary. Personally, I'd add just one more before the pitch:

(D) Uncover how amazing their future would be, if they could resolve what's stopping them

You want them to be articulating the implications of a solution — i.e., the benefits — so that they really feel the need. Then you don't even have to pitch that hard; you just gently offer your solution to resolve the need they're actively feeling. (As a bonus, you also get to hear the benefits in their words. That lets you use those words to refine your sales pitch for the next prospect.)

Anyway, these 4 steps are really just a Twitter-ified version of SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham [1] — a book which, despite its age and its title, is a very good sales book.

(The reason its so good is because it's one of the only ones that uses actual data. They studied many actually successful salespeople, identified the patterns and formed hypotheses about what works, then taught that to new/struggling salespeople to validate their hypotheses. The SPIN acronym is the mnemonic for what they found.)

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/SPIN-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/00705111...

robot · 2017-12-10 · Original thread
Identify who would need your service, learn and do sales. Make sure you believe you have a great service. If not identify your greatest skill and improve it. Books are generally great. Here is a great sales book: https://www.amazon.com/SPIN-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/00705111...

If doing sales sounds tough, it will start tough and then get easier. If people ignore you just keep going.

Build something for someone for free (assuming you are in a programming or similar field).

When selling the most important part is the immediate benefit you are providing - will you reduce your customer's cost, improve their sales, solve some problem they spend too much time?

RE: how do you find clients? What field are you in? Who would need your service? Identify 1000 potential buyers and contact them. Contact them by email, phone, use forums, go to conferences, talk to people one on one. Introduce your benefit to them.. Make sure you contact people who seem to have budget and good things going on. Build a website on wordpress that describes your service. Hang out in places where your audience might be.

There is a lot to talk about but most importantly you "do" something consistently, improve it and keep going if you get Nos. If you stop doing you will never get there, and if you keep doing you will definitely get somewhere good, then great.

pitt1980 · 2017-12-08 · Original thread
Spin Selling by Neil Rackham presents a useful theoretical framework for selling

https://www.amazon.com/SPIN-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/00705111...

There are many sales books that present scripts, in general I think they are useful to read for generating ideas, I would suggest never using a script that doesn't feel comfortable for you to say, I would suggest also thinking about fitting any script you use back into the larger theoretical framework from the above book

personally, I like the scripts presented in Stephen Schiffman's books, https://www.amazon.com/Stephan-Schiffman/e/B001H9PRO2/ref=sr...

mainly on the ground that none of them make me cringe to say (specifically the '250 sales questions' and the 'Cold Calling' books), what makes you cringe is likely to be a little different from what makes me cringe, so your mileage will probably vary

there are a lot of books in this general genre, check out https://www.amazon.com/Brian-Tracy/e/B001H6OMRI/ref=sr_ntt_s... and https://www.amazon.com/Zig-Ziglar/e/B000AP7VIY/ref=sr_ntt_sr...

I do think these books present lots of good material for brainstorming, but some percentage of both these books I couldn't say to someone without cringing (I would suggest listening to that voice in your head, if it'd make you cringe, it's likely to make whoever you're saying it to cringe as well)

-----

fwiw, these books tend to be exceptionally easy reads, so I suggest checking them out, taking what you find useful, and leaving what you don't

apapli · 2016-12-26 · Original thread
I've been in sales 15 years now. Check out these resources and they will give you a GREAT foundation:

Read the challenger sale: https://www.amazon.com/Challenger-Sale-Control-Customer-Conv...

and read SPIN selling: https://www.amazon.com/SPIN-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/00705111...

Listen to the advanced selling podcast: https://advancedsellingpodcast.com/

Cheers

fcbrooklyn · 2014-10-14 · Original thread
I'm a dev who has spent many years closing largish deals, and the best thing I've ever read on the subject is "Spin Selling" by Neil Rackham. The focus is on the difference between closing 6 figure deals vs smaller deals and closing deals within organisations as opposed to selling to individuals. http://www.amazon.com/SPIN-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/007051113...

It's also the only sales book I've read that actually measures the results of its advice, which might make it especially relevant to technical people.

sayemm · 2013-01-29 · Original thread
Link-bait title for a mildly interesting study. I'm not surprised at the results, anyone with real sales/biz dev experience will tell you that listening and asking the right questions are the way to sell people, not "hustling" and being overly salesy/pushy - http://www.amazon.com/SPIN-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/007051113...

That said though, how you define yourself as "extroverted", "introverted", or an "ambivert" is questionable altogether.