SPIN Selling

My wife prodded me into reading the SPIN Selling Fieldbook this week. I'm about halfway through so far. Will now have to go back and get the original SPIN Selling to read also.

I've been aware of SPIN Selling for some time. One of the areas I recruit for is technology oriented sales people. SPIN Selling is oriented to larger, complex deals like these types of technolgy sales. Many candidates in this arena list SPIN Selling training on their resumes.

The reason I hadn't read it previously was primarily because the name bothered me. "SPIN Selling" has quite a negative connotation for me because of the tie-in with political "spin doctors", and the association with trying to spin, or muddle issues. Seems like every time someone famous gets into trouble, the first thing they do is hire a PR firm to try and spin the issue.

However, the advice in the book itself is sound and has little to do with the other type of "spin". One of the key points is that successful salespeople seek to understand their clients needs first, and then save pitching their product or service for later. Many candidates could benefit from this advice. Too many of them launch right into explaining why they're great for a job before they really know anything about the position. One of the stereotypes of technology people is that they are too technology focused, rather than business focused. Failing to seek understanding of a project, issue, business challenge, or job opportunity before launching into suggestions sends the message that you do not listen, research or understand before acting. And that is rarely a good approach for any situation.