One of the most popular guidelines for business-to-business (B2B) sales worldwide, SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham is the product of 12 years of research that began in 1970.

1. An Overview of
SPIN Sales
Techniques

2. A seasoned sales professional, Zariq Siddiqui serves as the
director of sales with Abbott Laboratories, Inc., in Chicago. To
enhance his knowledge and skills, Zariq Siddiqui read the
book SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham.
One of the most popular guidelines for business-to-business
(B2B) sales worldwide, SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham is the
product of 12 years of research that began in 1970. The
research team analyzed over 35,000 sales calls and identified
a pattern common to successful sales calls. Mr. Neil and his
research team found that the conventional approach of
asking predetermined questions often does not work in B2B
sales. This and other findings led to the development of the
SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-Payoff) technique,
the focus of the book.
According to Rackham, sales representatives need to know
when to ask certain questions and be flexible when asking

3. them. Sales representatives should first outline questions that
can help them learn about the respondent. The author also
found that open-ended questions have no quantifiable
impact on sales success, contradicting conventional wisdom.
In the categories of SPIN, situation questions help collect
information about the respondent's contemporary situation,
and problem questions help identify the respondent's
challenges. Implication questions identify the negative
impacts of these challenges on the respondent's business,
while need-payoff questions help determine solutions to the
problems.