b2_group _ buyer seller dyad & spin technique

Institute of Management Technology

Ghaziabad

Sales Management Project

Buyer Seller Dyad & Spin technique

Submitted To Submitted By – Group

Dr Sanjeev Prashar Mohit Sharma 09FT-088

Mohit Gupta 09FT-087

Neeraj kumar 09FT-096

Navnish Saurabh 09FT-094

Megha bhat 09FT-084

Buyer Seller Dyad & SPIN Technique

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PREFACE

We undertook the project “Buyer Seller Dyad & Spin technique” as a part of our course

curriculum of PGDM in the field of Sales Management at IMT, Ghaziabad.

The duration of our project was 4 weeks. In the Duration we studied many companies from different sectors and Analysed there buyer seller relationship

We have tried to incorporate the results to the best of our abilities & available resources.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

There is always a sense of gratitude, which everyone express to others for the

helpful and needful services they render during different phases of life and help to

achieve the goals. We too, want to express our deep gratitude to each and everyone who

have always been helpful to us in getting this project to a successful end.

We are thankful to Prof. Sanjeev Prashar (Professor, IMT GHAZIABAD), who is

not only our teacher in-charge of Sales Management but also our guide for this project.

We express our humble thanks to his for spacing every moment out of his busy

schedule for us, who has not only guided us properly but also gave us an encouraging

help to make this project successful one. Without his able guidance, we would not have

been able to complete this project.

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1 Executive Summary

The project attempts to provide a comprehensive conceptualization of the buyer seller

interaction process as well as spin technique used in selling. Selling may be viewed as a

process in which two individuals exchange items of value. In reality, it is likely that

buyer & seller exchange attributes with both physical & psychological values. This

project presents a simple view of buyer seller interaction & spin technique process.

1.1 Objectives: -

To find out actual practices of companies that implement buyer seller dyad as well spin

technique. These companies have been chosen from five different selling strategies: -

Communication, Negotiation, Persuasion, Client profit planning, Business development

strategy.

Further SPANCO technique has been analyzed w.r.t. to IMS India pvt ltd. (A CAT

coaching institute)

1.2 Scope:-

The literature review has been carried out to understand the evolution of relevant theories

of sales management. Further, the companies have been selected from in and around

Delhi/ NCR region.

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PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ......................................................................................................................

12.3.1 Content of Communication ............................................................................................... 12

2.3.1.2 Social Organizational Utility ...................................................................................................... 12

1.2..................................................................................................................................

TABLE OF ........................................................................................................................CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................................................

2 BUYER ..............................................................................................................SELLERDYAD

2.1........................................................................................................................

2.2..............................................................................................................

2.3...........................................................................2.3.1 Content of Communication...............................................................................................

2.3.1.1 Functional Utility ......................................................................................................................2.3.1.2 Social Organizational Utility......................................................................................................2.3.1.3 Situational Utility ......................................................................................................................2.3.1.4 Emotional Utility.......................................................................................................................

2.3.1.5 Curiosity Utility ........................................................................................................................2.3.2 Style of Communication ...................................................................................................

2.3.2.1 Task Oriented Style ...................................................................................................................2.3.2.2 Interaction Oriented Style ..........................................................................................................2.3.2.3 Self Oriented Style ....................................................................................................................

2.3.3 Determinant Factors........................................................................................................

2.3.3.1 Personal factors .........................................................................................................................2.3.3.2 Organizational factors................................................................................................................2.3.3.3 Product-related factors...............................................................................................................

2.4 DYADIC SALES PROCESS MODEL ...........................................................................................2.4.1 Source Legitimization ......................................................................................................2.4.2 Information Exchange - Problem Identification ................................................................2.4.3 Attribute Delineation .......................................................................................................2.4.4 Attribute Value Negotiation..............................................................................................2.4.5 Relationship Maintenance ................................................................................................

2.5 RELATIONSHIP SKILLS OF SALESPEOPLE ................................................................................2.5.1 Responsiveness ................................................................................................................2.5.2 Assertiveness ...................................................................................................................2.5.3 Gender ............................................................................................................................

3 SPIN TECHNIQUE OF SALES .................................................................................................

3.1 BACKGROUND..................................................................................................................3.1.1 What’s wrong with ‘traditional’ selling? ..........................................................................3.1.2 Flaws in Traditional Selling Technique ............................................................................

3.2 INTRODUCTION TO SPIN SELLING ................................................................................3.2.1 What is Spin Technique....................................................................................................3.2.2 Characteristics of Spin Selling .........................................................................................

3.2.3 Spin Technique Questions ................................................................................................3.2.4 Goal of Questioning- Need Identification .........................................................................

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Buyer Seller Interaction Framework ......................................................................................... 11 Figure 2: Dyadic Sales Model ................................................................................................................. 16 Figure 3: Social Style Matrix .................................................................................................................. 19 Figure 4: Gender interaction on identification skills................................................................................. 20 Figure 5: Traditional Selling Process....................................................................................................... 22 Figure 6: SPIN Technique of Sales.......................................................................................................... 24 Figure 7: SPANCO sales Technique........................................................................................................ 29

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2 Buyer Seller Dyad

2.1 Background1

In their initial researches, researchers had found that the emphasis in business is placed

on finding the ideal sales type while doing salesman selection. The salesmen were

thought of as outgoing, bluff, hardy and aggressive. They were mostly found to be money

oriented in compare to their counterparts in technical line who were work oriented. Initial

sales approaches were:

The Sales Personality: what the salesman must be. This approach argues that salesman must

be mentally tough but he must have more tact, diplomacy, and social poise than most other

employees. He must be ambitious, self confident and like to travel.

The Persuasive Salesman: how to persuade or manipulate prospect. This approach argues

that regardless of the type, all prospects will buy from someone. You can be the one if you

learn to classify prospects and then use the methods, principles and techniques that permit

you to handle various prospects in profitable manner.

The Adaptable Salesman: be whatever the prospect wants. According to this approach good

salesman is a chameleon and likes being one. Salesman should be what the client wants; to

make the client feels the salesman understand him.

A lot many studies in sociology and social psychology have dealt with variables which

are important to person interaction system. It was mostly fund that though salesman

realize that he must please their prospects but he mostly tend to deny the importance of

personal relations. Salesmen claim that a prospect‟s age, religion, ethnic

background or appearance makes no difference to them. They mostly equate hard work

with success. They deny the importance of their interaction with particular kind of

prospects. But various researches have shown that successful dyads are more alike than

the unsuccessful one.

2.2 Literature Review

Personal selling requires two people i.e. Buyer and Seller. Different researchers have

analyzed these two among different dimensions.

1 F. B. Evans, “ Selling as a dyadic relationship A new approach”, American Behavioural Scientist, May 1963

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Harry Hansen [1961] simply classifies salesmen into two groups i.e. Industry salesmen and

consumer salesmen.

Robert McMurry [1961]2 discusses selling in terms of creativity level required for selling the

product – Direct Selling, Inside Order Taker, Outside Order Taker, Missionary Salesperson,

Creative Sale of Tangible Product and Creative Sales of Intangible.

Beckham and Davidson [1962] classify them into – Industrial users, wholesalers, retailers and

consumers. They have argued that need for creativity varies from one person to another,

although the salesman is selling the same product line. So adaptability of selling behaviour to

the expectation of customer would results in a more effective selling relationship.

F. B. Evan [1963] in his research had found that more alike the salesman and the prospect are

the greater is the likelihood of success. This is true for physical characteristics (age, height),

objective factors (income, religion, education) and variables (politics, smoking) that may be

related to personality factors.

M. S. Gadel [1964] in her research “Concentration by salesman on

congenial prospect”; had found the seller concentration. It is found that salesman

selling efforts are more influenced by the ease of approach and comfort with prospect.

Because of this company misses some market because of its salesman chosen prospect. Some

of the factors for concentrations are sales person age, sex, race, occupation, ethnic origin etc.

Henry L Tosi [1965]3 discusses the effect of expectations and buyer seller role consensus on

the success of salesman. In his research he had found that salesman who is perceived by the

customer as meeting customer‟s requirement is more likely to have less competition from other salesman. Thus behavioral expectations of the buyer may be an

intervening, or moderating variable.

H Lee Mathews (et al) [1972] 4 in their research have found that actual similarity may be not

as powerful a predictor of behaviour as perceived similarity. They had studied the

cooperative and conflict behaviour in buyer-seller dyad. They have found that telling subjects

that they were alike did increase the cooperative responses. The illusion of similarity is

important consideration buyer-seller interaction.

2 The Mystique of Super Salesmanship, Harvard Business Review, March – April, 19613 “Effect of expectation levels and role consensus on the buyer seller dyad”4 “Bargaining Behavior in a Buyer-Seller Dyad”

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Paul Busch and David T. Wilson [1976] 5 have analyzed the effects of differential levels of

salesman‟s expert and referent power bases on customer. Social Power is the ability

of one person or group to cause another person or group to change in the direction intended

by the influencer. In their research they have argued that social power is a source of influence

in a relationship. They have analyzed expert and referent bases of social power. Expert power

is based on the influence‟s perception that the influencer has valuable

knowledge, information or skills in the relevant area. Referent power is based on the

perceived attraction of members in the dyad relationship. They have also found that expert

power is more important than referent power as a factor affecting trust.

2.3 Buyer Seller Interaction Framework6

This is a comprehensive conceptualization of the buyer-seller interaction process. This

framework is comprehensive enough to include all type of buyer-seller interactions.

These can be interpersonal (face to face), written or even telecommunication in nature. It

also includes buyer-seller Interactions in both household and organizational marketing. In

other words, it is capable of explaining the process of buyer-seller interaction which takes

at the retail outlets for consumer goods as well as between sales representatives and

purchasing agents of formal organizations.

The basic postulate underlying the conceptual framework summarized in figure 2.1 is that

whether a specific buyer-seller interaction will or will not work is a function of two

distinct dimensions of interaction.

5 “An Experimental Analysis of a salesman‟s expert and referent bases of social power in the buyer-seller dyad”6 Jagdish N Sheth “Buyer Seller Interaction: A conceptual framework”, Advances in consumer

research

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Figure 1: Buyer Seller Interaction Framework

The first dimension is the content of communication representing the substantive

aspects of the purposes for which the two parties have got together. It entails suggesting,

offering, promoting or negotiating a set of product-specific utilities and their

expectations. Often the expectations offered by the seller and desired by the buyer for a

specific product or service do not match resulting in failure of the interaction transaction

to be consummated successfully and satisfactorily.

A second dimension of buyer-seller interaction determination is the style of

communication. It represents the format, ritual or mannerism which the buyer and the

seller adopt in their interaction. The style of interaction reflects the highly individualistic

preferences and normative expectations of the buyer and the seller about the process of

interaction itself. Much of the search for the super salesman is often localized in

identifying the style of interaction of highly successful salesman in organizational

marketing.

The buyer-seller interaction is presumed to perform any of the following five functions:

Increase awareness of each other's expectations about the product or service;

Remind each other's past satisfactory transactions and their behavioral outcomes;

Reinforce each other's behaviour related to the sale of the product or service;



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Precipitate behavioral actions on each other's cart by intensifying expectations; and

Persuade each other to change their respective expectations.

Whatever the objective, a satisfactory interaction transaction between the buyer and the

seller will occur if and only if they are compatible with respect to both the contest and

style of communication. Both the style and content of buyer-seller communication are

determined by a number of personal, organizational and product related factors. For

example, the personal life styles and backgrounds will often determine the style of

communication the buyer or the seller chooses to engage in. Similarly, organizational

training and orientation will also mould the buyer or the, seller with respect to the style of

communication he is expected to engage in. Finally, the content of communication is

likely to be determined by product-related variables such as market motivations, buyer

and seller plans and technology or competitive structure of industry.

2.3.1 Content of Communication

In underlying buyer-seller expectations about a product or service, there lies a five

dimensional utility space. The five dimensions represent different types of product-

related utilities which the buyer desires and the seller offers to each other. Each type of

utility is briefly described below:

2.3.1.1 Functional Utility

It represents product's utility which is strictly limited to its performance and which

defines the purpose of its existence and classification as a type of good or service. The

functional utility is often measured in terms of a person's expectations on a number of

product-anchored attributes or evaluative criteria. It is presumed to be a complex function

of positive and negative expectations on multi-attribute profiles.

2.3.1.2 Social Organizational Utility

Sometimes a product or service acquires social-organizational connotations or imageries

independent of its performance or functional utility. This is due to its consistent

identification with a selective set of socioeconomic, demographic or organizational types.

Such identification with a selective cross-section of household or organizational buyers



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tends to impute certain utilities or disutilities in the product or service producing imagery

or a stereotype.

2.3.1.3 Situational Utility

It represents a product's utility which is derived from existence of a set of situations or

circumstances. The product or service has no intrinsic or independent utility and will not

be offered or bought without the presence of circumstances which create its need. The

situational utility is often strong among those products or services which are consumed

on an ad hoc basis rather than on a continuous basis. It is extremely important te identify

situations and activities which add to the utility of the product or service.

2.3.1.4 Emotional Utility

Sometimes a product or service evokes strong emotive feelings such as respect, anger,

fear, love, hate or aesthetics due to its association with some other objects, events,

individuals or organizations. The strong emotive feelings are therefore generalized to the

product or service resulting in a different type of utility or disutility. Organizations also

tend to manifest emotive behaviour as is evidenced in international trade and cross-

national negotiations.

2.3.1.5 Curiosity Utility

It is often present in both household and organizational products or services is related to

novelty^ curiosity and exploratory needs among individuals.

Each product or service has a vector of the five types of utilities described above.

Furthermore, both the buyer and the seller will have certain expectations about the

product or service on these five types of utilities. It is not at all uncommon both in

household and organizational marketing to learn that the specific utility expectations of

the buyer and the seller do not match resulting in some form of incompatibility with

respect to content of interaction.



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2.3.2 Style of Communication

It refers to the format, ritual and mannerism involved in buyer-seller interaction. The

style of interaction is presumed to be three dimensional. The specific dimensions are

described below:

2.3.2.1 Task Oriented Style

This style of interaction is highly goal oriented and purposeful. The individual is most

interested in the efficiency with which the task at hand can be performed so as to

minimize cost effort and time. .Any activity during the interaction process which is either

not task-oriented or inefficient is less tolerated by the individual who prefers the task-

oriented style. The buyer or the seller who prefers this style of interaction often tends to

be mechanistic in his approach to other people.

2.3.2.2 Interaction Oriented Style

The buyer or the seller who prefers this style of interaction believes in personalizing and

socializing as an essential part of the interaction process. In fact, preference for this style

of interaction is often manifested at the loss or ignoring of the task at hand. The buyer or

the seller motivated by the interaction-oriented style is often compulsive in first

establishing a personal relationship with the other person and then only getting involved

in the specific content of interaction.

2.3.2.3 Self Oriented Style

This style reflects a person's preoccupation with himself in an interaction situation. The

concepts of self-preservation, self-survival and self-emulation tend to dominate this style

of interaction.

Unlike content of interaction, it is more difficult to change or adapt with respect to style

of Interaction. This is largely because the style orientations of individuals are often deep

rooted in personality variables, early socialization processes and personal life styles.

2.3.3 Determinant Factors

These are classified into three categories:



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2.3.3.1 Personal factors

(Background, lifestyle and role orientation) anchored to the individuals involved in the

interaction. These factors are likely to determine the style of interaction each individual prefers.

2.3.3.2 Organizational factors

Even in household marketing, we believe there are organizational factors not; only associated

with the seller but also with the buyer in so far as a typical household has some organizational

structure, no matter how implicit it may be. These factors often determine both the style and the

content of interaction. The content will be heavily influenced by organization objectives and to

some extent by organization structure. Similarly, each organization has explicit or implicit style

of management often dictated by the top man in the organization.

2.3.3.3 Product-related factors

Anchored to market motivations, competitive structure and buyer-seller plans. It determines the

content rather than the style of interaction. It refers to the generalized needs, wants and desires

customers have for which the specific product is more or less relevant.

The three types of determinants of style and content of interaction are extremely relevant

to isolate individual differences among buyers and sellers, product differences for the

same buyer or seller, and organizational differences for the same product. They

essentially serve the function of reducing all the buyer-seller interactions to a common

base by partialing out the effects of personal, organizational and product differences.

2.4 Dyadic Sales Process Model7

Selling may be viewed as a process in which two individuals exchange items of value. In

most simple situation, the buyer receives a product and seller receives money. In reality

the two, exchange attributes with both physical and psychological values. This model,

7 David T Wilson, “Dyadic Interaction: An Exchange Process”, Advances in Consumer Research



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proposed by David T Wilson, is concerned with the development of long term buyer-

seller relationship rather than one shot selling situations.

Figure 2: Dyadic Sales Model

This model proposes four stages in dyadic sales are:

2.4.1 Source Legitimization

It is found that sources of information are differentially preferred as a function of type of selling

situation. The situation ranges from new task to re-buy situation. The sales person‟s role

shifts over time as the buying situation moves from new task to the re-buy situations. In new

sale salesperson needs to develop source credibility and legitimization. Unless basic acceptability

is developed, further communication is likely to become quite ineffective if not impossible.

Although the salesperson may be perceived on a number of dimensions, the dimension of

expert-non expert and similar – dissimilar have received the greatest attention. The basic

objective of this stage is to establish salesman as a credible and legitimate partner in the

dyadic interaction process.

2.4.2 Information Exchange - Problem Identification

This stage involves bounding the problem to be solved through a purchase. The amount and

nature of the information exchange is likely to be given more information quicker than other

salespersons.

The salesperson attempts to establish the nature of the problem in order to be able to

suggest an attribute package that will results in a sale. The salesperson is also concerned



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about positioning the attribute package with respect to competition and in developing a

strong bargaining base.

2.4.3 Attribute Delineation

In this stage, the dyad develops the bundle of attributes that will be exchanged. Many of the

attributes will be explicitly discussed while other attributes may be implicitly determined.

Although both parties developed the attribute set, the salesman can have a major influence in the

development of the attribute set through guidance and direction of the buyer.

Also of importance is the nature of the product. If there are product differences then they

may be used to differentiate the various attribute packages. However, if substantial

product differences do not exist, then intangible attributes may dominate.

2.4.4 Attribute Value Negotiation

The determining of the attribute set and the exchange rate of each attribute can be viewed as a

bargaining process. The seller will likely attempt to increase the importance in the choice of his

strong attributes while the buyer may attempt to suggest an increased importance of the seller's

weaker attributes In hopes of gaining an increased level of other attributes. It is found that

perceived similarity improved cooperation in a simulated buyer-seller bargaining situation. A

"prisoner's dilemma" game was used as the bargaining vehicle.

2.4.5 Relationship Maintenance

In the final stage of the model, the dyad maintains and builds upon their relationships. New

personal attributes of the relationship may develop which enables it to grow from a business

relationship to a more personal business friendship relationship. A certain amount of implicit

bargaining over exchange values may take place particularly if problem with performance

attributes arises.

The importance of individual attributes likely varies as a function of the stage of the

relationship. Careful work needs to be done on the stages in which the attributes set is

developed and values of the individual attributes are negotiated.



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2.5 Relationship Skills of Salespeople8

With the increased emphasis on establishing long term customer relationships in the

selling process, greater emphasis needs to be placed on hiring salespeople that possess

skills in identifying communication characteristics in prospects. This identification

process is an essential first step in the salesperson being able to adapt his or her behaviour

to permit a greater comfort level to be experienced by the prospect subsequent trust being

established over an extended period of time.

To take complete advantage of the potential benefits of the dyadic exchange process, the

adaptive approach has been expanded to include the observed personal behavioral

characteristics of the prospect. Adapting to the social styles of prospect enables the sales

message to be received with greater receptivity. It increases the comfort level and reduces

perceived risk of prospect in proposed transaction. It will increase the likelihood of

proposed transaction, possibly resulting in a profitable long term relationship between

buyer and selling organization. For this ability to correctly identify the observed social

style of the prospect is a precursor to effective adaptation.

The three variables that affect a person‟s sensitivity to cues in others are:

Assertiveness

Responsiveness

Gender

First two variables are core components of person social style and are readily measurable

through diagnostic test. By combining assertiveness and responsiveness to form social

style matrix four distinct classifications are obtained and a subject can be placed into it.

8 Michael K Rich & Daniel C Smith, “Determining Relationship Skills of prospective salespeople”, 2000



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Figure 3: Social Style Matrix

2.5.1 Responsiveness

It is defines as the extent to which one reacts to appeals, influence or stimulation

or how feelings, emotion, or impressions are shown to others. A highly responsive

person will be friendly, informal, open, emotional, undisciplined and relationship

oriented. They will tend to “emote” feelings while being sensitive to both verbal

and nonverbal signals being sent by others. A person with low responsiveness will

want to work in an environment where he or she has more time alone instead of

having to make conversation with others. They seem to “control” and are less

sensitive to cues generated by others.

2.5.2 Assertiveness

It is defined as the degree to which one states opinions with assurances,

confidence, and force, and the extent to which one attempts to direct the actions of

others. A highly assertive person will seek control over others, they will be

competive, fast acting, risk-taking, take charge type who is very directive. A low

assertive people will be cooperative, slower acting, avoiding risk, going along

with the group, exhibiting non directive tendencies.

2.5.3 Gender

It is found that females are inherently more sensitive than males to their

surroundings. It is also found that females have greater sensitivity to relevant

information when forming judgments, enhancing their identification skills.



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Females emphasize care and concern for interpersonal relationships, empathy,

and understanding of emotional needs and feelings to greater degree than males.

Figure 4: Gender interaction on identification skills

Hence females identify social style better than males. Gender could thus be an overriding

variable in determining the effects of responsiveness and assertiveness ability of

salesperson.



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3 SPIN TECHNIQUE OF SALES

3.1 BACKGROUND

Strong sales and influence skills are crucial to business success as a financial adviser.

Without the ability to convert complacent, disinterested and distracted prospects into

motivated, paying clients, an organization will be unable to turn its expertise into

commercial success.

While traditional selling styles and programs may have been fine in the transactional

environment of yesteryear, today‟s advice-driven profession needs solutions that

will enable advisers not only to make a sale but also develop a trust-based relationship

with each client.

Rackham believes that traditional selling is suitable for most common transactions.

However, „major‟ sales must be handled differently because they have the following

characteristics:-

A lengthy selling cycle

A significant commitment by the buyer

An ongoing relationship after the sale



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3.1.1 What’s wrong with ‘traditional’ selling?

Let‟s take a quick look at the typical steps in a traditional sale:

Figure 5: Traditional Selling Process

3.1.2 Flaws in Traditional Selling Technique

Rackham identified two major flaws with this approach.

1. Firstly, the quality of the adviser-client relationship is damaged. Clients are keenly

aware of what is taking place as they move through the process.

2. Secondly, the client‟s needs are not developed to the point whereby they urgently seek your advice and support.

Traditional selling‟s greatest weakness is just this – the assumption that if I

can identify a need and then provide a suitable solution, I will make a sale. This works

for small sales (e.g. a washing machine), but not for large sales (e.g. financial advice).

Salesman needs a selling solution that not only allows him to establish and maintain a

healthy relationship with prospect, but also creates a sense of urgency for them to do

business with him.

In turn, this necessitates some new „selling skills‟, such as the „SPIN Selling‟ approach

developed by psychologist Neil Rackham.



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3.2 INTRODUCTION TO SPIN SELLING

3.2.1 What is Spin Technique

The seller uses Situation Questions to establish a context leading to Problem Questions

so that the buyer reveals Implied Needs which are developed by Implication Questions

which make the buyer feel the problem more clearly and acutely leading to Need-Payoff

Questions so that the buyer states Explicit Needs allowing the seller to state Benefits

which are strongly related to sales success.

---NEIL RACKHAM

The name „SPIN‟ is unfortunate. It conjures up images of crafty politicians trying to dupe

their electorates. SPIN is in fact an acronym for: situation, problem, implication and

need-payoff.

3.2.2 Characteristics of Spin Selling

Also known as “Hurt & Rescue Approach”

The needs are not exactly clear, so the seller looks for clues & tries to uncover the

potential customer's implicit needs and close the sale.

"SPIN Selling" suggests that the seller should develop a questioning mindset

stating it's "more important to understand than to persuade".

They also generate alternative actions to propose as needed for the actual sales visit.



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Figure 6: SPIN Technique of Sales

3.2.3 Spin Technique Questions

Situation:-These questions get the prospect talking about their current situation.

Ex

How long have you been staying in this home?

How long have you worked in this company?

Problem:-These questions identify the challenges a prospect is facing. Ex

What all difficulties you face because of power shortage?

Implication:- These questions access the relative impact of problem areas

What would happen to a family if head of family meets with an accident?

Need:- These questions highlight the value of Sellers's product in solving the prospect‟s problem.

How can a helmet save person‟s life in case of an accident?


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3.2.4 Goal of Questioning

The aim of questioning is -TO UNCOVER NEEDS

Implicit need

Explicit needs

Rackham ingeniously identifies two sets of needs – implicit and explicit.

Implicit needs are those the buyer is aware of.

Explicit needs are those that the buyer wants to do something about – they play on your mind, keep you up at night and motivate you to take action.

3.4 SITUATION

Every good seller begins the sales call by assessing the prospect, by asking

questions to clarify the customer's current situation.

Seller‟s focus is on finding out background data, facts, information and needs about the prospect

This is basically warming up the prospect at the start of the call.

Short and relevant questions are generally asked to the customer.

Every person's situation is different and these questions set the stage for tailoring

a custom-fit solution.

Sellers should not ask questions to elicit information that could have been

obtained before beginning the call easily from other sources.

When overused, these questions bore the customer.

3.3.1 Example of Situation Questioning

Seller selling software for documentation

o "Would you describe your current account documentation system?

Insurance agent

o How many family members do you have?

o Approx annual income & working members?

Fitness package seller

o Do you exercise regularly?



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o Do you feel you are overweight?

3.4 PROBLEM

Problem questions are used to uncover the problems, dissatisfactions, difficulties

experienced by the prospect.

Ask about the buyer's difficulties and focus the buyer on this difficulties while

clarifying the problem

These give Implied Needs.

3.4.1 Example of Problem Questions

Seller selling caller id

o How do you keep track of all your customer's phone calls between two

offices?

Seller selling security system

o When someone goes on vacation, what happens to the properties that he or

she manages

Medical device seller

o How do you keep yourself updated about your Blood sugar level?

Tractor seller

o If you are selling tractors, ask about maintenance costs, breakdowns and

so on.

Insurance product seller

o If you are selling life insurance, ask about how many dependents the

person has.

3.5 IMPLICATION

Seller discusses possible problems arising out by not using the product‟/ Service with the prospect.

Questions should be asked in a very subtle manner.

Seller discusses the effects of the problem & asks Questions about the

consequences or effects of a customer's problems.



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He tries to develop the seriousness of the problem to increase the prospect‟s

motivation to buy.

The goal of using these questions is to persuade the customer to EXPLICITLY

state a need that seller can solve.

This is the “Hurt” part of hurt & rescue

3.5.1 Examples of Implication Questioning


o What would happen if an outsider enters your home.


o How will you come to know about excessive sugar level in your blood?


o What would happen if the head of family dies or meets an accident?

CRM package seller

o How much money do you lose when you lose a customer?

o How much does it cost you to get a new customer?

3.6 NEED PAYOFF

This is basically showing how seller can solve prospect‟s problem & the benefits that his solution could offer

The final set of questions reveal how the product or services offered can add real

benefit.

These questions bring it all together so your solution makes sense to your

prospect and they are ready to buy.

This is a very neat 'rescue' of „HURT & RESCUE‟, where prospect ask you to rescue them.

3.6.1 Example of Need Payoff Questioning




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o Would you like to see demonstration of a security system?


o Would it help if you can measure your blood sugar level yourself at home


o How would you feel if your family‟s financial future is secured?

CRM package seller

o How would it help if your offices were connected with centralized

database?


Buyer Seller Dyad & SPIN Technique[ ]

4 SPANCO TECHNIQUE

Sales are the front end of a company. The company takes good number of initiatives to

meet customer requirements. Sales & Marketing are the parallel themes of a company to

run. It involves a lot of steps for a salesman to go through. Hence they need to take a few

steps to reach their target or to convince their customers.

Xerox is the company which has given the sales people a term to sales people to handle

sales in professional manner. This is called SPANCO.

Figure 7: SPANCO sales Technique

4.1 SUSPECT

Sales person investigates about a particular account

Authority, real need, money capability (QFD) etc are checked

4.2 PROSPECT Sales person finds out the prospects after applying QFD as above.

Probing of prospect to know whether he can be converted or no.



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4.3 APPROACH

Sales person need to be in touch with customer to find out the competitors

offerings

Pricing, Schemes etc are looked into

4.4 NEGOTIATION Negotiation happens on mutual understanding of both the parties

Pricing, offers etc are finalized to be a win- win situation for both the parties

4.5 CLOSURE

Involves closing of the deal

Finalization of the order is done after finalizing the terms & conditions and pricing.

4.6 ORDER Purchase order comes into picture

Sales people need to pick the order by agreeing on terms & conditions- payment, delivery etc

4.7 SPANCO TECHNIQUE @ IMS

o SUSPECTS

o Engineering College /Graduate Students o Working people

o PROSPECTS

o Students who have taken CAT /MBA exams previously

o QFD– Age , Educational Background, Interest in pursuing MBA career

o APPROACH

o Mails, Cold Calls, Sending brochures, agents trying to persuade students

etc

o Pre-CAT seminars are held highlighting the benefits of MBA as a career .

o NEGOTIATION

o Packages, Schemes, Discounts and course fee are customized on the basis



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of Diagnostic Tests, OBC/General and Physical Disability.

o Negotiation with Colleges on using their Infrastructure for offering no-frill

service to their students.

o Offering Personality Development Programs and other benefits.

o CLOSURE

o Finalizing Package fee and closing the deal

o Terms & conditions- payment mode etc are finalized.

o ORDER

o Total Students enrolling are finalized



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5 COMPANIES ANALYZED

The companies were visited as per the Sales Strategies followed by them in finalizing the

deals with the clients. It should be kept in mind that no company follows a single Sales

strategy but follows a mix of them depending on the kind of sales process required to

close the sales

5.1 Communication Strategy

In this kind of sales strategy, representative is the personal communicator and provides

information close to the buying decision. The company visited is City Heart Bus Service

and TIME PVT LTD and following is the flow chart of Communication strategy

followed by them till the point of closing the sales.



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5.1.1 BUS SERVICE



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5.1.2 TIME PVT LTD

5.2 Persuasion Strategy

The persuasion level requires the sales representative to go beyond the role of a mere

communicator to the role of understanding at least the immediate and narrow needs of the

customers.

At this stage, the sales representative tries to fit the customer into the existing product or

service mix by skillfully anticipating and overcoming objection. This Strategy is being

experienced by Indian market. The companies visited are ICICI Prudential and

CARRIER LTD.



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5.2.1 ICICI PRUDENTIAL



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5.2.2 CARRIER LTD.



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5.3 Negotiation Strategy

During negotiation, the product and commercial terms are adjusted to meet the

customer‟s needs rather than just attempting to skillfully overcoming objections as

practiced in previous stages.

The critical skill at this stage of selling is analyzing and understanding the customer needs and determining how the company‟s products and services can meet these needs.

At this point, the customer becomes a client and the process of consultative selling

begins.

The companies following this strategy are DOMINOS Ltd and TIMES BUSINESS

SOLUTION.


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5.3.1 DOMINOS LTD.



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5.3.2 TIMES BUSINESS SOLUTIONS LTD



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5.4 Client profit planning Strategy

In India, Client profit planning strategy is applicable in industrial product selling. The

representative is put to work with clients‟ team to learn about profit-planning system, product,

finance, marketing, research and development and future plans etc. so that the product meeting

the client‟s needs could be developed.

5.4.1 MYRA MABYN



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5.4.2 MIND EXPANSION PORTFOLIO PVT. LTD.

5.5 Business development Strategy

At this stage professional representative is responsible for managing territory as a strategy

business unit- investing time and expenses in most profitable manner.

Few Indian Companies are using a system of national account management in which manger is

responsible for all sales to a few key accounts.

Territory representatives along with sales managers and accounts managers develop business

strategies and bottom line responsibility to meet objectives of the organization.



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5.5.1 HYUNDAI



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5.5.2 BPCL



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5.5.3 KOHLER



[ ]

6 REFERENCES

Major account sales strategy- By Neil Rackham

Sales Management by Still , Cundiff , Govoni

How to get greater control of your selling results - Andoni Lizardy

More Pro active Sales Management – By William Miller

BUYER-SELLER INTERACTION: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK, Jagdisb N. Sheth, University of Illinois

DYADIC INTERACTION: AN EXCHANGE PROCESS, David T. Wilson, The

Pennsylvania State University

A dyadic model of relationships in organizational buying: a synthesis of research

results- Brent M. Wren and James T. Simpson

Secrets to Successful Sales Management The Sales Manager's Manual Jack D.

Wilner

The effects of expectation levels and role consensus on the buyer seller dyad- Henry

L Tosi

Bargaining behavior in a buyer seller Dyad- By H Lee Mathews, David T Wilson

Influence on exchange processes- Buyer‟s preconceptions of seller‟s trust worthiness

& bargaining toughness by Paul H. Schurr

The effect of salesman similarity and expertise on consumer purchasing behavior by

Arc G. Woodside.

Just in time exchange relationship in industrial markets by Garry L. Frazier.

The customer salesperson dyad: An interaction/ communication model & review by

K.C. Williams

Analysis of Buyer seller Dyad: The social relations model by John J Cronin

Interactive vulnerability in buyer seller relationship: A dyadic approach by Gorang

Swensson

Seven classes of buyer seller relationships: A framework of analyzing gaps by Seppo

Leminen.


b2_group _ buyer seller dyad & spin technique

Documents

buyer seller relationship

sales management page

spanco technique

field of sales management

charge of sales management

project successful

project attempts

different selling strategies