Espresso Insight

Throughout my enterprise software sales career, SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham is a book I’ve read and re-read because it helps me lead conversations with customers, and ask better questions to find opportunities.

Each time I pick up the book I pickup something new and valuable.

After revisiting the book’s 4th chapter on “Implication Questions”, I was impressed with how the author provides a sales transcript from a mock customer call, in which the sales rep asks specific questions guiding the customer into thinking about how big of a problem they have.

Rackham calls these types of questions implication questions, which help the sales rep uncover the effects and potential consequences of a customer’s challenges.

In doing so, you can help the customer have the “a-ha” moment in which they finally realize how much potential value they’re leaving on the table in their current state.

Using implication questions to uncover customer pain points

Initially, the sales rep discovers a customer pain point, however this initial discovery certainly isn’t large enough to justify a large purchase of a new tool:

• Seller asks: “are they difficult for your operators to use?”
• Customer responds: “they are rather hard, but we’ve learned how to get them working.”

An easy mistake that the sales rep might make here is to immediately offer a solution to this customer problem. Doing so would mean the sales rep missed an opportunity to uncover more value. Because in the customer’s mind, the problem is clearly still pretty small.

At this point, the sales rep has started successfully getting the customer to willfully share information about their challenges. The silver lining at this point in the call is that the rep is just beginning to uncover the potential value of solving the customer’s problem.

Ask deeper implication questions to develop the customer’s perception of value

Here, the rep should be patient and continue asking “Implication Questions” to build up “the seriousness of the problem before offering a solution”, as Rackham says on page 74.

In addition to talking about the difficulty the operators have using the machines, the sales rep takes time to ask several more implication questions:

• What effect does this have on your output?
• Doesn’t that create bottlenecks?
• Is this leading to a turnover problem with your operators?
• What does this mean in terms of training cost?
• How much production loss has this led to?
• Is the quality of work affected?
• Does this put you at the mercy of other people’s delivery schedules?

In the sales transcript, the customer’s responses to the first few questions suggests that the customer does not see the problem as large enough to justify solving with an expensive solution.

Think about it – in order for someone to want to spend time and money investing in a new product or service, they must believe and understand that the problem is a major issue, such as costing them a lot of money, affecting production, quality, or is time consuming. Implementing a new system can be difficult and risky, so getting the customer to want to make this type of change must be clearly justified.

What if the customer doesn’t admit to having any problems?

Often, customers may be hesitant to share specific challenges and pain points right off the bat.

A customer may reply to your initial questions with something along the lines of “everything is working well”, or “we don’t have any major issues”.

As the sales rep, you have an opportunity here to express a bit of an impressed sentiment (make sure it’s genuine). Here’s a few possible replies:

• “Really? That’s incredible that processes are flowing so seamlessly for you. A lot of the customers we serve aren’t so fortunate to have things in order like you. What do you think has contributed most to your current success?”
• “I’m pleasantly surprised to hear how well things are going for your business. It’s no small accomplishment to do as well as you have, that’s for sure. Out of curiosity, what steps has your team taken in the past to get to this positive state?”
• “Wow, well in that case, there are many businesses that could really learn a lot from what you’ve done. Based on your experience handling these processes so successfully, what advice would you share with a customer that’s having challenges with ___?”
• “Well that’s great to hear, I’m sure it was no easy feat to reach this point. What goals / initiatives does your business have with regards to ___ over the next 6-12 months?”
• “Excellent that you’ve got this process tightened up. What’s the next big challenge that you need to tackle?”

In this case, your goal is to continue to ask questions and find ways to help a successful business continue to be thrive, and even grow / embark on new challenges.

Ask better questions by understanding a customer’s business before the call

Look again at the questions the rep asks. You can tell that the sales rep has done research. The sales rep does a good job of understanding the customer’s business, and the sales rep uses what they know to ask specific questions about these areas of a customer’s current experiences. 

Understanding the customer’s business enabled the sales rep to build up the customer’s perception of the value of solving these problems.

An uneducated rep might not have thought to ask about:

• Effects on output and bottlenecks.
• The fact that the customer has to hire and train new people to operate the machines every time someone resigns from the company.
• Production cost and quality control.
• Delivery schedules.

Using these questions, the sales rep has shown the customer multiple areas that the customer could improve their business and save money.

Re-reading the questions again, I find that the sales rep effectively uncovered customer pain-points that can be quantified, and that you can use as KPIs / metrics from which to evaluate your business.

In my own customer interactions, I have found it beneficial to do my own research on a company before a customer call, which in turn has enabled me to better prepare questions. It’s also enabled me to speak to potential customer challenges using their own language / vernacular.

For example, a manufacturing company will have different business processes than a healthcare organization, and as a sales rep you will need to ask unique questions based on your customer’s line of business, and use the words that are important to them.

For company research, leverage all of the publicly available information at your disposal. A good starting point might be annual reports (10k’s for public co’s), press releases, LinkedIn posts, or company website / blog posts.

Source: SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham, Chapter 4, pages 73-76.