From Discovery to Storytelling – Extending SPIN

You have client data from an engagement, and Sales and Marketing want to turn it into a variety of assets: a case study, a short video and a social media post. The question is, how do you structure the data so that it can easily be turned into a useful asset? We have found that by extending SPIN with three more steps, we can make the data usable by Sales and Marketing in just about any format they wish to use.

SPIN Selling

SPIN Selling, published by Neil Rackham in 1988, is a sales methodology based on large-scale empirical observation. Rackham’s team at Huthwaite analysed roughly 35,000 sales calls over twelve years. The model is a questioning sequence that moves the buyer from awareness toward commitment and is one of seven models we use regularly, though not as a sales system. The steps in SPIN are these:

  • Situation questions establish context and facts.
  • Problem questions surface difficulties or dissatisfactions.
  • Implication questions explore the consequences of those problems and expand their perceived cost.
  • Need-payoff questions invite buyers to articulate the value of solving them. We like to express needs as either a ‘Need To’ or a ‘Need For’.  

SPIN helps to distinguish implicit needs, which are vague statements of dissatisfaction, from explicit needs, which are clear statements of want or intent.

It also starts with the buyer’s Situation to isolate the audience’s day-to-day life and goals. Time and again, when we asked representatives from sales, marketing, or product teams to describe the audience’s situation, we got a list of problems! The problem space is a poor starting point because it loses critical buying context, such as what the audience is actually trying to achieve. 

SPIN for Discovery and Analysis

SPIN works extremely well in both customer discovery and customer analysis, including numeric analysis. As such it can play a useful role in the research necessary to construct a value proposition.

Discovery requires a succinct list of pertinent questions, whilst analysis requires customer data from an engagement.

Extending SPIN (SPIN-OCD)

If we want to extend SPIN to meet the needs we’ve discovered with a solution, we can add three further stages. 

  • Needs Met (Outcomes).   Needs met can be expressed as outcomes, so the next stage in the sequence addresses the outcomes we can deliver based on the needs we have established.
  • Capabilities (Enablers). Next, we establish the capabilities that enable the outcomes. Capabilities are typically roll-ups of features to a level that is meaningful to buyers, and they answer the buyer’s question about ‘how do you accomplish that?’.
  • Distinctions. Lastly, we need to address the questions in the buyer’s mind, sometimes expressed and sometimes withheld: Is this unique? If not, where else can I get this? To address these questions, we need to describe what makes us different and distinct from the rest of the market.

A Worked Example

This example of Calder Vane Wealth and its supplier, Meridel, is fictional, as are the illustrative figures. A similar fictional profile is use in the article An Example Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): mid-sized, modernising, and working to connect its CRM, accounting and compliance systems.

Situation. Wealth Management firm Calder Vane manages $1.2bn for 900 client households, and its board wants to grow to $2.4bn within five years. It has just modernised, but fragmented purchasing left client records, compliance and accounting on three separate cloud systems.

Problem. The three systems are only partly connected. New client details pass across when an account opens, but later changes do not, so each of the 3,600 client changes a year is typed in three times. A sample of 200 records found 22 that disagree between systems, and onboarding a new household takes 15 working days.

Implication. At the growth target, duplicate typing rises from 1,440 to 2,880 hours a year: 1.7 people, costing about $150,000 a year. Slow onboarding has already lost 4 of the last 50 prospects, worth about $5.3m in assets, and 1 in 9 records would fail a regulator’s check.

Need. A need to enter client data once and share it across all three systems, whilst reducing household onboarding time.

Outcome. Duplicate data entry is eliminated, freeing 1.7 people as the firm grows. Households are onboarded in 3 days, and records agree across all three systems.

Capabilities. Ready-made connections to the firm’s three platforms, one client record with a full change history, and onboarding workflows that run across all three systems.

Distinction. The combination of connections built for wealth management platforms, a client record that doubles as compliance evidence, and help with the process change suits a firm that prefers long-term partners.

The Foundations of a Story

SPIN-OCD is not a story telling structure as such, but it ensures that the essential elements necessary to tell the customer’s story are captured and sequenced.

Read in order, each step prepares the next. The board’s growth target in the Situation turns duplicate typing from an irritation into a cost that doubles with success. The Implication puts figures on it, 1.7 people and $150,000 a year at the target, plus $5.3m of assets already lost, so the Need is clear and compelling. When Meridel arrives, the buyer has already agreed what a good outcome is worth, and the Distinction only has to explain why this supplier should deliver it.

In discovery, the same steps become questions. In analysis, as here, they become figures.