Prescription Without Diagnosis is Malpractice, in this blog we’ll introduce you to SPIN Selling techniques that overcome this fundamental problem.
Here’s a thing that I see all the time from both professional advisors and the keyboard warriors/experts who occupy the world of social media. It’s providing a prescription before doing any sort of diagnosis. If you ever go on social media and see people reaching out and asking a question of whatever community they’re in, suddenly they’ll be inundated with thousands of responses, all offering advice, or more often trying to sell to them.
Of course, the problem is that for the majority of people seeking help they’ve not necessarily asked the right question or actually know what questions to ask.
How would you feel if you went to the doctors and before you even sat down the doctor handed you a prescription, you’d be pretty miffed i’m sure. Yet this is how most sales meetings go.
The simple fact is that the salesperson only has a certain product or solution to sell. Their job is to fit their solution or product to your problem. In other words, the diagnosis process is not really a diagnosis at all but a sales meeting persuading you that their product solves your problem. If this is the case then that’s great, however, if not then there is a distinct possibility that you’ll buy a product that doesn’t meet your needs or solve your problem.
When we enter into a prospects life with a preconceived notion of what the solution actually is, several bad things happen:
- We miss out on opportunities to add value in places we didn’t anticipate.
- We may end up solving the wrong problem – which may cost you the sale.
- When customers detect that you’ve already decided what the solution is (typically your product) without careful discovery they feel manipulated and misunderstood – which will very likely cost you the sale.
In the healthcare world, they have a saying, “Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.” Yet there is a massive tendency to prescribe before a proper diagnosis is performed. So what is the best way of performing a diagnosis that engages your prospect and takes them on a journey that convinces them that you and your solution solves their problem?
It all starts with a properly defined questioning process that allows you to uncover the issue/s that your prospect wants solving. Note that I say want solving, not need solving, there’s a difference and we’ll come to that in a bit.
Neil Rackman wrote a bestselling book on SPIN Selling in the late 1980’s which has yet to be bettered. Rackman’s book provides a perfect template to allow you to develop a proper questioning process as part of your diagnosis.
SPIN Selling is structured and moves the sales process along smoothly from fact-finding (diagnosis) through to motivating the prospect to act (Prescription), and if you do it right, to acting right now rather than having to “think it over”.
SPIN is an acronym that covers four types of sales questions:
1. Situation Questions – You use these to gather general information – “What do you do?”, “How many branches do you have?” They are the easiest questions to ask and answer. This means that they are great for breaking the ice and getting your prospect talking. They are non-threatening and based on facts.
But you need to filter the general questions you are throwing to your clients because they might get irritated answering questions that could have been answered if you had done a little research before the conversation. You might also waste your time and even worse your prospects’ time.
Inexperienced salespeople tend to ask more situation questions. Often situation questions can be answered as part of the prospecting process.
Example questions could be:-
- What equipment are you using now?
- How long have you had it?
- Is it purchased or leased?
- How many people use it?
However, you need to be building rapport to allow you to move onto the next step. So being direct may not be the most effective way. Make sure you’ve built rapport before moving on.
2. Problem Questions – After you have broken the ice with a small number of Situation Questions, it is time to start knowing the issues that your prospect wants to solve. You have to investigate the precise nature of their problem before you can recommend the right solution. One size doesn’t fit all. If you mismatch your solution to their problem, you reduce the chances of closing the deal with them. Remember that “Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice”.
In your enthusiasm to help your prospect solve their problem and close the deal between you and their company, it is so tempting to rush in, stop listening and start talking. But that’s not what the top performers do!
Problem questions are used to probe for problems, points of dissatisfaction, or general difficulties that the prospect has.
Example questions could be:-
- Are you satisfied with your present equipment?
- What are the disadvantages of the way you’re doing it now?
- How difficult is it to process orders with your present system?
- What reliability problems does your equipment have now?
Answers to problem questions will direct you toward the core need of the prospect.
3. Implication Questions – Research shows that top sales performers don’t stop after they have asked the Problem Questions. They want to know more about the problems.
In particular, Implication Questions are needed to discover the effects and consequences of the problems. Your aim is to help the prospect feel the pain of the problem and to see what will continue to happen if the easy “do nothing” option is taken. The more pain the prospect feels, the more you can emphasize that something has to be done. It’s even better if you can start quantifying the cost of the problem through your Implication Questions, because that helps you to position the solution as great value.
When a prospect answers an implication question they should feel that the problem is larger and more urgent than they originally felt it was.
Example questions could be:-
- Does your overtime expense increase when your equipment goes down?
- Do bottlenecks result because you only have two people who can operate your order processing system?
- Are you experiencing high turnover and training costs because of the difficulty that your employees are having in operating your equipment?
4. Need-Payoff Question – There is one problem with Implication Questions. They don’t make the prospect feel good. As you probe into the problems, the pain and the costs, you can make the prospect feel guilty for not doing something about the problem earlier. The Need-Payoff Questions are a much more positive way of asking about the benefits of solving the problem.
However, most people are usually much more motivated to move away from pain before they move to any pleasure or gain.
Need-payoff questions are used to uncover the core need (i.e., the buying motive) of the prospect. These questions focus the prospect’s attention on the solution rather than the problem. Answers to need-payoff questions will get the prospect to tell you the benefits that they are looking for.
Example questions could be:-
- How do you feel a faster machine will help you?
- Is there any other way that a machine might help?
- Would it help if a new system could reduce your employee turnover?
- You said a new machine would be really useful, Useful in reducing your training costs, or is there something else?
How to use SPIN Questions
- Write down at least three potential problems which the prospect may have and which your products might solve before making a sales call.
- Write down some actual Problem Questions that you could ask to uncover each of the potential problems you’ve identified.
- Ask yourself what difficulties might arise for each problem. Write down some actual Implication Questions that might get the prospect to see the problem as large and urgent to solve.
- Write down three Need-payoff Questions for each implication.
Remember that your prospect will buy what they want, you have to meet their wants. However, to deliver a real solution you must meet their needs. So you sell them what they want and deliver what they need. They are not always the same.
A proper diagnostics process will help you reveal both their wants and needs. Don’t fall into the trap of prescribing before diagnosing. We have a number of ways that we can help you and of course, it all starts with a proper diagnosis. So feel free to take the Ten Minute Business Review which will give you a snapshot of where you are. Just click the button below:-