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Need-payoff Questions
Huthwaite
RESEARCHED EFFECTIVENESS
OVERVIEW
The number of Need-payoff Questions you ask during a call is important to
your sales success. Successful calls contain significantly more Need-payoff
Questions than unsuccessful calls.
This unit is designed to help you practice and refine your Need-payoff
Question techniques. It will take you approximately forty-five minutes to
complete.
NEED-PAYOFF QUESTIONS
Who?
Who you will be questioning. Piffi milN—ill |i ijiiff Quest
for different customers.
This document is copyright of Huthwaite Research Group Limited. Neither this document, nor any part
thereof, may be re-used or reproduced in any form or format without permission at the publisher. SPIN""
and The Buying Cycle are registered trademarks of Huthwaite Research Croup Limited.
WHY?
Why you should ask Need-payoff Questions
The best way to do this is to develop the customer's appetite for a solution by
asking Need-payoff Questions. Need-payoff Questions investigate and
develop the customer's needs, wants or desires for a solution to the problems
you have exposed.
Exercise One
Wliy should you use Need-payoff Questions?
to reveal ...
A Clear A Desire
/
problem -^- For A
Solution
AN EXPLICIT NEED
The capacity of Need-payoff Question to increase a customer's desire for a
solution explains why Huthwaite Research Group studies of successful calls
show significantly more Need-payoff Questions being asked than in
unsuccessful calls.
So you should use this unit to help you increase the number of Need-
payoff Questions you ask.
WHAT?
What makes Need-payoff Questions different
from other questions
Definition
Need-payoff Questions probe for Explicit Needs, either directly or by
exploring the payoff or importance to the buyer of solving a problem.
Examples
"How much would it be worth to you if you could eliminate this
problem? "
"Would it help you if we could offer the additional flexibility you lack
at the moment? "
"How important is it to solve this quality issue?" "Are there any other
Key points
Before you ask Need-payoff Questions you should have asked:
• Situation Questions - to establish a context
• Problem Questions - to expose a problem or dissatisfaction
• Implication Questions - to develop the problem.
4 How many working days could you save each ( ) year if you
could reduce your wast-ge by 10% ?
5 How many days are you losing each year ( ) because of this
wastage7
7 If you could save ten minutes each cycle, what ( ) would that
mean to you in terms of output?
The question is about a solution and its worth or importance to the buyer.
The question is about a solution (a way to produce your own slides) and the
worth or importance of the solution to the customer.
The solution being explored involves saving ten minutes per cyde. The worth
of importance of the solution is developed in terms of output.
The solution (a new method) is being developed into other payoS areas (better
stock control).
The question just asks for background data - not for the importance of a
solution.
Few sellers ask Need-payoff Questions at the optimum point in the sale. If you
ask them too soon, right at the start of the call for example, then the customer's
lack of clarity about problems prevents you from effectively developing a real
desire for solutions.
At the other end of the scale, many sellers begin asking Need-payoff Questions
too late. They wait until after they have described their solutions - and only
then do they try to generate an appetite for what they have offered.
The ideal time to start asking Need-payoff Questions is just before describing
your product/solution, but after you have developed the customer's problems by
the use of Implication Questions.
Although the use of Need-payoff Questions is strongly related to sales success,
the average seller just doesn't use them enough. Huthwaite Research Group
studies show that in the average call, less than two of these questions are asked.
Yet, when used at the right point. Need-payoff Questions increase the chances
of maldng a eal<?
Exercise Three
So, when should you ask Need-payoff Questions?
Exercise Four
Check how clear you are about when to use Need-payoff Questions.
When would asking Need-payoff Questions be High Risk and when would
they be Low Risk?
High Low risk
risk
It's right at the start of the call and you want to ( ) ( ) show how the
customer can get the maximum payoff from your product
(answers over the page)
Answers
15 LOW RISK
The more clearly and explicitly you can develop the customer's
understanding of payoff from your product, the better it will be
presented to the Purchasing Committee. Need-payoff Questions will
develop and clarify the customer's perception of payoff.
16 HIGH RISK
The customer may want your product for purely subjective reasons and Need-
payoff Questions will only demonstrate that there is little objective payoff.
(Of course, it may not be to your advantage to allow the customer to buy
under these circumstances, especially if your product's reputation - or your
long-term customer relationship - is important to you).
17 LOW RISK
This is the ideal circumstance for asking Need-payoff Questions. Your
obvious payoff to the customer is in the area where your product reduces
workload. But what does this mean in other areas? What can the customer
now do that was not possible before? And what's the effect on the staff
themselves - motivation, reduction of load, etc? You can often open up payoff
areas much greater than the one you started from.
18 HIGH RISK
If you want to show the customer maximum payoff then you don't do it right
at the start of the call. If you try Need-payoff Questions here, you risk
antagonism and denial of real needs. To demonstrate maximum payoff you
must use the SPIN® sequence to build up problems and their implications
before moving into the Need-payoff area.
HOW?
How you should ask Need-payoff Questions
Exercise Five
The customer usually recognizes potential payoffs from a
product:
Actively Passively
23 IfI could show you a way to save £10,000 would you () ( ) be interested?
27 How can you use the extra production capacity which () ( ) our
machine will release for you?
28 How can the flexibility of such a system help you cope () ( ) with
fluctuating demand?
23 PASSIVELY ACCEPT
24 ACTIVELY SPECIFY
25 ACTIVELY SPECIFY
26 PASSIVELY ACCEPT
27 ACTIVELY SPECIFY
28 ACTIVELY SPECIFY
29 PASSIVELY ACCEPT
Problems your product could resolve which you must develop before
customer fully recognizes this payoff:
• Legal problems resulting from destroyed records
• Possible implications of loss for financial and other control systems
• Inability to trace orders and debtors
• Manpower and other costs of tracing and replacing lost records
• Insurance problems.
By making a list like this as part of your call planning you can prepare so that
your Need-payoff Questions will have maximum impact.
Exercise Seven
Now try this method with your product.
Product:.............................
2 Problems your product could resolve which you must develop before the
customer fully recognizes this payoff:
"You mentioned a problem with wastage, how would it help you if you
could reduce it?"
or, "'You're obviously very concerned with this wastage issue, what
would it save you if you could reduce it by 20% "
or, "What would it be worth to eliminate the wastage problem that you
have just described7"
Using variety
If you always use a standard phrase to ask Need-payoff Questions you can
irritate the customer and sound mechanical and repetitious.
Avoid repetitions of the same phrase. For example:
"Haw could this help you to reduce costs?" "How
would this help you to save time?"
"How would this help you to speed production?" Use a variety
of Need-payoff Questions. For example:
"What would be the main benefits from cost reduction in this area?"
"How could you use this time you'll save?" "What effect could this
have on production speeds?"
Exercise Eight
Use a potential payoff which a customer could get from your product and
demonstrate five different ways in which you could express it as a Need-
payoff Question.
Check each of your phrases to ensure that at least one of them requires the
customer to actively specify payoff (see page 13). If not, then rephrase one of
your questions here so that the customer must specify payoff.
Need-payoff Question requiring the customer to actively specify payoffs:
Summary check
So far in this unit we have considered:
Why
Need-payoff Questions are important and why they will help you to
sell.
What
Need-payoff Questions are. What makes them different from other
questions and how you can recognize them.
When
You should ask Need-payoff Questions and when it is High Risk to ask
them.
How
To ask Need-payoff Questions, particularly those requiring the
customer to actively specify payoffs.
The next section of this unit considers Who you will be questioning
-and some of the differences between Need-payoff Questions for users
and for decision-makers.
WHO?
Users
Have a generally lower interest in payoff relating to cost and profitability
(unless they are also decision-makers). The key payoff areas to them are
likely to be convenience, technical sophistication or other factors, such as
appearance of the product, which have a direct impact on the product's use or
operation.
Decision-makers
Will primarily be concerned with payoff which can be financially measured.
They are less likely to be impressed by payoff resulting from ease of use,
convenience or technical details of your product unless it can be expressed in
cost terms. Therefore, in asking Need-payoff Questions to decision-makers,
concentrate on developing areas of financially measurable payoffs.
Exercise Nine
Winch pay off areas are of most concern to:
Decision Users Both
Makers Equally
31 USERS
Ease of operation appeals to users much more than to decision-makers (unless
you can show that ease of operation reduces cost, or cuts the need for
expensive training).
32 USERS
Again, ease of operation is the key issue. This would only have appeal to
decision-makers if, for example, difficulties in reading the display led to
costly mistakes.
33 BOTH
Reliability has joint appeal. It reduces costs - and therefore appeals to the
decision-maker; it reduces trouble and effort - and therefore appeals also to
the user.
34 DECISION-MAKERS
As in the first example, the payoff is measured in financial terms and will
only appeal to the user if it improves operating factors.
35 BOTH
Overcoming quality problems means less waste and lower cost - so it appeals
to decision-makers and it also means increased satisfaction for the users.
KNOWLEDGE CHECK
The purpose of Need-payoff Question is: Need-payoff Question?
a) To develop and extend a customer's problems.
( )( )(
b) To increase a customer's desire for a solution to a
problem. )
c) To expose problems which your product can
solve.
your profitability?
c) How would improved cashflow help you?
2 A) AND B)
The exception is C) - an Implication Question which develops a problem,
not a solution, (see pages 2-6)
3 C)
The time to ask Need-payoff Questions is after you have developed a
customer's problems but before you introduce your product/solution, (see
pages 7 &9)
4 A) AND C)
See pages 12-14
5 A) AND C)
See pages 20-22
Fick out one of these areas In order to explore payoffs in this area, plan
to first develop the
following potential customer problems so that the cu5tomer feels the
problem acutely enough to want a solution.
Need-payoff area:........................................
Potential Customer Problems (which you will try to develop)
Plan to introduce variety into the way you ask Need-payoff Questions
during the call by using different phrases.