Once again, this section questions firmly held beliefs in conventional sales, highlighting the theme that Traditional Methods Are Not Always the Best. While the previous section cast doubt on the efficacy of closing in major sales, this section questions the use of implied needs as a buying signal and the effectiveness of open versus closed questions.

Managers often approach Rackham after training sessions to praise the closing techniques Rackham taught their salespeople. However, Rackham’s training involves only minimal discussion about closing. Instead, he focuses on developing customer needs. This development of needs is the purpose of the SPIN model and highlights The Power of Effective Questioning. The questions build problems until they require action. Then, the seller offers the buyer a solution. This method is what ultimately seals the sale, not closing.

Viewing implied needs as a buying signal is just as problematic as closing in larger sales. Every company has problems, and larger companies generally have more problems than most. A willingness to discuss these problems does not mean a desire to implement a solution. In smaller sales, the revelation of problems cues the seller to push. In the larger sale, this action will only damage the relationship with the client. Once again, the traditional ways of selling are ineffective in a larger sale.

The section also stresses that the differentiation between open and closed questions, another critical component in smaller sales, is useless in larger sales, mainly because the most accessible open questions are situation questions. While situation questions are not usually problematic in smaller sales, they irritate major buyers if used too frequently. Additionally, it is far more critical that sellers focus on using questions to develop client needs than they focus on the type of question they are asking. Closed questions, as long as they are problem, implication, or need-payoff based, can be as powerful as open questions in larger sales. Again, this directly opposes the conventional wisdom on selling.

The text’s focus on developing needs can seem problematic. Some of its wording makes it seem like the seller deliberately exaggerates a problem to force the buyer into action. However, this is not the case when looking at the text’s examples. This is why it is important to phrase the implications as questions, not statements. Often, a professional purchaser is removed from the problems buyers are trying to solve. It is easy to underestimate the seriousness of a situation when it does not directly affect the customer. Furthermore, when a problem does not cause a full work stoppage, many clients would rather struggle with the system they know than deal with the uncertainty of change.

On the outside, implication and need-payoff questions involve the same manipulation and verbal trickery found in closing techniques. The difference is that SPIN questions are not high-pressure techniques. Implication and need-payoff questions are only questions. As such, they can—and should—have multiple answers. A client denying that a particular problem is affecting them too much does not mean the death of the sale. Instead, as larger companies are often juggling multiple problems at once, it simply indicates to the seller to go down a different path. The text’s use of words such as “develop,” “build up,” “uncovering problems and making them bigger,” and “making problems seem worse” implies that the seller is in control of the problem’s scale (76-81). Though this language makes the SPIN method seem as manipulative as conventional methods, in reality, the seller has little control over the problem or its effect on the company. Rather than “making problems seem worse” (81), the seller guides the buyer to see the broader implications of a problem. In this way, using Socrates as an example is well suited for the seller’s goal in the SPIN method. The Socratic method is not really intended to persuade others. Instead, the goal is for the speaker to question, support, evaluate, and further their understanding of their beliefs. The seller should be guiding the buyer to question their knowledge of a problem, not purposely trying to exaggerate it. Otherwise, they jeopardize their relationship with a client.

The chapter’s examples demonstrate this guiding process. The seller in the examples does not pressure the buyer or make the problem seem more significant. The issues are already big; the seller guides the buyer to that conclusion. This guiding process is an essential key to relationship building in larger sales.