8
Turning Theory
into Practice
One of my favorite words, entelechy, is so little known that listeners reach for a dictionary whenever I use it. That’s a pity, because the word fills a serious gap in the English language and deserves to be in everyday circulation. It means the becoming actual of what was potential—turning something into practical usefulness as opposed to theoretical elegance. Entelechy is the subject of this chapter—turning the potentials of Huthwaite’s research into actions that will be practically useful to you in your selling.
There’s no easy way to convert theoretical models into practical skills. The fact that you’re reading this book doesn’t mean that the knowledge you’re gaining will automatically translate itself into improved selling abilities. No book on selling will, of itself, improve your selling skills, any more than reading a book about swimming will teach you how to swim. The challenge for both author and reader in any book with pretensions to being practical is entelechy—turning theory into practical action.
To meet my part of the challenge, I’ll draw on Huthwaite’s worldwide experience of training many thousands of people to improve their selling skills. In this chapter I’ll share with you some of the principles and practices that have worked successfully for us and for our clients. Your challenge is a tougher one, because improving your skills is hard work; there’s no instant formula for better selling. Success in any skill—whether in golf, playing the piano, or selling—rests on concentrated, tedious, and frustrating practice. It’s quite realistic for you to expect a significant increase in your sales results if you follow the advice in this book and really practice the skills, but this is the tough bit. For each reader who practices adequately, a dozen are likely to fall by the wayside.
The Four Golden Rules for Learning Skills
Why do people find it so difficult to learn skills? It’s not just because of the hard work, for we’re accustomed to putting work into learning new knowledge. You’ve demonstrated the ability to work hard already, through the time and energy you’ve invested in reading this book—in acquiring knowledge about how to sell. Yet I wonder how many readers will invest an equivalent amount of effort in turning their knowledge into practice. The sad fact is that we generally work harder and more effectively to learn knowledge than to translate our knowledge into skills. Perhaps entelechy is such a rare word because it refers to something we so rarely do.
It’s my personal belief that the main reason why people have such trouble improving their skills is that they’ve never thought about the basic techniques of skill learning. At school our success depended on developing techniques for learning knowledge—and most of us got quite good at it. But what did school do to help us learn skills systematically? With the exception of sports, the answer for most people is little or nothing. So before I talk about what skills you should practice, it will be useful to begin with how. How can you learn any skill efficiently and with minimum pain?
We have found that most people can greatly improve their ability to learn skills if they stick by four simple rules.
Rule 1: Practice Only One Behavior at a Time
Most people, when they work on improving their skills, try to do too much at once. I can imagine people reading this book and saying, “I’m going to cut out closing techniques, and in future I’ll ask more Problem Questions. Then, instead of jumping in with solutions—which is what I usually do—I’ll hold back and ask Implication Questions... oh, and Need-payoff Questions too, of course. And I’ll also work on avoiding Features and Advantages; instead, I’ll make more Benefits and...” STOP! If that’s how you’re thinking, then in terms of learning, you’re dead. People who successfully learn complex skills do so by practicing one behavior at a time—not by half-practicing two, and certainly not by trying to handle 10 at once.
Last year I was on a flight to Australia and found myself sitting opposite a delightful man named Tom Landry. As an Englishman, my sports are cricket and croquet—I knew nothing of American football. Consequently, it wasn’t until well into the conversation that it emerged that Mr. Landry was a famous football coach. I confess, right up to that moment, I’d mistakenly thought the Dallas Cowboys were a traveling rodeo show. So I was fascinated when Tom Landry explained a little about the sophisticated and complex task of coaching a major football team.
“Your job is teaching people skills,” I prompted him. “If you had to put forward just one principle for successfully learning a skill, what would it be?” He didn’t hesitate. “Work on one thing at a time,” he replied, “and get it right.” Benjamin Franklin said much the same in 1771. In his Autobiography, he gives a masterly account of how to break a complex skill into its component behaviors and then how to work on improving it one behavior at a time. With authorities like Franklin and Landry to support me, I don’t hesitate to put forward the first, and most important, principle for getting value from this book:
Start by picking just one behavior to practice. Don’t move on to the next until you’re confident you’ve got the first behavior right.
Rule 2: Try the New Behavior at Least Three Times
The first time you try anything new, it’s bound to feel uncomfortable. It’s not only new shoes that hurt at first.
Suppose, for example, you decide to practice Implication Questions. You’re keeping Rule 1 in mind, so you’re going to concentrate only on Implication Questions, not on the other behaviors we’ve covered. Off you go into a call. Do the new Implication Questions roll off your tongue in a smooth, convincing sequence? Not on your life! When you ask them you sound self-conscious, artificial, and awkward. And because of this, you don’t make a particularly positive impression on the customer. After the call, if you’re like most people we’ve trained, you’re tempted to conclude that Implication Questions didn’t help you sell—so you’d better drop them and try something different next call.
If you draw that conclusion, of course, you’re making a big mistake. You have to try any new behavior several times before it becomes practiced enough to be both comfortable and effective. The new skill needs to be “broken in.” It’s not just in selling that this happens. Whenever you try to improve any skill, at first it feels awkward and it doesn’t go right. I once asked a sample of 200 people, each of whom had taken golf lessons from a professional, whether their next round was better or worse. Out of the 200, 157 said that they scored worse after the lesson than before it.
What’s the remedy? The principle which I use personally—and which Huthwaite recommends to those we train—is this:
Never judge whether a new behavior is effective until you’ve tried it at least three times.
Rule 3: Quantity Before Quality
Remember the old-fashioned way to learn a foreign language? You try to say a few words. “No,” says your teacher, “that’s the incorrect tense—you should be using a pluperfect.” You try again. “Wrong,” the teacher warns you, “you’ve got the tense right, but this is an irregular verb.” With some nervousness you make a third attempt. “No,” your teacher tells you, “this time the tense is right and the verb is right, but your pronunciation is terrible.” Notice that every one of the teacher’s comments is about the quality of your skill. Many of us struggled for years to learn a language this way. At the end of it we were able, hesitantly but correctly, to pronounce a few sentences with the right verbs, tenses, and word orders. Most of us never reached the point, despite several years of emphasis on quality, where we could speak the language confidently and comfortably.
In contrast, let’s look at modern language training. Students are told, “Never mind about pronunciation, and don’t worry about tenses. For now, word order doesn’t matter and we don’t care if you forget the differences between regular and irregular verbs. The only thing we want you to do is speak it, speak it, and speak it.” The emphasis, in other words, is on quantity rather than quality—talking a lot is more important than talking well. Many convincing experiments have shown that this approach, which puts emphasis on the quantity of speech, can greatly speed the learning of language skills. At the end of a single year, students are talking the new language more confidently than those who have spent 5 times as long learning in the old quality-first manner. What’s more surprising is that by talking the language a lot, the quality has improved too. In fact, the correctness of language, measured by pronunciation and grammar tests, is higher in those taught by the quantity approach than in those taught by the older quality methods. So in language training, at least, speaking it a lot wins hands down over speaking it well.
But does the same principle apply to a skill like selling? Yes—without question it does. Our studies have consistently shown that the fastest way to learn a new sales behavior is through using a quantity method. Let me give you an example of what I mean. There was a well-known multinational company whose name, for reasons of protecting the guilty, had better remain anonymous. This company liked the SPIN Model and wanted to produce a sales-training program based on it. The program’s designers spent 9 months producing a $650,000 extravaganza that was meant to be the ultimate in sales training. Quality was their motto. So, for example, in their program you couldn’t just ask Problem Questions. Oh no, that wouldn’t do at all because you might not be asking the right quality of questions. Instead, they built a four-stage model of how to ask a Problem Question, with special attention to three ways in which Problem Questions could be smoothly linked to Situation Questions and with sundry other techniques to ensure that any Problem Question—when the poor student ultimately got round to asking it—would have the right quality. The result of their efforts was a 74-step sales model that was so demotivating and cumbersome that it didn’t even get through its pilot without a walkout by confused and angry learners. Tracking students in the field afterward, we found that they were asking an average of 1.6 Problem Questions per call—no different from the pretraining level.
Huthwaite—maybe because we’d played no part in this monstrous design—was selected to be the bearer of ill tidings to corporate headquarters. I had to tell the decision maker that he’d just spent most of his training budget on a program which was so bad that it couldn’t even stagger through its pilot test. When his initial rage had subsided to a gentle gibber, he was able to ask, “What shall I do?” We suggested that for considerably less than one-tenth of the cost, a program could be designed that would be much more effective. “Concentrate on quantity,” we advised him, “and you’ll get the results you’re looking for.” Sure enough, just 2 months later we had a program based on methods closely resembling effective language training. We didn’t care whether questions were asked well or poorly, but we did care that people asked a lot of them. At the end of the training, in the final role plays, students were asking a dozen Problem Questions. Back out in the field, real-life responses from customers soon told them which of these questions worked best, and—as in language training—the quality improved dramatically. The $650,000 quality-based program was scrapped, and our cheap but effective quantity-based program was adopted in its place across the company’s three largest divisions.
Exactly the same principle applies to your own selling when you’re trying to learn a new behavior:
When you’re practicing, concentrate on quantity: use a lot of the new behavior. Don’t worry about quality issues, such as whether you’re using it smoothly or whether there might be a better way to phrase it. Those things get in the way of effective skills learning. Use the new behavior often enough and the quality will look after itself.
Rule 4: Practice in Safe Situations
I once ran a negotiating-skills program for company presidents. On the last day, one of the participants asked me an innocent-sounding question. “Tomorrow,” he explained, “I’ll be going into the biggest negotiation of my career—I’m selling my company. What lessons from this program should I concentrate on during the negotiation?” I think my answer shocked him. “Forget every single thing you’ve heard on this program,” I advised him; “otherwise, you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting you came here.”
Let me give you some similar advice. If you’ve just finished this book and you’re about to visit your most important account, then forget everything I’ve written. It’s a strange quirk of human nature that we usually try to practice new skills in key situations, those important enough to justify the effort of trying something new. This is a terrible mistake. As we’ve seen, new skills are uncomfortable and awkward. They may even have a negative effect on the customer. If you try them out in crucial situations, then you’re likely to be unsuccessful. Suppose you’ve decided to ask more Need-payoff Questions. Don’t practice on your biggest account. Instead, begin with small accounts, or with customers you know well, or in areas where you’ve nothing to lose if you fail. In other words:
Always try out new behaviors in safe situations until they feel comfortable. Don’t use important sales to practice new skills.
These rules can be sequenced to provide a simple strategy for learning or improving your skills (Figure 8.1). Although my purpose here is to focus on improving selling skills, these four basic rules will help you improve any skills, from making love to flying airplanes.
Figure 8.1. Strategies for learning a new skill.
A Summary of the Call Stages
Let’s summarize the key points made in earlier chapters.
Four Stages of a Sales Call (Chapter 1)
Almost every sales call progresses through four distinct stages (Figure 8.2):
Preliminaries. The warming-up events at the start of the call
Investigating. Finding out facts, information, and needs
Demonstrating Capability. Showing that you’ve got something worthwhile to offer
Obtaining Commitment. Gaining an agreement to proceed to a further stage of the sale
Figure 8.2. Call stages.
Preliminaries (Chapter 7)
We’ve suggested that there’s no one best way to open a sales call. Successful people are flexible and rarely open two calls in the same way. The opening techniques recommended by traditional sales-training programs—(1) relating to the buyer’s personal interests and (2) making an opening benefit statement—have unintended drawbacks and should be used with caution.
Investigating (Chapter 4)
Our research showed that the traditional distinction between open and closed questions doesn’t predict success in larger sales. Instead, we discovered the SPIN sequence of questions that successful people use to uncover and develop customer needs in the larger sale:
Situation Questions. About facts, background, and what the customer is doing now. Asking too many Situation Questions can bore or irritate the customer. Research shows that successful people ask them sparingly—so that each question has a purpose.
Problem Questions. About the customer’s problems, difficulties, or dissatisfactions. Problem Questions are strongly linked to success in smaller sales, but they are less powerful in major sales.
Implication Questions. About the consequences or effects of a customer’s problems. Successful calls usually contain a high level of Implication Questions. The ability to develop implications is a crucial skill in the larger sale because it increases the customer’s perception of value in the solution you offer.
Need-payoff Questions. About the value, usefulness, or utility that the customer perceives in a solution. Like Implication Questions, Need-payoff Questions are strongly linked to success in the major sale.
The SPIN Model is often used sequentially, starting with Situation Questions to establish the background, then Problem Questions to uncover difficulties, then Implication Questions to develop the seriousness of a problem, and finally Need-payoff Questions to get the customer telling you the benefits of your solution. However, the SPIN sequence isn’t a rigid formula. To be effective, it must be used flexibly.
Demonstrating Capability (Chapter 5)
The traditional definition of a Benefit—a statement that shows how your product can be used or can help the customer—works in small sales but fails as the sale grows larger. In major sales, the most effective type of Benefit shows how your product or service meets an Explicit Need expressed by the customer.
Obtaining Commitment (Chapter 2)
Closing techniques are effective in smaller sales, but they don’t work in larger ones. Our studies showed that the simplest way to obtain commitment is also the most effective:
Check that you’ve covered the buyer’s key concerns.
Summarize the Benefits.
Propose an appropriate level of commitment.
A Strategy for Learning the SPIN Behaviors
My colleagues at Huthwaite have worked with many thousands of salespeople, helping them use the methods I’ve described in this book. We’ve experimented with dozens of different training approaches. In large corporations we’ve generally adopted designs that make very sophisticated use of advanced learning techniques. At the other extreme, we’ve also tried to develop some very simple ways to help individual salespeople improve their skills. Alas, there’s no free lunch in the training business. It’s an unfortunate truth that our more elaborate and sophisticated training designs have generally brought much better productivity gains than the simpler ones, and this has made us a little self-conscious about recommending simple steps for improving your skills.
Even so, there are some fairly easy, common-sense ways to take the research findings in this book and turn them into useful practice. We’ve found that people invariably find the following four pieces of implementation advice very helpful.
Focus on the Investigating Stage
Many people, when they plan calls, think about what they will tell the customer, not about what they will ask. They concentrate, in other words, on the Demonstrating Capability stage of the call. That’s a mistake. However well you demonstrate capability, you’ll have little impact unless you have first developed needs—so that the customer wants the capability you’re offering. The same is true of the Obtaining Commitment stage; unless the customer wants what you have to offer, you’re going to find it difficult to get a commitment. Focus your efforts on the Investigating stage. Practice your questioning skills, and the other stages of the call will generally look after themselves. If you know how to develop needs—to get your customers to want the capabilities you offer—then you’ll have no problem showing Benefits or Obtaining Commitment. The key selling skill is in the Investigating stage, using the SPIN questions to get your customers to feel a genuine need for your product.
Develop Questions in the SPIN Sequence
Don’t rush in to practice the high-powered Implication and Need-payoff Questions until you feel you have a solid and comfortable grasp of the simpler Situation and Problem Questions.
1. First decide whether you’re asking enough questions of any type. If you’ve built up selling patterns that involve telling—in other words if you’re giving a lot of Features and Advantages—then start by just asking more questions. Most of the questions you ask will be Situation Questions, but this is fine. Just keep asking questions for a few weeks until asking feels as comfortable as telling.
2. Next plan and ask Problem Questions. Aim, in the average call, to ask a customer about problems, difficulties, and dissatisfactions at least half a dozen times. Concentrate on building up the quantity of your Problem Questions; don’t worry about whether or not each question is a “good” one.
3. If you feel you’re doing an effective job of uncovering customer problems, it’s time to move on to Implication Questions. These are more difficult to ask, and you may need a couple of months’ practice before you become entirely comfortable with Implication Questions. Plan them carefully.
A good starting point would be to reread the example transcript in the “Implication Questions” section of Chapter 4. Then, in place of the problem in the transcript, put in a problem of your own that one of your products could solve for your customer. Using the questions in the transcript as a model, try to write some examples of Implication Questions you could ask that would make your customer feel the problem is serious enough to justify action.. When I’m planning Implication Questions, I find it’s useful to imagine a customer who’s saying “So what? Yes, I’ve got that problem—but I don’t think it’s serious.” I list the arguments I’d use to convince the customer that the problem really is serious—it’s causing a loss of efficiency, it’s increasing her costs, and it’s demotivating her better people. Then I turn each of my arguments into a question—“What effect is the problem having on your efficiency?” and “How much is it increasing your costs?” and “What impact does it have on the motivation of your better people?”
4. Finally, when you’re comfortable with Situation, Problem, and Implication Questions, turn your attention to Need-payoff Questions. Instead of giving Benefits to the customer, concentrate on asking questions that get the customer to tell you the Benefits. Ask questions like these:
How would that help you?
What do you see as the pluses of this approach?
Is there any other way our product could be useful?
Again, don’t worry about whether you’re asking Need-payoff Questions well. Concentrate on quantity—on asking lots of them.
Analyze Your Product in Problem-Solving Terms
Stop thinking about your products in terms of their Features and Advantages. Instead, think of each product in terms of its problem-solving capabilities. Analyze products by listing the problems they are designed to solve. Then use your list to plan questions you can use in calls. By thinking of your products this way, you’ll find it easier to adopt a SPIN questioning style.
Plan, Do, and Review
The majority of salespeople acknowledge the importance of call planning even if, in reality, their planning is no more than a few moments of anxiety before the call. However, only limited learning comes from planning the call, or from making it. The most important lessons come from the way you review the calls you make. After each call, ask yourself such questions as these:
Did I achieve my objectives?
If I were making the call again, what would I do differently?
What have I learned that will influence future calls on this account?
What have I learned that I can use elsewhere?
Unfortunately, few of us take enough time to ask ourselves questions like these systematically. Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to travel with dozens of the world’s top salespeople—and as a researcher, I’ve looked for any differences that distinguish them from those who haven’t made it to the top. Two differences stand out. The first is that the top people I’ve traveled with put great emphasis on reviewing each call—dissecting what they’ve learned and thinking about possible improvement.
The second difference is that most of the really successful salespeople I’ve studied recognize that their success depends on getting details right. They may have excellent skills in terms of broad, large-scale strategic account planning, but this is not what distinguishes them. Many of the less successful people I’ve studied can give an impeccable account of themselves in terms of overall strategy. The difference that’s so evident in top people is that they can translate strategy into effective sales behavior—they know what to do in the call. They understand details, which may be why they put such emphasis on planning and reviewing each call.
It’s worth asking yourself whether you are giving enough time to reviewing the details of what happened in the call. Never be content with global conclusions like “it went quite well.” Ask yourself about the details. Did some parts of the call go better than others? Why? Which specific questions you asked had the most influence on the customer? Which needs did the customer feel strongly? Which needs changed during the discussion? Why? Which of the behaviors you used had the most impact? Unless you analyze your selling on this level of detail, you’ll miss important opportunities for learning and improving your selling skills.
A Final Word
Perhaps the most significant conclusion I’ve come to from Huthwaite’s research studies of selling is about the importance of details. Many years ago, at the start of our research, I would have told you that sales success lay in the broader areas. I would have chosen global factors like personality, attitudes, interpersonal chemistry, or overall account strategy to explain why one person sold better than another. I don’t believe this anymore. Increasingly our research has shown that success is constructed from those important little building blocks called behaviors. More than anything else, it’s the hundreds of minute behavioral details in a call that will decide whether it succeeds.
I’m not the first to come to the conclusion that success rests on understanding the minute details. In 1801 William Blake wrote:
He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars. General Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer; For Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized particulars.
So, as a parting word, let me urge you to concentrate on those minute particulars. Give real attention to the basic building-block behaviors you use when you sell. We’ve put thousands of sales calls under the microscope to isolate some of the detailed behavioral elements that bring success in the major sale. Use the results of our research to examine, develop, and improve the minute particulars of your selling skills.