Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsHelpful framework for sales and customer relationships
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2020
I found this book very helpful in providing a framework for customer interactions. I am an account manager and responsible for long-term, high-value sales in the consulting business; reading this book helped make me aware of the flow of a customer interaction resulting in engagment and the impact of my behaviors on that interaction. I have found the SPIN framework useful not only for sales-oriented activity but also for project launches.
Rackham’s target audience is clearly those with a background in traditional sales techniques, and he spends a lot of effort arguing for salespeople to unlearn things they may have been taught in the past, such as closing techniques. I have no background in sales (I am an engineer by training) and have always been turned off by gimmicky sales techniques. Therefore, it was hard to relate to his many appeals to drop closing techniques, for instance; I was already put off by that behavior, and although I am happy to hear why that doesn’t work, if felt like wasted time for me.
Another minor complaint I have with this book is its rigid empiricism. It makes perfect sense for a sales research and consulting firm to present a lot of data, but the approach was strongly based on behavior-based premises. Thus, he talked about testing ideas that seemed obvious to me from a character-based approach (a la Stephen Covey, for example). I was a little put off by the surprise he expressed in discovering that closing techniques don’t work and irritate buyers.
The complaints I have are minor, and overall I found the book useful and will recommend it to my coworkers.
