SPIN Selling

I've been reading a book called SPIN Selling by a guy named Neil Rackham. It's about major sales (think several thousand dollars as opposed to a couple hundred...) and what strategies are most successful. The book was first published in 1988 and it tore down a lot of traditional ideas about how to be a good salesperson.

But here's the thing. It says things like: don't be pushy, to try to close too much, don't assume things, don't bore the customer with stupid questions, be respectful, build relationships, be reasonable, help them solve their problems.

Granted, it's a little more scientific than that, based on research of lots and lots of sales calls, and lays out a very specific, very practical method. But I can't help but feel a little like the key to being a good sales person is to not be a jerk. And I wonder why it took until 1988 for people to start saying, "Oh, maybe we shouldn't be jerks" and why it 2010 and people are still jerks.

Neil Rackham tells a story about a guy (a purchasing agent at a company) had a strategy for dealing with jerky sales people. He'd gone through sales textbooks and written on index cards all the different tricks sales people use. And when some punk sales guy would come in and feed him some line, he'd put the corresponding index card on the table. Then he'd say, "You get three chances. When you get to three index cards, I'm throwing you out of my office." Needless to say, people stopped trying to sell him crap he didn't want or didn't need.

It's a good book, though. I've enjoyed reading it, and even though I don't often buy things valued in the thousands of dollars, I feel a little bit better equipped to go into a buying situation. If I ever am in a place where I have to make big purchases for a company or I have to sell several thousand dollars worth of things to make a living, I feel like it's not as scary a thing to do.