Implication and need-payoff questions: SPIN selling examples
What implication and need-payoff questions are, examples of each for different kinds of sale, how they differ, and how to plan your own before a sales call.
What are implication questions?
Implication questions ask what a problem leads to. The buyer has already told you something isn't working. An implication question makes them think about its knock-on effects, such as overtime or lost customers, so that a problem they've learned to live with starts to look expensive.
In Neil Rackham's research for SPIN Selling, implication questions were strongly linked to success in larger sales. A complaint is rarely enough to justify a big purchase. A complaint the buyer has costed usually is.
A useful answer to an implication question has a number or a name in it. "It's annoying" means you need another question. "We paid about £1,100 in overtime last week" is something the buyer can take to their boss.
Implication question examples
Each group starts with a problem the buyer has already admitted, usually in answer to a problem question. Ask the implication questions that fit, one at a time, and follow each answer before moving on.
Software
The problem: "Customer emails sit in a shared inbox, and some wait two days for a reply."
- What happens to a customer who waits two days?
- How many of them phone in as well, and who takes those calls?
- Has a slow reply ever cost you a renewal?
- What does the backlog do to the team's Monday morning?
Recruitment
A recruiter talking to a hiring manager. The problem: "Our adverts get plenty of applicants, but hardly any are right."
- Who sifts through the applications, and how long does it take them?
- How long is the job staying open as a result?
- What's being left undone while it's open?
- Have you lost a good candidate because the process took too long?
- What happens to the team's workload if the job is still open in March?
IT support
The problem: "The laptops are slow, and people keep asking the office manager to fix them."
- How much of the office manager's week goes on IT problems?
- What doesn't get done while they're fixing laptops?
- When did a problem last stop someone working for a whole day?
Marketing agencies
The problem: "We get enquiries from the website, but nobody follows them up quickly."
- How long does a typical enquiry wait for a reply?
- What happens to the ones that wait more than a day?
- How many enquiries a month is that?
- What does an average new customer spend with you in a year?
Equipment and servicing
The problem: "The packing line breaks down every few weeks."
- How long is the line down each time?
- What happens to the orders due out that day?
- Who pays for the overtime to catch up?
- Has a breakdown ever made you miss a customer's delivery?
What are need-payoff questions?
Need-payoff questions ask the buyer what solving the problem would be worth. Instead of you describing the benefits of your product, the buyer describes the benefits of the fix. People believe their own reasons more than a seller's, and they repeat them to colleagues.
Rackham also found that buyers raise fewer objections to a solution whose benefits they've just described themselves. Need-payoff questions are especially useful with someone who has to sell the idea internally, such as a manager who needs sign-off from a director. When that person tells you the benefits, they're rehearsing the case they'll make to their boss.
Ask need-payoff questions only about problems you can solve. If the buyer describes a benefit your product can't deliver, you've talked them into wanting something from someone else.
Need-payoff question examples
The same five problems as above, now asked the other way round.
Software:
- If every email got a reply the same day, what would that do for renewals?
- How would the team use the time they spend on the backlog?
Recruitment:
- If you only saw a shortlist of five people who fit, how much of your week would that give back?
- What would it mean for the team to have the job filled by March?
- Who else would be glad to see it filled?
IT support:
- If laptop problems went to someone outside the business, what would the office manager do with those hours?
- How would it help to have a fix the same day, every time?
Marketing agencies:
- If every enquiry got a reply within the hour, how many more do you think would become customers?
- What would five extra customers a month be worth to you?
Equipment and servicing:
- If the line ran for six months without a breakdown, what would that do for your delivery dates?
- What would you do with the money you spend on catch-up overtime?
- How would your biggest customer react to a quarter of on-time deliveries?
What's the difference between implication and need-payoff questions?
Implication questions are about the problem. Need-payoff questions are about the solution. Both are about value: an implication question makes the problem look bigger, and a need-payoff question makes the fix look worth paying for.
An implication question asks what the problem leads to: "What happens to the orders due out that day?" It comes straight after a problem question, and the buyer ends up seeing a cost they'd stopped noticing.
A need-payoff question asks what solving it would be worth: "What would six months without a breakdown do for your delivery dates?" It comes once the cost is clear, and the buyer ends up describing the benefit in their own words.
Ask them in that order. A need-payoff question asked too early gets a shrug, because the buyer doesn't yet think the problem is worth fixing. Too many implication questions in a row have the opposite effect: the buyer feels worse and worse about their business, and about the call. Once they've put a cost on the problem, turn to the fix.
How do you plan implication questions before a call?
Implication questions are the hardest SPIN questions to come up with during a conversation, because you have to think one step ahead of what the buyer has said. Most of the work happens before the call:
- Write down the problems the buyer is likely to have. Your research and similar customers will tell you most of them.
- For each problem, list what it leads to: extra hours, extra cost, lost customers, staff leaving, missed dates. Some of these will surprise the buyer.
- Turn each consequence into a question. "Lost customers" becomes "Has a slow reply ever cost you a renewal?"
- For each problem, write one or two need-payoff questions about benefits your product really delivers.
On the call, ask about the consequences the buyer is likely to recognise first. If an answer is "no, that doesn't happen", believe it and move on.
Call prep · precision engineering firm, Coventry
Implication questions
Operations director · Wednesday 18 November, 14:00
Problem they’ve mentioned: two CNC machinist jobs open since July.
What it could lead to:
Overtime for the rest of the shop floor
What has it meant for everyone else?Someone else leaving
Has anyone left over the extra hours?Turning work away
Has it affected the work you can take on?then: what if both were filled by Feb?
Here's the same plan as a blank sheet. Copy it into your own document and fill in one block per problem you expect.
[company] · [name, role]
[what they're likely to admit]
- Time: whose, and how much?
- Money: overtime, refunds, lost orders?
- Customers: complaints, late deliveries, renewals?
- Staff: workload, people leaving?
- [one question per consequence]
- [what would fixing it be worth?]
- [who else would care if it were fixed?]
Our free SPIN selling template has a box for the buyer's answers to each question type. Sorinai can fill it, or your own template, while the call runs. It writes each answer into its section as the conversation reaches it and keeps a checklist of the questions that haven't come up yet: see how template filling works. It records the call on your computer, so tell the buyer at the start that it's being recorded.
Implication and need-payoff questions example
A recruiter on a first call with the operations director of a precision engineering firm in Coventry. The director has already said the problem: two CNC machinist jobs have been open since July.
Implication: "What has having two machinists short meant for the rest of the shop floor?"
"The other six have been doing Saturdays most weeks to keep up."
Implication: "Roughly what is that costing in overtime?"
"About £1,100 a week. And one of them handed his notice in last month. He said it was the Saturdays."
Implication: "Has it affected the work you can take on?"
"We turned down a three-month order in October. We couldn't promise the dates."
Need-payoff: "If both jobs were filled by February, what would that let you do?"
"Stop the Saturdays, for a start. And we could say yes the next time that customer comes back."
Need-payoff: "Who else would want to hear that?"
"Our managing director. He's the one who signs off agency fees."
Before the implication questions, the director had a hiring problem. After them, it had a price: about £1,100 a week in overtime, and an order already turned away. The need-payoff answers are the case the director will put to the managing director, in the director's own words, and the recruiter now knows who signs off the fee.
Implication and need-payoff questions FAQ
What is the goal of implication questions?
To make a problem look as big to the buyer as it really is. Buyers get used to problems they've lived with for a long time. Asking what the problem leads to turns "it's a pain" into a cost that justifies spending money to fix it.
Why are implication questions the hardest to ask?
Situation and problem questions follow from what you can see or what the buyer has just said. An implication question needs you to know what a problem usually leads to in this kind of business, often before the buyer has thought about it. That's why planning them before the call helps more than with the other three types.
Can implication questions feel manipulative?
They can, if you push consequences the buyer doesn't recognise, or keep going after they've agreed the problem is serious. Ask about effects that are likely to be real for this buyer, accept a "no", and turn to need-payoff questions once the cost is clear.
When shouldn't you ask a need-payoff question?
When you can't solve the problem it's about. A need-payoff question makes the buyer want the benefit they describe, so ask only about the benefits your product delivers. If the buyer's biggest problem is one you can't fix, say so.
What comes before implication questions in SPIN selling?
Situation questions, which gather facts about how the buyer works today, and problem questions, which ask what isn't working. Our guide to SPIN selling explains all four question types, and how they fit into a call alongside frameworks like BANT and MEDDPICC.
