Neil Rackham

Neil Rackham: Evidence-Based Selling and the SPIN Framework

Neil Rackham is a British researcher, author, and consultant best known for developing SPIN Selling, one of the most widely studied methods in complex business-to-business sales. Drawing on a decade of field research observing thousands of sales calls, Rackham shifted sales training from opinion to empirical evidence.

In SPIN Selling, he introduced a question-led approach — Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Payoff — that helps professionals uncover value, diagnose needs, and build consensus in large, multi-stakeholder deals. His later works, including Major Account Sales Strategy and Rethinking the Sales Force, expanded these ideas for strategic account management and consultative selling.

Rackham’s research emphasized creating customer value, resisting premature pitching, and aligning solutions to measurable business outcomes. His methodologies have influenced sales organizations globally and remain core in modern enablement programs.

Neil Rackham’s contribution is a rigorous, customer-centric model that professionalized complex selling and continues to guide high-performance teams.