Need Type Classifier

Classify customer statements from sales calls as Implied Needs (problems, difficulties, dissatisfactions) or Explicit Needs (wants, desires, intentions to act). Use this skill whenever a sales rep shares something a prospect said and asks what to do next, when reviewing call notes or transcripts to identify which customer statements represent buying signals, when diagnosing whether discovery went deep enough before a demo or proposal, when building a needs log from call notes, or when a colleague says 'the prospect sounded interested — they mentioned several problems.' This skill applies Rackham's empirically-validated SPIN methodology to prevent the most common large-sale mistake: treating Implied Needs (problems) as buying signals. In large B2B sales, Explicit Needs — not Implied Needs — predict deal success. Invoke whenever any customer statement needs to be categorized, developed, or acted on in a B2B or enterprise sales context.

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Install

Claude CodeClawhHubnpxCursorCodexGemini CLI

1. Add marketplace

› /plugin marketplace add bookforge-ai/bookforge-skills

2. Install plugin

› /plugin install spin-selling@bookforge-skills

3. Use the skill

› /need-type-classifier

CC-BY-SA · Open sourceGitHub

Source Book

SPIN Selling

Neil Rackham

More from SPIN Selling

Saleshybrid

Benefit Statement Drafter

Draft Benefit statements that link product capabilities to specific customer-expressed Explicit Needs. Use this skill when preparing follow-up emails, proposals, or demos after a discovery call, when someone asks 'how should I frame our solution for this customer?', 'draft Rackham-style benefits for my proposal', 'write the value section of my deck', 'the customer said X — what should I say back?', 'help me write benefits for this deal', 'turn our capabilities into benefits for this account', or 'I have a needs log — help me write the customer-facing statements'. This skill REFUSES to draft a Benefit when no matching Explicit Need exists in the customer record — it redirects to spin-discovery-question-planner instead. That refusal is not a flaw; it is the skill's core protection against the most common error in B2B sales: presenting capabilities before needs are confirmed. The output is a short, grounded set of draft statements (one per matched pair) that the user can adapt into a proposal section, a follow-up email, or a demo opening. Also applies the new-product-launch sub-flow: when the user is launching a new product and has no needs log yet, the skill shifts focus to problem identification and need development before drafting any Benefits — the approach that produced 54% higher sales in a controlled medical diagnostics experiment. Applies to B2B account executives, solutions consultants, and founder-led sellers preparing for follow-up conversations after discovery calls.

Saleshybrid

Call Outcome Classifier

Classify whether a sales call outcome was an Order, an Advance, a Continuation, or a No-sale — and flag when the seller has misread a Continuation as success. Use when someone asks "did this call go well?", "was this a successful call?", "classify this call outcome", "is this a Continuation or an Advance?", "the prospect said they were impressed but didn't commit to anything specific", "they said 'fantastic presentation, let's meet again' — is that progress?", "I'm not sure if we moved the deal forward", "how do I score this call?", or "the customer seemed positive but I don't know if we advanced." Also invoke when someone shares call notes or a transcript and wants to know whether the deal progressed, whether to update their CRM with a pipeline advance, or whether a next call is needed because this one stalled. Works on raw call notes, transcripts (Gong, Chorus, Zoom exports), or recalled summaries. Reads the call; identifies the specific customer action committed (or the absence of one); classifies the outcome against SPIN Selling's four-outcome framework; flags the classic Continuation-as-success misread; and outputs a written deal-tracking assessment. Pair with commitment-and-advance-planner (SPIN Selling) to plan a better Advance objective for the next call when this one ended in Continuation.

Saleshybrid

Closing Attitude Self Assessment

Administer and score the Closing-Attitude Scale — a 15-item validated psychometric from SPIN Selling research. Use when a salesperson wants to evaluate whether their attitude toward closing techniques fits the kind of sale they are running, assess whether they are closing too aggressively or too passively, diagnose if their pro-closing beliefs could be hurting their large-sale results, answer 'should I close harder?', 'am I closing too aggressively?', 'is my closing approach wrong for this type of deal?', or 'evaluate my closing attitude'. Also invoke for anyone who believes 'always be closing' is good sales practice, wants to test themselves against Rackham's research findings, or needs to understand why closing techniques hurt large-sale performance. The skill administers all 15 items interactively, calculates a total (15-75), interprets the score against the user's actual selling context (deal value, buyer sophistication, post-sale relationship), and delivers a written assessment with remediation guidance when score and context are mismatched.

Salesplan-only

Commitment And Advance Planner

Plan the specific commitment to target on a B2B sales call, and script how to obtain it without using closing pressure. Use this skill when someone asks "how do I close this deal", "what should I ask for at the end of the call?", "should I push for the close on Tuesday?", "how do I get this prospect to commit?", "what's a realistic next step to aim for?", "they keep saying they're interested but won't commit", "my manager wants me to close harder but I don't think that's working", "I need to plan my commitment strategy before tomorrow's call", "how do I avoid getting a non-answer at the end of the meeting?", "what's the difference between a real commitment and a polite brush-off?", "I keep getting Continuations instead of Advances", "how do I know what level of commitment to ask for?", or "what do I do when the prospect says 'let's stay in touch'?" Also invoke when someone is prepping for any major B2B sales call and wants a written plan for how to end it — even if they don't use the word "close" or "commitment." This skill produces a pre-call commitment plan with a primary Advance target, a fallback Advance, a Four Successful Actions script, and a Continuation guard. It explicitly replaces closing-technique training with Advance-targeting, grounded in empirical research showing that pressure closing reduces success rates in large sales. After the call, run spin-selling:call-outcome-classifier to verify whether the planned Advance was actually obtained.