Gap Selling

Getting the Customer to Yes: How Problem-Centric Selling Increases Sales by Changing Everything You Know About Relationships, Overcoming Objections, Closing and Price

By Keenan

Category: Marketing & Sales | Reading Duration: 12 min | Rating: 4.1/5 (132 ratings)

About the Book

Gap Selling (2019) challenges traditional sales techniques that have frustrated generations of salespeople. Dispensing with platitudes, it advocates techniques that create value and establish influence throughout the sales process. Liberating salespeople from the role of order-takers beholden to capricious buyers, it provides a bold new framework for sales success in the modern era.

Who Should Read This?

• Sales professionals looking to improve their skills and effectiveness
• Business owners wanting to increase sales and revenue
• Anyone in a client-facing role aiming to build trust and relationships

What’s in it for me? Leave behind pushy sales tactics.

Feeling stuck in an endless sales cycle? In today's oversaturated marketplace, buyers are more demanding than ever, expecting solutions tailored to their exact problems. To navigate this shifting landscape, consider the wisdom encapsulated in the subtitle: "How Problem-Centric Selling Increases Sales by Changing Everything You Know About Relationships, Overcoming Objections, Closing and Price." This fresh perspective suggests that success isn’t about just pitching your product; it’s about understanding your prospect's real-world issues. Gap selling advocates for this shift, urging sales professionals to prioritize discovery over mere promotion. In this Blink, we'll delve into the transformative power of gap selling, sharing practical steps and research strategies to get you started. Remember, this approach isn't just a strategy – it’s an art form. By mastering its intricate dance, you invite your buyers into a partnership where they become enthusiastic collaborators in the sale.Are you ready to evolve past the old pitch-and-close playbook? Then let’s continue.

Chapter 1: Selling with substance

Picture this. You work in the sales department of a supplier that sells plumbing supplies to contractors in your region. You contact a contractor who approaches you saying he needs 1000 feet of new metal piping for an upcoming job retrofitting pipes in an older high rise building.You jump right to asking questions to qualify budget and authority. So far, so good. You launch into a slick pitch on your piping products, touting features and benefits. Then what? You'd pull out spec sheets with pressure tolerances and chemical resistance data, confident this thorough information dump will clinch the sale.But despite all the specs, the contractor seems indifferent. The information isn't resonating. You hammer him with a high-pressure closing technique like "If you need new piping that meets these specs, why not go with my brand you can trust?" But you can sense his hesitation.The deal falls apart. What happened? You did everything "right" according to old-school selling theory. But you totally missed the customer's real problems.The old playbook of the past – promoting features, building rapport, and pressing for closes — no longer works. Today's buyers have endless access to product information and can see through sales tactics. Your slick pitch now falls on deaf ears.To succeed today, you need to embrace a completely new approach – gap selling. This method focuses on deeply understanding your buyer's problems first, then demonstrating how you can bridge the gaps to a solution. The first and most critical step in gap selling is diagnosing your buyer's current state. This means diving deep into the true problems they face day-to-day. Many sales reps make the mistake of taking the buyer's stated needs at face value. But you can only create real value by digging beneath the surface issues to uncover your buyer's core strategic problems.Let’s look at our plumbing supplier example once again and how you might use a gap selling approach. Instead of jumping straight into product features, you begin the call by asking probing questions about the contractor's current problems and goals. Why are they replacing the pipes in this building? What issues have they faced with the existing pipes? How will new pipes improve things?In asking these questions, you discover the 50 year old building has galvanized steel pipes that corrode easily, leading to leaks and rusty water. This requires costly repairs and hurts tenants. This in turn creates problems for the contractors down the road, who face problems of reputation and liability. The contractor wants to head off these problems by using pipes that won't corrode from the city's acidic water.Now the problem is clear. Your polymer-coated pipes resist corrosion much better than unprotected metal pipes. You share relevant case studies and pipe life comparison charts and you show that your pipes are superior. But the core value is clear – your pipes directly address the corrosion issues.By taking time to uncover the real problem instead of launching into a product pitch, you can tailor your solution and clearly demonstrate how it closes the customer's gaps. The contractor is now fully engaged in how your product alleviates their pain points, and you close the sale.This is the power of gap selling. The sale happens naturally once you close the customer's gaps.

Chapter 2: Four steps to customer clarity

Alright, let's delve further into the art of discovery in sales, focusing on four pivotal steps to achieve customer clarity within the context of the gap selling approach we discussed earlier.Step one, in our journey to clarity, is all about gathering facts. Think back to our plumbing scenario. This is your chance to be a detective, to find out what's corroding their situation, and truly understand their world. Resist the temptation to pitch; it's their moment to shine, not yours. Listen intently, mirroring back what they share to show you're fully present. By understanding the very contours of their challenges, you're setting the stage for what comes next.Moving on to step two, with a good understanding of their terrain, it's time to dig deep into the specific problems at hand. It's one thing to know the pipes are corroded, but another entirely to comprehend the true impact on the contractor and tenants. You're seeking the raw, frustrating intricacies that plague them daily.Step three requires you to gauge the tangible impacts of these issues. How much, in terms of both time and money, is that corroded pipe costing them? Extend beyond just immediate repair costs; consider reputational ramifications and other indirect consequences. Making these concerns concrete highlights the urgency of a fitting solution.And finally, step four, the keystone of our approach, is unveiling the true root causes. Delve beneath the obvious symptoms. What's really at the heart of their issues? Whether it's a gap in processes, outdated tools, or a resource deficit, you're pinpointing that missing link between their current reality and their desired future.Now, as we conclude our four-step journey, resist the urge to jump straight into your product pitch. By being an attentive guide throughout these stages, the client has, in essence, laid out the ideal solution for you. It's now a matter of positioning your offering to align seamlessly with their narrative.Imagine the difference in perception from the buyer's side. Most feel that conventional salespeople seem too scripted, pushing products before understanding needs. That approach often feels detached, leading many to just await the conversation's end. But with the gap selling approach, there's a shift in dynamics. Here, the salesperson takes time, listens, and truly engages. It morphs from a mere transaction to a consultative discussion, making the proposed solutions resonate deeply.In essence, it's all about building trust and alignment. It's not about selling a product; it's about providing a solution that genuinely bridges the client's gaps. So, shift your mindset from simply pitching features to keenly understanding the customer's pain points. This collaborative approach, rooted in mutual understanding and these four key steps, lays the foundation for meaningful, enduring partnerships.

Chapter 3: Doing your homework

Skilled gap selling begins not when you pick up the phone or walk into a meeting, but through thorough pre-call research. Your goal here is developing deep familiarity with your prospect's business – their industry, competitors, goals, challenges, and prior history.Let’s talk about some key areas to research. One area is company initiatives. What strategic projects are underway? What are the specific goals that leadership are emphasizing? What about the team? Who are the main people that will be involved in decisions? What initiatives do they own? What about the company or division’s recent performance? How has the company been performing financially? Where have previous initiatives succeeded or failed?Another is the industry landscape: what macro trends, disruptions, or shifts is the industry facing? How are peers positioning themselves given industry dynamics? And don’t forget technology: what systems and tools does the prospect use? Are they outdated or cutting-edge?Thorough pre-call research serves two purposes. First, it helps you craft smarter discovery questions tuned to the prospect's specific situation. Second, it builds immediate credibility by signaling your knowledge to the buyer. With research complete, you're ready to shift into active discovery.Now it’s time for you to use the discovery process outlined previously – identify the customer's pain points, show how they create frustrating gaps in the customer's work, and position your product as the missing bridge they have been looking for. This "problem-centric" approach creates a highly relevant sales conversation and makes closing the sale almost an afterthought. As the saying goes, "A confused mind always says no." Eliminate the confusion by connecting how you specifically solve their struggles.A few more words on where to begin when it comes to discovering your buyer’s current state. There are multiple kinds of problems to explore. First are technical problems – what specific limitations exist with current products, tools, or capabilities? How do these gaps hinder performance?Second are business problems – what processes, workflows or constraints are driving these technical gaps? And how are these tied to business objectives?What concrete, quantifiable effects do these problems have on operations? Which of the customers goals become harder to achieve, because of these problems?Don't let your buyer provide vague or superficial answers when discussing problems. Use probing follow-up questions until you grasp the nuances and root causes of their technical and business issues.You know your discovery succeeded when you can describe your buyer's headaches as comprehensively as they can. This deep understanding of current gaps lays the foundation for showing how you can guide the buyer forward.

Final summary

The era of slick product pitches is over. Today's buyers are impervious to flashy features and facile rapport-building. They demand insight tailored to their specific struggles. To thrive, sellers must now take a consultative approach: gap selling.In gap selling, discovery takes center stage while empty promotion falls away. Sellers devote themselves to uncovering the true gaps and frustrations plaguing buyers. This deep understanding then allows the seller's offerings to be positioned as the missing link between the customer's present state and ideal future state.Gap selling is a dance requiring thoughtful inquiry, active listening, and integrative thinking. Master these skills, and customers will see you as a trusted advisor rather than a self-interested sales rep.

About the Author

Keenan is the CEO of A Sales Guy Inc. and author of the bestselling Not Taught. Named one of the top social sellers by Forbes and a Top 50 sales influencer by Top Sales World Magazine, Keenan's insights on modern sales success have been featured in Harvard Business Journal, Huffington Post, and Inc.