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

You aren’t losing sales because you can’t sell. You’re losing them because you don’t understand how to diagnose your customer problem(s) and how the problem(s) drive the sale. Your product doesn’t drive the sale. The problem does, and if you can’t diagnose the problem, no sales skill or any other sales training is going to help you.

See, at the heart of every sale, there’s a gap. It’s a gap between what buyers have now and what they believe they want in the future, between who they are now and who they want to be tomorrow, or even where they are now and where they want to go. This gap represents the value of the sale to the buyer and the salesperson. Without it, there is no sale.

Gap selling is a process of tactfully challenging buyers’ assumptions, exposing (and sometimes confirming) the true size of their problem, then correctly assessing the impact it will have on their lives.

It’s incredibly difficult to get people to change their opinions through sheer reasoning.

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Your customers’ emotions will have everything to do with whether you successfully close the deal or not.

Closing a sale is about helping customers feel safe enough to lay their defenses down and share their problems, then getting them to a point where they feel secure and confident enough to admit they’re ready for change—either

What kind of better future states do customers want? An edge over the competition Paths to previously unexplored markets Increased profits More rapid path to market Heightened investor interest Millions of dollars in savings Streamlined manufacturing processes The eye of the new generation Faster communications Happier, more engaged employees Better customer retention Improved personal service More leads Increased response times Revenue

People don’t buy products—they buy solutions to their problems. If they can’t recognize at least one clearly defined, measurable problem, your buyer will not buy.

If running over budget doesn’t impact the rest of the business, then one could argue it’s not a problem. Problems are only problems when the impact is negative and uncomfortable.

What creates the types of relationships that generate value and drive you closer to the sale? Credibility.

Your expertise and credibility are worth a lot more to your buyers than your quick wit, warm friendly manner,

Buyers want to have a good experience with their sales reps, but ultimately, they’re looking for trustworthy advice and guidance. And when it comes down to it, even if they’d rather drink a beer with a Relationship Builder, they know it’s the sales rep who is capable of telling them the truth, including things they’d rather not hear, who is probably giving them the best information and value.viii

Bidding on an RFP is not selling, it’s participating in a beauty contest.

“early in the sales cycle there is a linear relationship between the number of questions you ask and the likelihood of closing a deal.”

In your initial communications when you’re establishing a connection with your customer through emails and voicemails, take a moment to describe these potential problems and ask permission to give your customers some ideas as to how you might be able to resolve them.

Your prospects can have the same technical problem(s), but never, ever, the same business problems.

Does the prospect have a problem you can fix? Does the prospect agree they have a problem? Does the prospect want to fix the problem? Will the prospect go on a journey with you to fix the problem?

“Tell me a bit about what is driving this change.”

Demo Challenge: Try to conduct your entire 45-60 minute presentation without saying the word “if.” If you succeed, you’ll have conducted a good demo.

A good salesperson is a consultant, a collaborator, a partner—not a servant.

consuming; too many salespeople believe that the only way to move a sale forward through the pipeline is to cater to customers’ every request or whim,

The more you value yourself, your knowledge of the space in which you sell, and your understanding of your buyers’ problems, the more your customers will value you.

For example, let’s say you’re selling software and you have successfully worked through the discovery. Then, right in the middle of the solution stage, your customer informs you that she’s definitely interested in your product, but before committing she needs a 90-day trial. You explain that your company doesn’t do trials, and this is an unreasonable demand anyway. You start asking questions: What is she hoping to accomplish with the trial? How will a trial get her to her desired outcome? She’s not interested in explaining herself and digs in her heels. This is how they do things at their company. No trial, no sale. But you are not the customer’s b*tch. You now have two options: 1. You can say no. Sure, that might scuttle the sale right away, but at least you wouldn’t be on tenterhooks for three months scrambling to make sure that if she bails you can fill the hole in your sales projections. Or, 2. you can set terms. You could agree to a 90-day trial, if: • The customer pays an installation fee • The customer provides clear and measurable success criteria so you know what kind of metrics you’re trying to meet • The customer commits to purchasing the software if you meet that success criteria

We need to be working together on this and if you can’t meet me halfway, we’re not right for each other.”

Your customers aren’t really buying products and services like software, consulting services, training, or widgets; they’re buying change. They’re buying the desired outcome made possible by your software, consulting services, training, or widgets.

Research why companies fail in an area where you can help them succeed. Look for obscure information that could positively affect them. Ask questions you know the buyer can’t answer. In this way, you not only position yourself as an expert with desirable information, you create pain in the form of curiosity. To ease that pain, the buyer can’t help but engage.

Every prospecting email, call, voice mail, video, and social media post must include: intrigue, a clear and reasonable ask, an offer, and a net benefit to the customer

the Dunning-Kruger effect. The more ignorant and incompetent people are, the more confidence they have in their knowledge and abilities. Worse, they’re so ignorant, they don’t even realize they’re ignorant.

being a sales leader isn’t about getting what you need out of your sales team but about providing what your sales team needs to get out of you. They need your guidance, your feedback, your direction and your inspiration.

Gartner) revealed that 53% of customer loyalty was not a product of customer service, as might be expected, but of the sales experience.xv

The key to building a gap-selling organization is educating the team, hiring the right people and managing the team to the gap, to the current state, and to the future state. It’s ensuring the team goes deep and gets a clear picture of where the customer is, what problems they’re struggling with, why those problems are hurting them, why the problems exist, what the impact to the organization is because the problems exist, and finally, where the customer wants to go.

sales isn’t about selling stuff, but about facilitating change.