The Gap Selling Formula: Future State — Current State = Value

Shifting from a product-centric to a value-centric selling approach.

Introduction

Undefined Date in the Past, 8 AM: Heading to Amsterdam. It was a cloudless spring day in Amsterdam, one of those days when you feel like everything is simply perfect and nothing can go wrong. I took the train, went to the office, and took the elevator to the 6th floor. I started the day chatting with some colleagues at the coffee machine, checking the cantina’s menu of the day, and then replying to a few emails and Slack threads (exactly in this order: priorities first).

Undefined Date in the Past, 11 AM: 1–1 with my manager. During a 1–1 with my boss, he recommended me a sales book. It sounded a bit strange to me as it was the first time a manager was recommending me to read a book. Initially, I thought: “Here we go, he caught me. I can’t hide myself anymore. This is where the end begins. I knew I couldn’t hide forever. Well, maybe it’s time to look for a new job, but how will I pay my mortgage meantime? Let’s check my bank account. Ah, why did I spend the money on that restaurant last week? Ok, I can still return these items to the shop… wait a sec, why did I buy a fuc**ing piano last month?”

Ok, I might have exaggerated a little bit my stream of thoughts. It didn’t go necessarily that way. Allow me a bit of Italian drama here, after all, it’s in my blood.

Everybody says that most successful people suffer from impostor syndrome. I don’t doubt it’s a fact, but I can tell you that normal people just like me can suffer from it too. Don’t worry, I learned how to live with it and now we are friends. Impostor Syndrome helped me more than once to overachieve my goals (recursively self-fueling itself with doubts about whether I deserved those achievements).

After quite a few successful quarters from that morning, I’m pretty sure that it was not the beginning of a PIP (for those who don’t know: performance improvement plan) but it would have rather marked an extra mile in my Sales Engineering career.

Nevertheless, the fear (or better defined in my CV as “coachability”) pushed me to buy that book immediately: Gap Selling by Keenan.

In this article, I will be sharing with you 3 Gap Selling lessons I learned. If you want more, just read this book or do your research on this topic before your manager recommends it and you’ll start sweating like I did. You’re officially put on notice.

1. The Internet changed our world (incl. buyers)

The Internet revolutionized not only our lives but also how to sell.

Selling in the ’90s was about convincing the client that your product was the coolest in the market, showing off all the cutting-edge features you had in your pocket.

NOTE: I have to trust Keenan and the boomers’ sales generation on how the selling motion was in the ‘90s. At the beginning of that decade, I was busy learning “life fundamentals” like not pooping in diapers.

Guess what — Buyers, including myself, nowadays are better informed than ever. We can easily check any technical details and customer reviews online; buyers often research and learn about product features and market strengths even before speaking to someone about it.

Gap Selling focuses on shifting salespeople's and entrepreneurs' mindsets, acting as expert consultants for their clients. They become like doctors for the buyers, helping patients discover the root cause behind symptoms, and what could be the impact, eventually encouraging them to start a cure as soon as possible.

The Gap Selling is focused on generating value rather than weirdly smiling all the time. Buyers nowadays are looking for experts, not for friends. Salespeople should be obsessed with driving value rather than pursuing likeability. If a buyer likes you, but you are not bringing any value, the outcome of the sale will still be a “no”… but with a smile.

2. Gap Selling Framework

It is all about identifying the gap between the current state and the future state. This is where the gap is. The bigger is gap identified, the more value there is in changing. How to simplify this maieutic exercise? How to make sure that the product you are selling will make a positive impact?

These are five linked indicators to identify a gap in the buyer’s landscape:

• the literal and physical facts about your customer
• their problems
• the impact of those problems
• the root causes of the problems
• what effect those problems are having on your customers’ emotional state

If there is no gap, let it go. If your product is not a good fit, let it go. Avoid wasting your and buyers’ time.

The following assumptions are the foundation of gap selling:

• No one will buy unless there is a problem that your product/service can solve. Personally, when I’m on the sales side, that’s the only case I would be happy to sell something.
• Prospects often don’t know that they have a problem and they might struggle even more to quantify the impacts and the root causes. The discovery step is crucial. Asking the right questions, making the right hypothesis, knowing the business, and acting as an expert are valuable assets you can bring into the conversation that buyers will be thankful for.
• Don’t drag the conversation on opportunities where there is no gap that your product can fill.

3. The Nine Gap Seller Skills

Gap selling is a very different type of sales methodology. It’s not about aggressively pitching products, or mad persuasion skills, or charm. Gap sellers, therefore, are a very different type of seller.

I divided the nine gap seller skills, mentioned by Keenan in his book, into three categories: Learn, Apply, and Inspire.

• Deliberate learning: Take learning seriously. Take the time — no, make the time — to read, research, and reflect on how to become better problem solvers and gain deeper industry knowledge.
• Curiosity: the first time I heard “we have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak” was mind-blowing. Be curious, my dear gap seller.
• Coachability: there isn't much to add here if you fit in the Curiosity and Deliberate Learning. They don’t see criticism from their boss (let me add: ok, maybe just sometimes) as a negative, but as an opportunity to improve. Not everyone is coachable.
• Problem-solving capability: as part of the gap-selling framework, I mentioned problems and impacts. No good solution can come to fill the gap without leveraging problem-solving skills.
• Creativity: magic is not part of this world. Solving a problem, and identifying the root cause is not a straightforward process. In the uniqueness of each sale, creativity will play a role in seeing things differently and imagining multiple possibilities and scenarios.
• Critical thinking: Curiosity is a lot, but nothing without critical thinking. What do you do with all the info you gathered if you can’t critically evaluate them?
• Empathy: Buyers don’t buy because they like you, but no buyer will ever invite a salesperson to help them solve their problems if they cannot connect emotionally.
• Leadership: gap selling is collaborative work where the salesperson has to inspire listeners, carrying himself with ease and confidence.
• Business Acumen: eager to learn everything they can about their industry and customers. Patience, grit, and curiosity are key drivers.

Conclusions

Gap Selling is much, much more than what is shared in this article. Most of the gap-selling concepts are so obvious that, after reading it, you’ll smile and say: “F**k, that’s true!”. It’s all about how human beings have been programmed, we need something to remind us about fundamentals, the basic rules of how to play this game, and how to play it right, with integrity and driving value.

Gap Selling is not a methodology that will make you a better salesperson or entrepreneur just by reading a book. Nevertheless, Gap Selling is a mindset you can rely on way beyond your business.

Facts, Problems, Impacts, Root Causes, and Emotional States are not just part of a business process. They are part of our life. Identify pains, evaluate the impacts, fix root causes, and identify where the gaps are to achieve our goals or reach our desired “future state”. It is all about this.

You are your first buyer. Bring yourself value. Happy Gap Selling!

Opinions expressed in this article are solely my own and do not reflect the views of my employer. Unless otherwise noted, all images are by the author.

The story and all names portrayed in this article are fictitious. No identification with actual places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.