Gap Selling
Quick definition
A methodology that focuses on the "gap" between where a prospect is now and where they want to be.
Detailed explanation
Gap Selling, developed by Keenan, states that you only sell if there's a gap between the current state and desired state of your prospect. Your job as sales professional is to identify that gap, quantify it, and make it painfully clear. Gap Selling has three components: Current State (where are they now, what are the problems and root causes?), Future State (where do they want to be, what does success look like?), and Gap (what's the difference, what does it cost to not be there?). The methodology is problem-centric - you don't focus on features but on problems. You only become relevant when you understand the gap better than the prospect themselves. If there's no gap (or they're satisfied with current state), there's no deal - and that's ok, disqualify and move on.
Synonyms
Examples
Current State discovery: "Your pipeline forecast is 30% accurate. That means your CEO has no visibility, sales gets no proper resource allocation, and you consistently miss targets." Gap: "If you had 95% accuracy - what would that mean for planning, hiring, board confidence?" → Gap is clear, big, urgent.
Prospect says "we want better leads." Gap Selling rep digs: "How many leads do you have now? Conversion? Cost per lead? Ok, so current state: 1000 leads, 2% conversion, €50 cost = €2500 per customer. Future state would be: 40% better conversion = 3.3% = €1500 per customer. Gap: €1000 per customer x 240 customers/year = €240K saving opportunity. Worth solving?" → Problem is now quantified and urgent.
When to use this?
Use Gap Selling in your discovery process. Invest deeply in understanding current state (not superficial "we have problem X" but root causes, impact, costs). Paint future state together. Quantify the gap. If gap isn't big enough, disqualify - don't chase deals you can't win.
Match-day approach
Match-day trains teams in Gap Selling by building rigorous discovery frameworks. We teach your team to dig to the root cause (often 3-4 levels deep), quantify impact in business terms, and make future state compelling. We also develop disqualification criteria - if gap is too small, or prospect isn't committed to change, walk away. This increases win rates because you only pursue deals where there's real urgency. We also review lost deals through Gap lens - was the gap really big enough? Did we make it painful enough?
Related terms
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