Gap Selling Flashcards
Your product doesn’t drive the sale, the ____ does.
Problem
Being a great salesperson means…(2 things)
Being able to diagnose the customer’s problem
Understanding the impact the problem is having on their business.
At the heart of every sale, there’s a gap between…
What buyers have now and what they believe the want in the future.
Who they are and who they want to be.
Where they are and where they want to go.
The gap represents the _____.
Without it, there is _____.
Value of the sale to the buyer and the salesperson.
No sale.
If a problem doesn’t exist, there is no…
Sale
Problems get you to the impact and the impact is where…
Urgency, value, and need live and where the sale takes root.
The worst thing you can do at the beginning of a sale is to…(2 things)
Take your buyer’s word for granted (about their problem)
Sell to a need.
A need assumes the prospect…
Knows what they want, and that’s a bad assumption.
Gap selling is a process of…
Tactfully challenging buyers’ assumptions.
Exposing the true size of their problem.
Correctly assessing the impact it will have on their lives.
The more impact, the ______. The larger the gap, the ______.
Larger the gap
More valuable the solution (your product or service)
Every sales is about ____. ______ is ______. Therefore, every sale is _____.
Change. Emotional.
What are the following?
- Loss of control—affects their job, their value at work, etc
- Excess uncertainty—Like with using a new, untested solution.
- Surprise
- Too much change at once—feeling overwhelmed, not enough bandwidth.
- Loss of face—for example, your system replacing something they created themselves.
- Insecurity—what if it doesn’t work out?
- Extra work
- The ripple effect—internal complaints
- Past resentments
- Real danger—does it make jobs redundant
10 threats that cause people to resist change.
The only time we are compelled to let go of the old, stick out our necks, and embrace changes is when we can…
Envision an improved future state over our current state, and when we believe that the benefits of that future state outweigh the cost of getting there, the effort it will require, or the possible pain we will suffer.
You can’t sell a future state unless you have a…
Firm grasp on your customer’s current state.
Selling is a giving profession. Every time you engage with a customer, you have to ask yourself…(plus examples)
“What am I giving?” (E.g., industry information, insight into the market, tips that will make their job easier, the solution to a problem they haven’t been able to solve.)
The following make up the buyer’s _____.
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
Current state
How clearly and thoroughly you uncover the five elements of your customers’ current state will determine…
How you can provide value to your customers.
Without the future state, it’s difficult to calculate the __________.
value of the deal
You want to give prospects a taste of what they will experience in their _______ so that they’re motivated to take the steps to get there.
future state
Solving problems isn’t just about fixing what’s wrong in the _______, but helping people move toward their _______.
short-term
long-term dreams
Once your customers believe that the ________ will outweigh the cost of getting there, the deal is done.
benefits of the future state
The gap selling process is about _______ and _____________.
building credibility
establishing yourself as a trustworthy expert
Needing to be _____ hurts my selling efficacy.
liked
The less you worry about ________ and the more _______ and _______ you can remain, the more capable you are at objectively evaluating your customers’ needs, offering sage advice, and winning customer trust so they believe you are the right person to help them solve their problems.
being liked
emotionally detached
fact-based
Be an _____, not a ______.
expert
friend
The gap is where the _______ lives.
value of the sale
When you’re asking customers about _________, you’re expanding their perception of the problem and the perceived outcome of the solving the problem.
their current and future states
The seller’s role is to _______ for the buyer and help them conclude the salesperson who possesses something that can make that future state come true is selling something of real value.
crystallize the stakes
Your number one job when selling is to get the customer to _______.
let you help them
The best salespeople don’t rely on ________: selling something the customer already knows about, or selling to organizations that already recognize that they have a problem. Instead, the leverage ________, seeking out the latent opportunities where customers don’t even know they need help until someone comes along and points out how their company is at risk.
demand reaction
demand creation
The sale is won or lost during _______.
discovery
Gap sellers will almost always _______ than people who use traditional selling techniques.
ask more questions
What are the 4 types of questions (Gap Selling)?
Probing
Process
Provoking
Validating
________ questions: Open ended questions that press for specific details.
Probing
_________ questions: Open ended questions that ask “How?”
Process
__________ questions: Open ended questions that gently push customers to consider their current state from a new perspective.
Provoking
__________ questions: Not open ended questions. Instead, these simply allow you to repeat information you gather back to your customer to make sure you’ve correctly understood everything they’ve told you.
Validating
The following examples are…
“Tell me a little. It about ____.”
“Help me understand _____”
“Could you please describe _____”
“Could you walk me through _____”
Ways to phrase open ended questions to get people talking.
Every time you delve for information, it should feel like a ___________, not an _________.
friendly conversation
interrogation
Open ended, vague answers that don’t quantify the problem don’t tell you enough about the problem to ____________.
help you devise a solution
“Tell me how this is affecting you.”
“Describe the impact it’s having on your department.”
“What are the consequences every time this problem occurs?”
These are examples of ______.
Questions to discover the impact of the problem on your customer.
If you can’t generate ______, no one will listen to you.
intrigue
Intrigue triggers the “oh shit” circuit by disrupting the predictable patterns in 3 ways:
Surprise
Create mystery
Create a knowledge gap
Create ______ = Create the unexpected.
Surprise
Create _______ = Create a form of anticipation, which only further engagement can soothe.
mystery
Create a ___________ = Prove that you know something relevant that they don’t. Educate, challenge, or both.
knowledge gap
Offer - Ask = ______
Value
The only way to break through the blockade is to ________________________.
trip our buyer’s brain with a new pattern.
It could take anywhere from 8-12 touches for a customer to _____________.
finally give you some attention.
Cadence is about __________ as well as strategically planning your ________ and ______.
the timing of your correspondence
message and delivery method
Every prospecting touchpoint must include (4 things)
intrigue
A clear and reasonable ask
An offer
A net benefit to the customer
Never say __ for your buyer. Don’t ever walk away unless ________.
No
They tell you to go away
