University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Gap Selling
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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

Keenan
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Well Structured
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Selling B2B products or services is difficult. Customers have a million reasons not to buy. Salespeople may devote months to closing a deal, only to lose out at the last minute over a minor issue or a few dollars in price. Thus, salespeople can’t afford self-inflicted mistakes that block their success. Sales coach Keenan – who goes by only one name – offers his logical “gap selling” strategy to help salespeople overcome errors and improve results. Despite the occasional use of vulgar language, Keenan explains his inventive tactics in impressive detail.

Summary

In “gap selling,” you close the gaps between customers’ current situation and their future improved situation.

Gap selling rests on basic sales rules. Salespeople who operate according to these principles can develop sales skills, follow effective strategies, fill their pipelines and benefit from an attitude that brings helpful insights. Knowledgeable salespeople understand that sales value occurs within these gaps, which gap selling effectively bridges.

Learning about gap selling will teach you how to:

  • “Read prospects’ minds during discovery” – Unearth objections, and have answers ready.
  • “Identify and even anticipate buyers’ unique needs and problems” – Personalize your solutions to customer problems.
  • “Influence the change process” – Get your customers to buy into your solutions to their problems.
  • “Maximize your value as a resource” – Enable customers to see you as a trusted adviser.
  • “Put their needs first” – To get customers on your...

About the Author

Sales coach Keenan, who goes by only one name, is CEO and president of A Sales Guy Inc. He also wrote Not Taught: What It Takes to be Successful in the 21st Century.

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