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

"Almost all of the issues and challenges within sales are self-induced We create the reasons the customer goes dark. We create the focs on price. We allow the customer to hold us hoOstage over an inele vant feature, We allow the competition to swoop in at the elevend hour We create the situations where the buyer chooses to do nothing We make it easy for prospects to ignore our emails, voicemails, and LinkedIn messages. These failings are almost always our fault be cause we haven't been taught the game of sales, We know the rules, we know the objective, but most of us don't understand the nuances of the game and it's costing us and the sales industry billions of dollars a year."

"I don't know if this coach was the best coach in the world, or if he thought I was the dumbest kid in the world. Regardless, he understood that despite being a talented athlete, I was struggling to understand the game. So, he made the game as simple as possible for me. "Run as fast as you can and tackle the guy with the ball.“"

"You're not losing deals today because you don't work hard, or don't care, or you're dumb. No, you're losing deals because you don't know what you don't know. You don't understand the rules of the selling game. Many of you are still selling, and if you're selling while you're selling, you're not selling. You're working with an outdated concept of what selling is all about. You're missing out on important sales principles and techniques that can provide you with so much insight into your customers and what they need that you'll be half-way to securing the deal before you do the demo. There's a hole in your sales education; a set of important concepts you've never been taught. Gap Selling will fix that, making sure that when it comes to the game of sales, you don't just know better: you know it all."

"1. No PROBLEM, NO SALE 2. IN EVERY SALE THERE'S A GAP AHO 3. ALL SALES ARE ABOUT CHANGE 4. CUSTOMERS DON'T LIKE CHANGE SHT 5. SALES ARE EMOTIONAL 6. CUSTOMERS DO LIKE CHANGE WHEN THEY FEEL IT'S WORTH THE COST 7. ASKING "WHY?" GETS CUSTOMERS TO *YES" 8. SALES HAPPEN WHEN THE FUTURE STATE IS A BETTER STATE 9. No ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT YOU"

"WE'RE IN THE SHOW-ME ECONOMY We are now in the show-me economy. The tell-me economy is dead, over.So if you're still trying to "tell" your prospect what you do, what your product does, and why you matter, you're wasting their time, And in today's world, prospects are not keen on having their time wasted."

"Every time you hear an objection, you'll want to hold it up against your customer's future state. Are they aligned? Would resolving this concern or so-called problem get them any closer to their desired outcome If so, you'll probably need to get out. If not, you need to respond with "I’m confused.“ By implying that you may be the one in error, those two words allow you to challenge people without making them feel defensive."

"It's called a Problem Identification Chart, and vo one even before you start reaching out to prospects. On a sheet of nance, d pany cu online in thi you will you'll write down every problem your product or service can sole time if papa your prospects and customers. First, make a column and call it sp crea that fa lems." They might be low close rates, missed deadlines, communicatie gaps, or an inability to move inventory or generate more leads. Thes should be the real problems your prospects are suffering. Then, youl create a column called "Impact." In this column, you'll list the impas. those problems could have on a customer, should they exist. The impan of low close rates, for example, could be a high cost of sales, where too much money is being spent to bring in the few sales that do go through Maybe the impact is also slow revenue growth, fewer customers, and increased vulnerability to the competition. Finally, in a third column called "Root Cause," you'll list the root causes of the problems you mentioned in the first column. The root causes are why the problems exist i the first place. You'll learn quickly that while there could be a myriad of ways for problems to impact customers, you will only be able to attribute"