Gap Selling and MEDDPICC get compared as if they were rivals for the same job. They do different jobs. Gap Selling is a selling method: it tells a rep what to find out on a call and what the deal is about. MEDDPICC is a qualification framework: it lists what a deal has to contain before anyone should forecast it.
That difference settles most of the choice. For the wider field, see our sales methodology guide.
The short answer
Most teams that run Gap Selling well use its own buyer-centric qualification and do not need MEDDPICC. Teams that already have MEDDPICC in the CRM can keep the letters as deal gates and use Gap Selling to run the conversations that fill them. Either way, the letters are only as good as the discovery behind them, and discovery is what Gap Selling teaches.
Gap Selling, defined
Gap Selling is a problem-centric sales method created by Jim Keenan of A Sales Growth Company. A Sales Growth Company describes it as a technique that "shifts the focus of the sale from your product to the buyer's problem."
- 01Current stateProblems, impact and root causes
- 02Future stateWhat the buyer wants
- 03The gapIn the buyer's own numbers
- 04Price, urgency, decisionAnchored by the gap
The rep's job is to establish the buyer's current state (the problems, their impact and their root causes), the future state the buyer wants, and the gap between the two, in the buyer's own numbers. The gap is what anchors price, urgency and the decision. Two tools hold it together. The Problem Identification Chart lists, once, the problems a product solves with their impacts and root causes, so reps diagnose against it and stop inventing problems on the call. Buyer Input Data is the buyer-sourced evidence that a deal is real: a confirmed problem, a quantified impact, named stakeholders and an agreed success metric. Both are defined on our Gap Selling page.
MEDDPICC, defined
MEDDPICC is a B2B sales qualification framework with eight elements: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Paper Process, Implicate the Pain, Champion and Competition. MEDDICC.com dates its parent, MEDDIC, to PTC in 1996 and credits Dick Dunkel, with Jack Napoli.
A deal is qualified when the rep has buyer-confirmed evidence on all eight. Paper Process (legal, security, procurement) and Competition (including doing nothing) are the two letters MEDDPICC adds to the original six; MEDDPICC vs MEDDIC explains the difference. The eight letters with questions for each are on our MEDDPICC page.
Side by side
| Gap Selling | MEDDPICC | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A selling method | A qualification framework |
| The question it answers | What is wrong in the buyer's world, what does it cost, and why fix it now? | Does this deal contain what it needs to close? |
| Where it does its work | On the call, in discovery and every conversation after | In the deal record, the deal review and the forecast |
| Unit of evidence | The buyer's current state, impact, root cause and future state, in their numbers | Eight letters, each buyer-confirmed or not |
| Covers the buying process | Partly, through Buyer Input Data (stakeholders, success metric) | Fully: economic buyer, decision process, paper process, competition |
| Tells the rep what to say | Yes | No |
| Who wrote it | Jim Keenan, A Sales Growth Company | Originated at PTC; taught by many trainers |
Gap Selling is strong where deals are made, in the buyer's understanding of their own problem. MEDDPICC is strong where deals are lost late, in the steps between a yes and a signature.
Where the author of Gap Selling stands on MEDDIC
A Sales Growth Company's own method page argues against seller-focused qualification. In its section on low close rates it recommends "firm and consistent qualification criteria that is customer-centric (AKA, no BANT or MEDDIC. That's you focused)."
A MEDDIC checklist can be filled in without the buyer ever stating a problem: the rep knows who signs, has a decision date and has a champion, and the deal still dies because nobody established why the buyer should change. Gap Selling's answer is to qualify on the buyer's side of the table: is there a problem, what does it cost, what caused it, what does better look like, and who has confirmed each of those. That is Buyer Input Data.
A team running Gap Selling as its method should take that seriously before bolting MEDDPICC on top. Two qualification systems in one CRM usually means reps fill in both from memory on Friday.
How the MEDDPICC letters map to Gap Selling evidence
Most of MEDDPICC can be filled from Gap Selling discovery. The buying-process letters mostly cannot, and those are the ones a Gap Selling team should cover some other way.
| MEDDPICC letter | Filled by Gap Selling evidence? | Where it comes from in Gap Selling |
|---|---|---|
| Metrics | Yes | Impact and future state, quantified in the buyer's numbers |
| Implicate the Pain | Yes, and more strictly | Current state problem, its impact and its root cause, confirmed by the buyer |
| Decision Criteria | Mostly | The future state the buyer describes, and what they will measure success by |
| Champion | Partly | The stakeholder who confirms the problem and carries it internally |
| Economic Buyer | Partly | Named stakeholders in Buyer Input Data; Gap Selling does not single this role out |
| Decision Process | Rarely | Outside the core method |
| Paper Process | No | Outside the core method |
| Competition | Partly | The status quo is the main competitor in any gap; other vendors are outside the core method |
Gap Selling fully produces Metrics and Implicate the Pain, most of Decision Criteria and part of Champion, with the buyer stating each piece in their own words. The rest (the economic buyer, the decision and paper process, and rival vendors) is where Gap Selling teams without a buying-process check get surprised.
Problem or pain
The sharpest difference sits in one letter. MEDDPICC's Implicate the Pain asks the rep to show the buyer why the pain matters. Trainers read that letter in different ways, and in a CRM it can end up as a single text field with a sentence in it.
Gap Selling breaks the same ground into parts: the business problem, its impact and its root cause, each of which the buyer has to confirm. Root cause is the part MEDDPICC has no letter for. It matters because a buyer who agrees there is a problem but has never named its cause will often fix the symptom another way, or not at all.
In practice: if a deal record says "Pain: manual inspection is slow," a Gap Selling coach asks what it costs, why it happens, what happens if it continues, and who said so.
One deal, read both ways (illustrative)
This deal is illustrative. A rep sells inspection software to a regional manufacturer. The contact is the quality director.
Read as Gap Selling. Current state: final inspection is manual, and the director says rework on two product lines runs to about a week per month. Root cause: defects are only found at the end of the line. Impact: the director estimates the rework cost, and finance has not confirmed it. Future state: defects caught at the station, rework halved by next fiscal year. Gap: stated by the buyer, partly quantified. The next call's job is to get finance to put a number on the rework.
Read as MEDDPICC. Metrics: partly confirmed. Economic Buyer: the COO, unmet. Decision Criteria: integration with the line systems, agreed. Decision Process: pilot then decision, steps undated. Paper Process: unknown. Implicate the Pain: inferred, waiting on finance. Champion: the director, untested. Competition: the status quo, plus an internal plan to add inspectors.
The Gap Selling read gives the rep a sharper next conversation: the deal lives or dies on a number finance has not confirmed. The MEDDPICC read catches two things the Gap read did not ask about, the COO and the paper process, either of which could move a December decision into March. A rep with both reads has the right next call and no late surprise.
Run both or pick one
Pick by where the team is starting and where its deals die.
| Situation | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Choosing a method from scratch | Run Gap Selling with its own Buyer Input Data as qualification, and add a dated buying-process check (who signs, what reviews, by when) |
| MEDDPICC already in the CRM and the forecast process | Keep the letters as deal gates; adopt Gap Selling as the way reps run the conversations that fill Metrics and Implicate the Pain |
| Deals die after a verbal yes, in procurement or legal | Whichever method you run, make Paper Process an explicit question in the first two conversations |
| Deals stall with "we'll wait" | The problem was never confirmed or costed; that is a discovery gap, and Gap Selling is the method built for it |
The choice matters less than whether the method survives to day 91; nobody ever lost a deal because they picked the wrong methodology makes that argument, and how to roll out a sales methodology gives the procedure.
One deal review that covers both
A team running both does not need two meetings. A 15-minute review per deal, in this order, covers the method and the letters:
- The gap (5 minutes). What is the buyer's current state, what does it cost in their numbers, what caused it, and what future state did they describe? Who confirmed each one?
- The letters Gap Selling does not fill (5 minutes). Who is the economic buyer and has the rep met them? What are the dated steps to a decision? What does legal, security or procurement need, and when?
- The next call (5 minutes). Which missing piece does the next conversation have to get, and what question will the rep ask?
The record stays in one place. Gap Selling's Buyer Input Data holds the evidence, and the MEDDPICC fields point to it instead of restating it.
Mistakes teams make when they combine them
Filling Metrics with the rep's estimate. A number the buyer never said is a guess in a confirmed-looking field. Gap Selling's standard is that only the buyer's figures count.
Running qualification before discovery. A rep who opens a first call by asking who signs and what the budget is has asked the buyer to trust them before earning it. Diagnose the problem first; the buying-process questions land better once the buyer has agreed there is a gap worth closing.
Two scores for one deal. If the CRM shows a MEDDPICC score and a Gap Selling score that disagree, nobody knows which to forecast on. Pick one as the forecast gate.
Treating Champion as a friendly contact. Gap Selling's test is whether this person confirmed the problem and will carry it inside their company. Someone who takes every call and confirms nothing is a contact, and the deal should be marked that way.
Coaching either one on live deals
Both methods live or die in the deal review. For Gap Selling, the review asks what the buyer said about the problem, what it costs in their numbers and who confirmed it. For MEDDPICC, it walks the letters and asks which hold buyer evidence and which hold the rep's hope. How to coach MEDDPICC on live deals sets out that conversation.
A manager with eight reps and sixty open deals cannot hold either review on every deal every week. Our AI sales experts take the review the manager has no time for, in the team's own method.
For Gap Selling teams the expert is Keenan, built with A Sales Growth Company, the people who wrote the method. The rep talks the deal through with him by voice or video on a call, and Keenan asks what the buyer said, finds the gap in the buyer's numbers, scores the discovery against Gap Selling and names the one thing to do before the next call. For MEDDPICC teams, the rep talks the deal through with Caty the same way, and she works it letter by letter. Typing is there for a rep who cannot talk.
If your team is in the second row of the table, with MEDDPICC in the CRM and Gap Selling in the conversations, talk to us and hear one of your deals read both ways.
FAQ
Is Gap Selling a qualification framework? Gap Selling is a selling method first, and it carries its own qualification. Its Buyer Input Data checks that the buyer has confirmed the problem, quantified the impact, named the stakeholders and agreed a success metric. It does not cover the buying process (paper process, decision steps) as explicitly as MEDDPICC, so a Gap Selling team should add a dated check for those.
Can you use Gap Selling with MEDDPICC? Yes, though A Sales Growth Company argues for qualifying on the buyer's problem first. Gap Selling runs the conversations that produce Metrics, Implicate the Pain and Decision Criteria, and MEDDPICC keeps the buying-process letters (Economic Buyer, Decision Process, Paper Process) in view. Keep one record of the deal and map the other method onto it.
What is the difference between Gap Selling and MEDDIC? Gap Selling tells a rep how to run the conversation: find the buyer's current state, its impact and root cause, and the future state they want. MEDDIC lists six things a qualified deal must contain. A Sales Growth Company has argued that MEDDIC-style criteria are seller-focused and that qualification should be built on the buyer's problem.
Which is better, Gap Selling or MEDDPICC? Neither is better in general because they answer different questions. Gap Selling is the stronger choice when deals stall because the buyer never committed to fixing a problem. MEDDPICC is the stronger check when deals die late in procurement, legal or to an unnamed competitor. Whichever method the team coaches on every deal is the one that shows up in the pipeline.
Does MEDDPICC include root cause? MEDDPICC does not include root cause. None of its eight letters asks for the root cause of the buyer's problem; Implicate the Pain covers why the problem matters. Gap Selling treats root cause as its own piece of evidence the buyer confirms, so a team running both should record it in Buyer Input Data and refer to it from the pain field.
Does MEDDPICC tell a rep what to say on a call? MEDDPICC does not script the call. It tells a rep what has to be true about a deal and leaves the conversation to a selling method. That is why it is often paired with Gap Selling or the ValueSelling Framework®, which give the rep the questions and the structure for discovery.