A Gap Selling deal review is a manager and a rep testing one live deal against the method: is the buyer's problem confirmed, is the impact in their numbers, is the future state agreed, and is the gap big enough to close this quarter. A frontline manager runs it with one rep, in about 30 minutes per deal, every week for deals in the current quarter. It ends with one "next yes" the rep will ask the buyer for.
- 01The rep tells the deal out loudCRM closed for the first five minutes
- 02Work through the eight questions
- 03Score each elementGreen, Yellow or Red against the bar
- 04Ask why they have not bought yet
- 05Agree the next yes
- 06Debrief after the buyer conversation
This is the deal-review job in Gap Selling's vocabulary. The sales methodology guide covers how Gap Selling compares with other methods, and the deal coaching guide covers deal coaching across methods. If the terms are new, start with What is Gap Selling?.
What a Gap Selling deal review checks
Jim Keenan, who wrote Gap Selling and founded A Sales Growth Company, says most deal reviews fail because managers ask "lame questions" (is it going to close, are you talking to the decision maker) and reps answer with happy ears (A Sales Growth Company). His fix is eight questions, asked in every review:
- What problem is the buyer trying to solve?
- What is the impact of that problem on the business, quantified?
- What happens if they do not buy or solve it?
- What are they trying to accomplish (the future state)?
- How are they doing it today?
- What are the decision criteria?
- What is the decision process?
- What is the next yes?
The evidence for each answer is Buyer Input Data (BID): things the buyer said or did. Anything the rep believes that the buyer never said stays out of it. Our Gap Selling page puts the core check in four lines: confirmed problem, quantified impact, named stakeholders, an agreed success metric.
The scoring bar
A Sales Growth Company recommends a written Green, Yellow and Red definition for each dimension of the deal, so two managers looking at the same deal land on the same score (A Sales Growth Company). Even with a written scorecard, trained experts in our call-scoring research with PeerLab disagreed on 18% of scores (field guide), so write the bar down and check it in calibration.
A starting bar, to adapt to your own Problem Identification Chart (PIC):
| Element | Green | Yellow | Red |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem | Buyer named it in their words | Rep's description, buyer nodded | Assumed from the inbound form |
| Impact | Buyer gave a number and a time period | Rep estimated it | Unknown |
| Cost of Inaction | Buyer said what happens if nothing changes | Implied | Not asked |
| Future state | Measurable and dated, in buyer's words | Described, no measure or date | Not asked |
| Current state | Rep can describe how they do it today, step by step | Partial | Unknown |
| Decision criteria | Buyer listed them | Rep inferred them | Unknown |
| Decision process | Steps, people and dates from the buyer | Some steps known | Unknown |
| Next yes | A specific buyer commitment, dated | A vague next step | None |
The procedure: seven steps
1. Pick the deal
Choose a deal forecast for this quarter, or one that has not moved in two weeks. A Sales Growth Company's framework reviews current-quarter deals weekly (A Sales Growth Company). Good looks like: a deal the rep agrees is worth the half hour.
2. Let the rep tell the deal out loud
The review is a call. Say: "Tell me the buyer's problem the way they would tell it to their boss." Keep the CRM closed for the first five minutes. Good looks like: the rep quoting the buyer, and you asking only "who said that?"
3. Work through the eight questions
Ask each question in order. For every answer, ask where it came from. Good looks like: a quote, a number or a named person behind each answer, or a plain "I don't know yet."
4. Score each element against the bar
Mark Green, Yellow or Red. No partial credit for a confident rep. Good looks like: both of you agreeing on the color, with the reason written next to it.
5. Ask why they have not bought yet
A Sales Growth Company's framework includes "why they haven't purchased" as its own evaluation point (A Sales Growth Company). The answer is usually the reddest element. Good looks like: one element named as the thing holding the deal, with the rep agreeing.
6. Agree the next yes
Jim Keenan calls the next yes "the sale within the sale": the commitment from the buyer that moves the deal closer (A Sales Growth Company). Tie it to the red element. Say: "What will you ask them for, and what would count as a yes?" Good looks like: one ask of one named person, with a date.
7. Debrief after the buyer conversation
Within a day of the call, ask what the buyer said, word for word. Rescore the element only on the buyer's words, and move the forecast if the deal changed. Good looks like: a color changed or not, with a quote, and the next red element already visible.
Worked example
This example is illustrative. A rep brings a $90,000 deal with a regional insurer for claims workflow software. CRM stage: commit for this quarter.
Step 2: the rep says the head of claims "is desperate to fix turnaround times" and "loved the demo."
Step 3 and 4, the scoring:
| Element | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Problem | Green | Head of claims: "Our turnaround on property claims is twice the industry norm" |
| Impact | Yellow | Rep calculated adjuster hours saved; buyer gave no number |
| Cost of Inaction | Red | Not asked |
| Future state | Yellow | "Faster claims," no target or date |
| Current state | Green | Rep can describe the paper handoffs between two teams |
| Decision criteria | Yellow | Inferred from the RFP template |
| Decision process | Red | "They'll decide by month end" |
| Next yes | Red | "Sending a proposal" |
Step 5: why have they not bought? The rep cannot say who signs. The impact is the rep's number, so a CFO has nothing to approve against.
Step 6: the next yes. The rep will ask the head of claims: "What does a slow property claim cost you, in complaints or in renewals, and who else needs to see that number?" A yes is a figure from the buyer and a meeting with whoever owns the budget.
Step 7: the debrief. The head of claims says late claims drove 40 formal complaints last quarter and the COO approves anything over $50,000. Impact goes Green. Decision process goes Yellow. The deal comes out of commit, because the COO has not been met, and the next review starts with that meeting.
Where it goes wrong
The rep's number counts as impact. A rep's calculation can look exact on the page and it is still Yellow until the buyer says it.
The review becomes a status update. "Proposal sent, waiting to hear" is a status. The eight questions are about the buyer, so a review that never asks them is a pipeline readout.
Eight things to fix. The rep leaves with every Red element as homework and moves none. One next yes per deal per week moves more.
No debrief. The next review picks a different deal and the score never changes. The rep learns the review is a ritual.
More reviews from a weaker reviewer. In a study of 1,246 pharmaceutical sales reps, managers' coaching skill predicted goal attainment, and frequent coaching from less skilled managers was linked to worse results (Dahling et al. 2016, traced in our kickoff field study). Frequency only helps when the reviewer is good, so train managers on the bar before adding reviews.
Running the review on every deal
A manager with eight reps and 60 open deals can run this review on perhaps ten deals a week. The rest get forecast on the rep's confidence.
Keenan, our AI sales expert built on Gap Selling with A Sales Growth Company, works any deal the rep brings. The rep talks the deal through by voice or video on a call; Keenan asks what the buyer said, checks each answer for the buyer's own words, and names the one gap to close before the next call. After the buyer call, the rep comes back and talks Keenan through what the buyer said. Typing is there for when the rep cannot talk. Managers see through Bryce, the manager coach, which deals carry buyer evidence and which need attention this week. For staging deals by the gap, see how to forecast with Gap Selling.
To run the review on a deal of yours, bring it to Keenan on a call.
FAQ
What questions should a manager ask in a Gap Selling deal review?
A manager should ask Jim Keenan's eight Gap Selling questions, which run from the buyer's problem to the next yes. The eight are: what problem the buyer is solving, its quantified impact, what happens if they do nothing, the future state, how they do it today, the decision criteria, the decision process and the next yes. For every answer, ask where it came from. Only answers the buyer gave count as Buyer Input Data.
How long should a Gap Selling deal review take?
A Gap Selling deal review takes about 30 minutes for one deal: five for the rep to tell the deal, fifteen for the eight questions and scoring, and ten to agree the next yes. The debrief after the buyer call takes five to ten minutes. Deals in the current quarter should be reviewed weekly.
What is the next yes in Gap Selling?
The next yes is the specific commitment the rep needs from the buyer to move the deal forward, which Jim Keenan calls the sale within the sale. It could be a meeting with the CFO, access to data or agreement to a proof of concept. A deal with no next yes is a deal the rep is waiting on.
How do you know if a deal is qualified in Gap Selling?
A deal is qualified in Gap Selling when the buyer has confirmed the problem, quantified its impact in their own numbers, described a future state they want and agreed the gap is worth closing. If any of those came from the rep and the buyer never said them, the deal is not qualified yet.
How is a Gap Selling deal review different from a MEDDPICC review?
A Gap Selling deal review starts from the buyer's problem and the size of the gap, and treats the buying process as one part of the evidence. A Sales Growth Company describes Gap Selling's qualification as problem-centric and buyer-focused. Our Gap Selling vs MEDDPICC piece covers the two in detail.