“Tomas said the rework is a problem. What does it cost him a quarter, in his numbers?”
Keenan · Gap Selling · by voice
Checked against your PIC and BID before it is forecast.No gap, no deal. Keenan’s method, on your live deals.
Gap Selling diagnoses the distance between the buyer’s current state and the future state they want, in their own numbers. Replicate Labs installs the method once, with your Problem Identification Chart and your scorecard. Then Keenan coaches it on every live deal: he checks the problem, quantifies the gap and refuses to forecast on hope.
Current state, future state, and the number between them.
Gap Selling is diagnostic. Before a rep pitches anything they establish where the buyer is, where they want to be, and what the distance costs. The gap is the deal: it is what anchors price, urgency and the decision.
The buyer’s world today, in their own words and numbers. The problems they are running into, the impacts those problems create, and the root causes underneath.
A clear, measurable, time-bound picture of better. Specific outcomes, specific metrics. If the rep cannot describe it in the buyer’s language, the deal has no destination.
The Problem Identification Chart defines the problems, impacts and root causes for your product once, so reps stop inventing them on the call. Deals are diagnosed against it.
Buyer Input Data is the buyer-sourced evidence that a deal is real: confirmed problem, quantified impact, named stakeholders, an agreed success metric.
What compounds if the buyer does nothing. Impact is the cost today; Cost of Inaction is where it goes. Both have to be felt before a deal has urgency.
Discovery is diagnosis. Keenan holds the line on it.
A deal review is a call. Keenan asks what the buyer said about the problem, what it costs them and who confirmed it. A forecast built on how the demo felt does not get past him. Type only when you cannot talk.
- Deal reviews by voice. Bring the stalled deal; leave with the next yes you need from the buyer.
Roleplay against a buyer who will not name the problem. Built from your personas, scored on your scorecard.- The BID check on every deal. Confirmed problem, quantified impact, named economic buyer, agreed success metric.
Courses in Gap Selling. Keenan checks the work.
KeenanDeal review · OrdwayThat is hope, not Buyer Input Data.
One of four in the evidence file. Until Tomas puts a number on the rework, the forecast is your read of the deal.
- Confirmed problemMissing
- Quantified impact, buyer-statedMissing
- Named economic buyerConfirmed
- Agreed success metricMissing
Gap Selling, in short.
The vocabulary as Keenan uses it on a sales floor.
What is Gap Selling?
A diagnostic sales methodology by Keenan. The core idea: no problem named, no impact quantified, no deal. Every deal is built on diagnosing the gap between current state and future state in the buyer’s own numbers. Discovery is the engine. The Problem Identification Chart, Buyer Input Data and Cost of Inaction are the discipline layer that keeps reps from guessing.
What is the PIC?
The Problem Identification Chart. A fixed reference model created once per product or service, defining the most common buyer problems, their impacts and the underlying root causes. The PIC is not a worksheet filled out per deal. Deals are diagnosed against the PIC. Without one, reps invent problems on the fly and discovery drifts.
What is BID?
Buyer Input Data. The buyer-sourced evidence that proves a deal is real: confirmed problems, confirmed impacts, named stakeholders, agreed success metrics, decision criteria spoken by the buyer. Without BID a forecast is a guess. With BID it is an evidence file. Keenan checks for BID on every deal he coaches.
How is Impact different from Cost of Inaction?
Impact is what the problem costs the buyer today: revenue lost, time spent, risk taken. Cost of Inaction is what compounds if they do nothing about it. Both must be felt for a deal to have urgency. If the buyer cannot say why doing nothing is unacceptable, there is no deal.
How is Gap Selling different from MEDDPICC or SPIN?
MEDDPICC is a qualification framework: does this deal hit our standards? SPIN is a question technique. Gap Selling is the diagnostic engine that powers both. If you cannot name the gap, you cannot qualify the deal or ask the right questions in the first place.
Who is Keenan?
Keenan is the author of Gap Selling and the founder of A Sales Growth Company. He is also one of the five coaches on the Replicate Labs harness, built on his methodology, his voice, and the way he runs discovery, calls and pipeline reviews. Gap Prospecting, his outbound discipline, has its own page.
Bring the deal that is stuck. Keenan will diagnose it in front of you.
Your pipeline, your Problem Identification Chart, one live deal. Watch the gap get named and priced in the buyer’s numbers, then decide whether the method belongs on every call your team runs.