“The impact is still “a lot of admin”. Go back for the number.”
8 jobs reps bring under messaging & positioningHeld in your own method, on your own scorecardLead with the problem, not the feature.
Buyers do not buy features. Your coach helps you name the problem, quantify what it is costing, and build the case before you pitch anything.
Problem, impact, cause. The three lines, in the buyer’s words, with the soft one flagged.
Specimen data. Every name, date and number in the card is made up to show the shape.
KeenanProblem · Impact · Cause- Problem
“Every wholesale order is keyed twice, into the ERP and the carrier portal.” Tomas, in his words.
- Impact
“A lot of admin.” Not a number. Three people on a Friday is your guess; it is not his.
- Cause
No shared order record between the two systems. Agreed on the call.
Before you position anything: go back for the impact in his number. A cost of inaction he helped build is one he believes.
8 things reps bring under messaging & positioning.
Sharpen messaging and positioning is the use case of getting the buyer's problem, and the cost of that problem, clear before you ever talk about your product. It is heavily used: articulating a prospect's problem and building a Problem-Impact-Cause picture are two of the most common jobs reps bring to a coach. The work matters because positioning that leads with features competes on feature comparison, where the buyer holds all the power. Positioning that leads with a named problem, a quantified impact, and a real root cause competes on the cost of inaction instead, where the deal is yours to lose. Your coach helps you name the problem in the buyer's own terms, separate the impact from the root cause underneath it, put a number on what the problem is costing, and frame value and price so they land with the person who controls the budget. The output is the argument that survives the room you are not in.
01Articulate the prospect's real problemName what is broken in their world, specifically.+
A problem stated as 'they need more efficiency' is not a problem you can sell into. Your coach presses you to name what is specifically broken: which process, for which role, with what visible symptom, pushing from the abstract to the concrete, because a problem the buyer recognises in their own day is a problem they will pay to fix. Get it right and the problem statement is specific enough that the buyer says 'yes, that is exactly it', where a vague one gets 'sure, I suppose'.
02Build a Problem-Impact-Cause pictureThe structure that turns a vague pain into a deal.+
Problem-Impact-Cause is the Gap Selling discovery structure: the problem, the impact it has on the business, and the root cause underneath it. Keenan coaches you through filling all three for a real prospect, and is strict about not letting the impact stay soft or the cause stay unexamined. Treating a symptom as the cause is how deals get solved by the incumbent. Done well, the impact is quantified and the cause is the real one, so your solution lands on the root.
03Quantify the business impactPut a number on the cost of inaction, in the buyer's terms.+
A problem with no number attached competes with every other problem the buyer could spend on. Your coach helps you work out what the problem is costing: hours lost, revenue leaked, customers churned, risk carried, and in which units the buyer's own business would count it, then helps you build the number together with the buyer. The result is a cost of inaction the buyer believes because they helped construct it, large enough to make doing nothing the expensive option.
04Build the ROI and business caseThe argument the economic buyer needs to say yes.+
The champion sells internally with whatever you give them. Your coach helps you build the business case the economic buyer needs: the quantified problem, the cost of inaction, the expected return, framed as a business decision. Build it well and your champion can carry the case into a room you are not in and have it still hold up under a CFO's questions.
05Sharpen the value propositionCut the feature list down to the thing they care about.+
A value proposition that lists ten capabilities communicates none of them. Your coach helps you cut to the one or two things this specific buyer, given their problem, cares about, and express it as an outcome, and will tell you when you are hiding the value inside a feature tour. What you end up with is a value proposition tied directly to the buyer's quantified problem, short enough to land in a sentence.
06Differentiate from the incumbentPosition against "we already have something" without trashing it.+
Attacking the incumbent makes the buyer defend a past decision. Your coach helps you position on the gap the incumbent leaves: the part of the problem it does not solve, the cost the buyer is absorbing without noticing. The frame is the unsolved problem. Done right, the buyer accepts the differentiation because it is about their situation, where a competitor takedown would have been tuned out.
07Frame pricing and the price conversationAnchor on value before the number lands.+
Price discussed before value is just a number to negotiate down. Your coach helps you sequence the conversation so the cost of the problem is established and agreed first, which turns the price into a comparison, then coaches how to introduce the number and how to hold it. Sequence it well and the price lands next to a larger cost of inaction, so the buyer is weighing a trade.
08Build an elevator pitchThe thirty-second version that earns the longer conversation.+
An elevator pitch is not a compressed feature list. Your coach helps you build a thirty-second version that names a problem the listener recognises and hints at a different outcome, designed to earn a question.
What is a Problem-Impact-Cause picture?
It is the core Gap Selling discovery structure: the buyer's problem, the impact that problem has on the business, and the root cause underneath it. Keenan coaches you to fill all three for a real prospect, because positioning built on a quantified problem competes on the cost of inaction.
The coach does not know my product. How can it sharpen my positioning?
It coaches the structure. Good positioning is about naming the buyer's problem and quantifying its cost, which is methodology and needs no product knowledge. You bring what your product does; the coach makes sure it is framed against a problem the buyer will pay to fix.
Can the coach help me quantify impact when I do not have the buyer's numbers?
Yes. You get coached to build the number with the buyer in discovery. A cost of inaction the buyer helped construct is one they believe; one you assert is one they discount.
Does this work for a methodology other than Gap Selling?
The problem-first principle is methodology-agnostic and Keenan will work it alongside MEDDPICC, MEDDIC, or SPIN if you ask. For positioning anchored specifically in the ValueSelling Framework®, Val is the Enterprise coach delivered with the ValueSelling team.
Is this about marketing messaging or sales conversations?
Sales conversations. This use case is about how an individual rep frames the problem, the impact, and the value in a live deal. Campaign and website copy are a different job.
Bring the pitch that is not landing. Your coach rebuilds it from the problem.
Bring us a live deal and we will rebuild the message from its problem. Set up a working session to put your positioning and your buyers behind it.
