Key Takeaways & Review
- Every time you talk about yourself, you risk triggering change-resistant, emotionally fraught thoughts and feelings in your customers.
- Selling is a giving profession. Every time you engage with a customer, or send an email, or create something, you have to ask yourself, “What am I giving?” The answer should be “industry information,” or “insight into the market,” or “tips that will make their jobs easier,” or “the solution to a problem they haven’t been able to solve.” It should never be, “More information about myself.”
- The sale is won at the beginning, not the end. The number of questions you ask early in the sale cycle increases your chance of making the deal.
- Banish Open-Ended Answers (i.e. seek clarification until you get concrete specifics)
- Remember, you’re never truly done with discovery. As time goes on, your customer may bring other buyers into the game and when that happens, you’ll have to engage in this process all over again.
- Your goal is not to ask specific questions. It’s to get specific information.
- Know your customers’ technical future state and business future state
- No discovery, no demo.
- Stick to Six Features: The point of your demo is not to reveal all of your product’s features and functions. It’s to reveal how well your product provides the solution to your buyer’s specific problems.
- Nail down their decision criteria and know their buying process.
- Every time you hear an objection, you’ll want to hold it up against your customer’s future state. After you put the value of the desired outcome back in their lap, just shut up and listen.
- Don’t ask for a chance to talk. Ask for a chance to give value. And to do that, you need the right ask with the right offer.
- I never, ever, ever say no for a buyer. I make the buyer say no. Don’t ever walk away until they tell you to go away.
- You have to let your salespeople commit to whatever number they believe is accurate. You cannot, I repeat, cannot tell them to change it or go find more opportunities. Commit is an accuracy game, not a goal game. So if someone tells you that they are committing to a number that is lower than their quota, you have to accept it.
Review:
- The Good: Overall, I found this a compelling and entertaining read despite having read scores of sales books. Keenan’s brash and opinionated voice comes through loud and clear. The editing is solid (limited repetition and a good narrative flow).
- The Bad: The beginning of the book was a little slow and I worried it was going to be a derivative mash-up of SPIN Selling and The Challenger Sale (however, it does shift and cover interesting, additional ground with a fresh perspective.)
PART I KNOW THE GAME Are you ready to learn the secret to the game?
CHAPTER ONE WELCOME TO THE GAME
- You aren’t losing sales because you can’t sell. You’re losing them because you don’t understand how to diagnose your customer problem(s) and how the problem(s) drive the sale.
- When you reach out to get just “15 minutes “of your buyer’s time, it’s not going to happen if your buyer doesn’t have a problem you can solve.
- At the heart of every sale, there’s a gap. It’s a gap between what buyers have now and what they believe they want in the future, between who they are now and who they want to be tomorrow, or even where they are now and where they want to go.
CHAPTER TWO the NINE truth-bombs of selling
- No problem, no sale
- Problems get you to the impact and the impact is where urgency, value, and need live and where the sale takes root.
- In every sale there’s a gap
- The worst thing in the world you can do at the beginning of a sale is to take your buyer’s word for granted or sell to a need.
- Never sell to need. If you only solve the problem your buyer thinks they have instead of the one they really have, you haven’t helped them at all.
- Gap selling is a process of tactfully challenging buyers’ assumptions, exposing (and sometimes confirming) the true size of their problem, then correctly assessing the impact it will have on their lives.
- All sales are about change
- Customers buy because they’ve gotten uncomfortable and have identified something that will ease their discomfort.
- Customers don’t like change
- Sales are emotional
- understanding your customers’ emotional state — and especially what got them there — is key to closing a sale.
- Customers do like change when they feel it’s worth the cost
- Asking “Why?” gets customers to “Yes“
- If you don’t know what will motivate your buyers to change, you’ll rarely get them to accept that the change you offer has enough value.
- Every time you talk about yourself, you risk triggering change-resistant, emotionally fraught thoughts and feelings in your customers.
- The only thing that inches you toward a sale is proving that you understand your customers’ problems and the impact of those problems, that you know why they’re struggling, that you understand why they’re not happy with their current state, that you hold the key to moving them to the future state they desire, and that the change they are facing will be worth the money and effort it takes to get there.
- Sales happen when the future state is a better state
- You can’t sell a future state (where your customer wants to be) unless you have a firm grasp on your customer’s current state (where your customer is now).
- Create a Problem Identification Chart even before you start reaching out to prospects. Write down every problem your product or service can solve. Create a column called “Impact.” Finally, [add a] third column called “Root Cause.”
- No one gives a sh$t about you
- We’re In the Show-Me Economy
- If you’re still trying to “tell “your prospect what you do, what your product does, and why you matter, you’re wasting their time.
- No one gives a sh$t about you, your company, or your product.
- Selling is a giving profession. Every time you engage with a customer, or send an email, or create something, you have to ask yourself, “What am I giving?” The answer should be “industry information,” or “insight into the market,” or “tips that will make their jobs easier,” or “the solution to a problem they haven’t been able to solve.” It should never be, “More information about myself.”
CHAPTER THREE THE CURRENT STATE — WHERE CUSTOMERS ARE
- The current state is made up of five critical
elements
- the literal and physical facts about your customer
- their problems
- the impact of those problems
- the root causes of the problems
- what effect those problems are having on your customers’ emotional state
- Any problem can have any number of potential root causes, each requiring a different solution. Once you know which root cause is the culprit, you’ll know the appropriate solution.
- You want to be the astute, reassuring expert who knows how to solve the problem because you know why the problem exists.
CHAPTER FOUR THE FUTURE STATE — WHERE CUSTOMERS WANT TO GO
- While you’re at it, you also want to understand how your customers will feel once their problems have been addressed.
CHAPTER FIVE RELATIONSHIPS DON’T MATTER (KINDA)
- Ok, people, you’ve heard it your whole career: People buy from people they like. I call bullsh$t. Likeability gets you a handshake, a smile, and maybe a warm and fuzzy feeling. Expertise makes you money.
- Every step you make in the gap-selling process is about building credibility and establishing yourself as a trustworthy expert.
- I’ve always said that the best salespeople could drop out of sales at a moment’s notice and start a consulting company that caters to the field in which they sell.
- Challengers’ frank and assertive style actually seems to strengthen their relationships.
- Be an expert, not a friend.
CHAPTER SIX The Gap Defined
[no key takeaways from this chapter]
PART II • HOW TO PLAY
CHAPTER SEVEN Get Them to Let You Help
- Your number one job when selling is to get the customer, buyer, or prospect to let you help them. All that time you’re spending trying to get your prospects to take a call, take a demo, or take a meeting will be a complete waste if you don’t do it in such a way as to make prospects believe that you have the expertise and credibility to solve their problem.
- You’re not going to be invited to help someone until you pull out all the stops with regards to your empathy, authenticity, expertise, and credibility. You have to convince your customers that you understand their world and their pain. They have to believe that you are there for them, not for yourself. Remember, no one gives a sh$t about you. Concentrate on bringing them value, and even if they don’t like you, they’ll buy from you.
CHAPTER EIGHT Discovery: Know Your Clients Better Than They Know Themselves
- B.A.N.T. is bunk. B.A.N.T. is outdated. It’s
self-centered.
- Budget: Traditional qualifying process says make sure buyers have the money before bothering to tempt them with something they can’t afford.
- Authority: Today, authority is a committee of influencers, champions, mobilizers, and more.
- Need: Gap sellers don’t sell to need, they sell to problems. Gap sellers never take their prospects’ word for granted when it comes to their needs. Ever.
- Timing: Timing will take care of itself.
- The sale is won at the beginning, not the end. The number of questions you ask early in the sale cycle increases your chance of making the deal.
- Now you’re ready to start your discovery.
Throughout it, you’re going to be asking several types of questions:
- Probing: These are open-ended questions that press for specific details (“Tell me a little bit about…” “Help me understand…” “Please describe…” “Walk me through…”
- Process: These are open-ended questions that ask “How [they do what they do with specific steps]?”
- Provoking: These are open-ended questions that gently push customers to consider their current state from a new perspective. Provoking questions aren’t just meant to challenge the buyer, but rather get them to think about their problems in new ways. Some provoking questions you could try: What happens when you …? Has there ever been a time when …?
- Validating: Not open-ended questions! Instead, these simply allow you to repeat information you gather back to your customer to make sure you’ve correctly understood everything they’ve told you. Validation is a common communication strategy promoted by psychologists to strengthen personal relationships. A validating question might be something like, “What I hear you saying is …” (Other validating questions could be, ”Am I understanding you correctly?” or “Did I get this right?”)
- The four-step discovery process
- Discover the Facts
- Discover the Problems:
- Understanding their business backward and forward is what will eventually allow you to show how your expertise in their field, and your experience with other customers, differentiates you from any other salesperson they could turn to for help.
- 99% of the time, it’s your product’s ability to improve upon that process that will reveal the product’s competitive value.
- Banish Open-Ended Answers
- When it comes to problems, there are two types: technical problems and business problems. Technical problems prevent the business from operating efficiently. The thing is, most salespeople focus on solving the technical problems when it’s the business problems that create a customer’s unique buying motivations and lead to the biggest gaps. The technical problem isn’t going to drive the sale; it’s the conversation starter. The business problem is what is going to drive the sale.
- Discover the Impact
- “Tell me how this issue is affecting you.” “Describe the impact it’s having on your department?” “What are the consequences every time this problem occurs?”
- Discover the root cause
- Two other ingredients necessary to a killer
discovery:
- Tone
- Timing – “How would you like this system to work?” “How much time do you wish it would take?”
- Remember, you’re never truly done with discovery. As time goes on, your customer may bring other buyers into the game and when that happens, you’ll have to engage in this process all over again.
- Never assume you know what your buyers are experiencing and what they want to achieve.
- Your goal is not to ask specific questions. It’s to get specific information.
CHAPTER NINE Is The Gap Worth It?
- Drill deep enough so that you know enough about your customer’s organization that you can confidently and credibly offer near-irrefutable advice, insight, and direction. That is the most reliable formula for sales success.
CHAPTER TEN Know Your Customers’ Why
- Think about
your customers’ future state as a three-part entity.
- technical future state
- business future state
- the “core: of the future state (ex: beat the competition; increase the stock price; etc.)
CHAPTER ELEVEN How To Do A Kickass Demo
- There are four elements to a kick ass demo.
- No
discovery, no demo
- A robust demo is wholly contingent on a thorough discovery.
- Remember, a discovery should answer the following questions: 1. Does the prospect have a problem you can fix? 2. Does the prospect agree they have a problem? 3. Does the prospect want to fix the problem? 4. Will the prospect go on a journey with you to fix the problem?
- No ifs: There will never be a reason to say the word “if,” as in, “If you have this problem, then…”
- Stick to Six Features: The point of your demo is not to reveal all of your product’s features and functions. It’s to reveal how well your product provides the solution to your buyer’s specific problems.
- Anchor Your Customer: Throughout your presentation, after every feature demo ask your prospect affirming questions, like this: “Can you see how this feature will improve your churn rate?” Getting your customer to affirm the value of every feature you present anchors your prospects in your solution and its effect on shaping their future state.
- No
discovery, no demo
CHAPTER TWELVE Move Your Deals Through The Pipeline
- Three steps are designed to help you extract all
the information needed to establish predictability
- Nail Down
their Decision Criteria
- Simply ask, “How are you going to decide what’s the best solution for you? What will be the most important factors in helping you make your decision?”
- Confirm that the criteria they value the most and are using to make their decision will actually get them the desired outcome they say they want.
- Customers can completely undermine their future state if they base their decisions on the wrong criteria.
- Your goal here should not be to steer them to where you think you have the best chance of closing the deal, but to make sure they have thought through why they want what they say they want.
- Challenge your buyer starting with the words, “I’m confused. You said…”
- Know the
Buying Process
- “Can you tell me a little about your company’s buying process?”
- This question is literally about knowing all the steps your customers will have to follow before they can decide to buy.
- Focus on the Next Yes
- Every single yes you hear from the customer is a renewed agreement to work with you.
- Your focus wouldn’t be on selling the car but on selling the test drive, because you can’t close without it.
- Close all the small sales that need to happen to make the big sale
- Nail Down
their Decision Criteria
- Salespeople need to consider their ROSE (return on sales effort) when judging where to target their energy and time. That often means learning to say no.
- The balance of power shifts throughout a sale. In the beginning, when you’re first trying to get a prospect’s attention, it’s totally asymmetrical. You have no power and you deserve no respect. It is up to you to earn it. Explain that you can’t send over pricing until you understand the customer’s organization, what problems he is trying to solve, and what he hopes to accomplish.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Troubleshooting
- Jumpstarting a Stalled Deal: Remind the customer of their current state, their desired future state, and the impact they’re suffering by putting off their desired outcomes.
- Overcoming Objections
- Traditionally, salespeople have been taught to overcome objections by asking clarifying questions. You don’t have to get him to clarify the objection. Instead, you ask him to clarify his desired outcome.
- Every time you hear an objection, you’ll want to hold it up against your customer’s future state. Make the buyer defend their objection.
- Don’t let anyone determine the price of what your selling based on the product, service, or widget. That’s not what they are buying! They’re buying the outcome of your product, service, or widget.
PART III Gap Prospecting
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Prospecting: Getting the First “Yes! ”
[no key takeaways from this chapter]
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Smart Prospecting Prep
[no key takeaways from this chapter]
CHAPTER SIXTEEN How to Capture Attention
- Prove that you know something the buyer doesn’t about their industry, their business, their competitor, or the products they use.
- Don’t ask for a chance to talk. Ask for a chance to give value. And to do that, you need the right ask with the right offer. For instance, if you’re asking for 15 minutes to discuss how your prospects’ current recycling program could be costing them 50% more in energy costs, that’s a net positive for the buyer. But if you’re asking for 30 minutes to discuss their business and see if there are some areas where you can help them, that’s a net negative.
- [Send] giving email[s], not a taking email[s].
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Set the Right Cadence
- Cadence isn’t just about the timing of your correspondence, but strategically planning your message and the delivery method.
- Use Every Channel Email, phone, video, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, even FedEx
- My research has revealed that 72% of salespeople who used social media to sell outperformed their peers and exceeded quota 23% more often than those who didn’t.
- Make sure that every communication stays focused around solving the business problems you’ve identified as likely to be having a significant impact on the people you’re trying to reach.
- Each time you connect, however, you’ll want to emphasize a different impact, or provide a new piece of information, or share a relevant bit of research.
- I never, ever, ever say no for a buyer. I make the buyer say no. Don’t ever walk away until they tell you to go away.
PART IV Building a Gap – Selling Team
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Manage the Pipeline
- You gain credibility when you gather all the information about a customer’s current state, future state, gap, intrinsic motivation, and decision-making criteria.
- [The] salespeople [on your team] will tell you what they think, what they intuit, and what they can extrapolate based on past experiences or behavior. Don’t get suckered by that typical sales B.S. — salespeople are really good at telling stories! But when you’re gap selling, all you want are the facts. No stories.
- Once your team knows what you’re expecting from them, they’ll rise to the occasion.
- Keep in mind you aren’t going to run through every opportunity in the pipeline. You want to target the key deals that will most impact your salesperson’s commit, generally the biggest deals nearest to the close.
- The numbers you want to pay attention to are
your salespeople’s:
- Average close rates
- Average deal size
- Average length of sales cycle
- Average number of new deals to the pipeline
- Make sure your salespeople are always listing an updated “next yes.”
- It’s a commitment from the prospect or buyer to do something that will move your salesperson closer to the sale.
- Your salespeople should not only be able to tell you their customer’s next yes, but [also] be able to explain why the customer values the next yes.
CHAPTER NINETEEN Build A Commit Culture
- You have to let your salespeople commit to whatever number they believe is accurate. You cannot, I repeat, cannot tell them to change it or go find more opportunities. Commit is an accuracy game, not a goal game. So if someone tells you that they are committing to a number that is lower than their quota, you have to accept it.
- We’re trusting and verifying, not doubting and interrogating.
CHAPTER TWENTY Hire the Right People
- Normally, your top criteria would probably be
specific industry experience, the number of years they’ve been selling, a
candidate’s network, and a positive sales track record. [Instead, I first look
for the] nine gap-selling traits they embody:
- Curiosity
- critical thinking
- empathy
- problem-solving
- leadership
- creativity
- deliberate learning
- coachability
- business acumen
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE It’s Not About You
- They need your guidance, your feedback, your direction and your inspiration.
CONCLUSION
- Sales isn’t about selling stuff, but about facilitating change.