What is Gap Selling?
Name the current state, the future state, and the gap between them, before the product.
What it means
Gap Selling is a sales method from the book of the same name by Keenan. The idea is that buyers change when the distance between where they are and where they want to be is clear and worth closing. The seller's job is to understand that gap, not to open with the product.
- Current state: how things work today, in concrete terms.
- Future state: how they want it to work, specific enough to tell if they got there.
- The gap: the distance between the two, stated plainly.
- Root cause: why the gap exists, not only the symptom.
- Impact: how big the gap is, in their language.
Gap Selling is a sales method: a framework for how to think and write. It is not a study result, and this page does not attach a win rate or reply rate to it. This site is not affiliated with its authors or with any company that teaches it.
What it means for a sales email
A Gap Selling email names something about how things work for them today, suggests what better would look like, and asks whether that gap is real for them. The product is not the opener. If you mention a size for the gap, it should be a figure they already gave you, not a number you made up.
On a cold note, earn a reply before you ask for time on their calendar.
Writing practice and method guidance, not a study result.
Try it on your own draft
Free tools that check this in your own writing. Nothing you type is stored.
Related terms
See where all of our guidance comes from. No statistic on this page is invented.