Gap Selling: Getting the Customer to Yes: How Problem-Centric Selling Increases Sales by Changing Everything You Know About Relationships, Overcoming Objections, Closing and Price

Wow. Just Wow. How many sales books have I read in my 30 years of selling? More than I can count. How many would I recommend to the delegates of my training courses at SerialTrainer7.com? Not many. Most are recycled BS written by people who either cannot sell or have never sold. This book however is something else. It is not just different it is relevant and I cannot recommend it enough.The book focusses on the gap between where a client currently sits and where they want to be. Keenan calls these two places the current and future states, a sales persons value to that client sits in the gap between these two states, hence gap selling. The book is divided up into four key sections with sub sections laid out. There are some exceptional analogies used to help bring points to life and makes the content even more relevant. Each section will challenge you, and in some cases may even cause you to question what you have been taught and what you have found to work. It turns common sales thinking on its head and givers it a damn good shake. An brilliant example is in chapter 5. Relationships Don't Matter (Kinda). This section really resonated with me and just made perfect sense. The book also contains some brilliant tools that sales people can use to clarify client problems, the Problem Identification Chart is one example. Simple and easy, and yet can deliver great results by keeping a salespersons mind focussed on what is important.If you work in sales, this book is going to change the way you sell and make you so much better, even those sales people who believe they have nothing new to learn can really benefit. So click on the add to basket button and look forward to one of the best sales books to be written in a long time.

I do like the book. In particular the nine truth bombs of selling are a very good starting point. They summarise the reality. I do like the fact that relationships really don't matter and that change is a difficult concept to accept. If you like this book you should look at Solution Selling the STRONGMAN process which adds another dimension. Unlike SPIN or The Challenger sale Gap Selling and STRONGMAN provide genuine guidance and direction. Importantly, there is a focus on the truth and not perception or "hopium" the drug of perception and want to believe which so many sales people and leaders thrive on and then measure with appointments, demonstrations and dare I say it pipeline.

When it comes to a person’s second book I’m always interested which way will somebody go? Will they take a “bucket to the well” from where they got their first book and do a first book part 2? As many people pressurised me to do and something Keenan could have done. No, he has decided to come up with his own sales methodology. Now sales methodologies have been around for years, looking at Google there are at least 10 in circulation today. So why did Keenan go down a path already well trodden with the danger he will create, yet another “me to” process?In “Gap Selling” Keenan brings the sales methodology up to the modern day, using modern tool and techniques. Putting it another way, it’s a 21st century methodology and not a 20th century methodology. The book is fast paced and if you follow any of his videos or blogs on social media, it’s written in his “take no prisoners” approach.It’s a modern day approach, for a modern day buyer.One world of warning, if you are a lazy salesperson, this book isn’t for you. Keenan is proud of us sales people and he expects us to perform at the highest levels of professionalism, in the office, in front of customers and how we forecast. If you are a Sales Manager buy this book for your team, if you are a sales executive, buy the book for yourself!

As a sales professional, I follow Keenan on LinkedIn and his advice/tips are always on the mark. The best bit which I always argue with my manager is that prospects don’t give a s#%^ about you.This book is a great explanation on this but also how you can nail your deals by focusing on the discovery and the buyers current and future states.Highly recommend and good luck to all using this in their sales processes!

#GapSelling by Keenan . Is one of my favourite reads. I took last week off work on annual leave and I couldn't stop reading this book. It's a quick and easy read but is packed with so much to take away that can instantly be implemented in your day to day working to make you an exceptional server to your clients. This book has supported the way I already thought about my clients and allowed me to build on my skills to serve them properly. With their problems and solutions for solving them at the heart of everything I do. This book will most definitely be a staple that I I return to time and time again throughout my career. I loved it that much there is now a copy on the way from Amazon for in the sales book library at work. A must read for any sales professional.