One simple thing sets top revenue teams apart from other teams.
They get buyers to answer this question: “What is holding you back from reaching your goals?”
The focus on gap discovery leads to top performance for at least four reasons.
The first is that it anchors buyer and customer conversations on problem solving and helps resist the temptation to product pitch.
When your goal is to ensure that your customers reach their goals, your product becomes a means, not an end. Your role is to provide expertise.
The second is that the urgency in any buyer or customer conversation comes not from their goal or initiative, but the thing “holding them back” from goal achievement.
If a buyer or customers goes on and on about what is holding them back, it probably means they feel real pain. If not, it will probably be difficult to find urgency in solving their problem.
Top sales and customer success teams use gap questions to educate buyers on how they can resolve those things holding them back to create a better future.
The third reason that good gap discovery leads to higher revenue performance is because it reduces the temptation to lead with an ROI case.
The temptation to sell on ROI is understandable. Upwards of 60% of sales end with a “no” decision because buyers don’t see enough value in making a change.
The status quo is a formidable obstacle.
But, here’s the thing, research by Gong and Corporate Visions shows selling on ROI actually hurts your chances of winning a deal by as much as 27%.
Without solving first for “what’s holding you back,” the ROI case is just another type of “pitch.”
Finally, good gap discovery makes it a lot easier to connect sales, account management, and customer success conversations to create a connected buyer and customer journey.
Gartner recently showed that companies with lifecycle personalization grow 2x faster than those without it.
Ending every buyer or customer conversation with a short summary of your understanding of “what is holding them back” is the simplest way to connect and personalize a buyer or customer conversation across all revenue teams.
The best gap discovery is specific to your company. You ask targeted questions that position your capabilities as the key to unlocking a better future.
But, the reality is that so few GTM teams do good gap discovery that simply asking the generic question, “what is holding you back from reaching your goals?” will set you apart.
