Gap Marketing Secrets

The third:  Created GAPs.  Created GAPs are GAPs you have to create, because none existed in the prospect’s mind.  This usually requires a very high level of skill and a master’s ability to create urgency.  You must recognize the fact that you need to create a GAP, means that you need a different psychological proposition for this group.  The best to illustrate this point is with a brief story that one of our patients shared with us: 

I took my wife’s 2002 Impala to the mechanic to fix a brake line leak, the mechanic took everything apart, measured the brake drum and said that it was undersized, and dangerous.   ---- The GAP was created and the patient was ready to buy a new brake drum!

As we recall, there are two key points related to the GAP Model.  First, GAP is defined as: “A wide difference between an expectation level and un experience level of a person.”

Second and most important is the following:  When the internal GAP of a prospect reaches a point where his current conditions are absolutely unacceptable, then there will be a sale or an action to re-establish equilibrium.  The prospect comes to this point by comparing his situation to the size of the GAP you created in his mind.  The emotional GAP must also be so unacceptable that immediate action is required to bring back a condition of equilibrium.

How do you know when you have created a large enough gap to affect a positive reaction?  The psychological model built into every human’s brain is that all people make decisions by a comparison process.  People automatically compare their current state or condition to every new possibility being presented.

We were all brought up and trained to make comparisons as children.  Our parents had rules and limits for us as their basis for establishing discipline.  We understood the consequences for every action that we were supposed to avoid.  So, before breaking the rule, we remembered what the consequences were, and then decided whether we preferred to do what we wanted or avoid facing the consequences, and not do it.  This was a comparison process, and we compared the pleasure of our forbidden action against the pain of the consequence.

We still make decisions using the same process today.  As adults, we are required to file income taxes by April 15th each year.  We are all aware of the dire consequences…steep penalties, fines, exorbitant interest rates, plus the possibility of an audit.  After processing the comparison in your mind, you decide to file on time or get an extension.  The IRS is an excellent example of a large GAP, where the disequilibria is huge.

The steep consequence of most state medicals for driving under the influence of liquor is a good example of a large GAP and severe disequilibria.  Many states provide for an automatic loss of license of 30 days and a fine on your first offense.  The third offense in many sates is automatic incarceration with no right of appeal for the offender.

These steep GAPs in what we want for our lives and what we don’t want is so large that these rules act as powerful motivating forces.  You should not stop trying to create a GAP for your product or service until you have GAPs as powerful as the two examples above.

Sometimes you make decisions where the chance of the GAP really happening is remote…but you decide to do it anyway because the risk of the end result is too large.  As an example, look at your home.  If your home is paid off, it is very unlikely that you would try to save $500 a year and not insure your home against fire or damage.  No prudent person would risk his or her $250,000 to $900,000 asset for a mere $500 insurance policy. 

We face large GAP situations every day and are not even conscious of all the GAP decisions we make.  All your marketing and sales copy should facilitate a prospect’s comparative process and when done, leave the prospect with an unacceptable GAP.