In a recent critique for a coaching client, the issue of “gap analysis” arose. Gap Analysis is something I learned in sales, and it was heavily taught by sales trainers like Brian Tracy, such as in his course “The Psychology of Selling.”
Gap Analysis is an immensely powerful selling technique. It’s also an important feature of copywriting. Most people will know a variation of it, which is often called “Problem-Agitate-Solve,” a term coined by top copywriter Dan Kennedy.
I prefer “Gap Analysis” because it drives home the relationship between those three elements. So what is Gap Analysis and how can you apply it to your sales copy?
A gap is the perceived difference between the problem and the potential outcome. That is, you have to describe life with the problem and life without it.
Your product, which is your solution, is the bridge between the two. Showing the benefits enables you to position your product as the bridge over the gap.
Once the gap is established, your words can widen the gap by aggravating the problem, or by pushing away the solution — i.e., making it seem less achievable or reachable.
I know this might sound contradictory, but a great strategy is to start out by making your prospect feel uncomfortable and raise their level of discomfort. You do that by exacerbating their problem or pushing the solution as far away as you can.
Specifically, once you identify the gap, you should widen it as much as you can — in their mind. Your sales copy should make your prospect as uncomfortable as possible and any solution for the problem it solves as unattainable as possible.
Why? The reason is, once you widen the gap, then when you do eventually present your solution, it will become far more compelling, desirable, even mandatory.
You’re turning what was once a desire into a necessity.
Your product becomes like a cool, refreshing oasis in the middle of a scorching desert, as if magically appearing only after walking for miles under the sun’s blistering heat.
Granted, you must first identify your prospect’s problem before showcasing the benefits of your solution. But just defining the problem and presenting the solution is not enough.
You must give your readers a clear, common vision of what relief from the problem will mean to them on a personal level. It’s an essential step in the sales process — the one that fosters desire and increases the need and the urgency to find a solution.
Thus Gap Analysis is a powerful tool that should be included in your copywriting toolbox.
A large part of its power is in it’s simplicity. It boils down to only four steps:
- Introduce the problem.
- Introduce the “other side”.
- Widen the gap.
- Bridge the gap.
Here’s a very simple example.
You qualify the reader by introducing their current situation into the conversation. Relate to the issues presently facing your prospect. You can discuss how bad things are or at least how bad things are as it applies to the problem you are introducing.
Once the problem is introduced, you will want to present the other side. That way, you also introduce the gap. For example, you might say things like:
- “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”
- “What all of us dream of is…”
- “Would you like to know how to…”
Followed by “avoid,” “leapfrog over,” “skip,” “eradicate,” “reduce,” or “solve” [problem], and “achieve,” “enjoy,” or “picture enjoying” [the benefits of solving the problem].
Now that you’ve created the gap, you can work on widening it.
You can make the problem appear bigger by focusing on it, exacerbating it, and making it more real, concrete, and painful. Or you do so by making the solution seem unachievable and describe the frustration of not having access to it.
To push away the solution even further you can remind them of how great it would be if they get benefit, benefit, benefit. You can do that by painting pictures of them enjoying the benefits of solving this problem — or of not having it in the first place.
You also emphasize how urgent it is to solve the problem. Talk about the importance of solving the problem quickly, or the downfalls of not taking action right now. Use vivid descriptions and mental imagery to enlarge the effects of the problem going unsolved.
Then you can move on to the final step.
Now, with perfect timing, you release your solution.
Just like the mounting pressure of a soon-to-erupt volcano that has built up over a period of time, growing, expanding, and festering with no end in sight, your solution comes along to finally relieve the ballooning stress and pent up frustration.
It’s at this point that your solution will be far more in demand. By finally bridging the gap, they can grasp more fully how achievable “the other side” really is, and this increases their desire to buy your solution in order to reach it and relieve that pressure.
It’s applying the law of contrast, really.
If I offer a solution to your problem, you may be apathetic about it, regardless of how fantastic the solution is or how great its benefits are. Why? Because the problem is not as important to you. If it is important, it may not be as urgent.
In other words, even if solving the problem is important to you, you may be shopping around for alternate solutions, or the solution may not be as desirable since solving the problem is not at the top of your mind at the moment.
(For instance, when do you think about seeing your doctor the most? Before a problem happens in order to prevent it? Long after a problem has happened and is now in the back of your mind? Or while the problem is happening and hurts you the most?)
But you will be a lot more excited about the solution if the problem is indeed at the top of your mind at that moment, and if you know how bad the problem really is — or you know how bad things can be if the problem is left unsolved.
Now that’s the power of Gap Analysis.
Also, it also helps you to apply the law of contrast in another way.
Since paying for your solution is a problem in itself (money is security, and nobody wants to lose their hard-earned dollars), then by widening the gap the problem of not owning your product is now a lot larger in comparison to the smaller problem of paying for it.
In other words, by blowing up the problem, you’re also shrinking the problem of making a decision to buy. You’re reducing the price in their minds and its psychological impact.
Of course, you can and should lower price sensitivity by increasing the value of your solution. But by using Gap Analysis and the power of contrast, you make the pain of paying for your solution a lot more bearable in contrast to the pain of not owning it.
The pain of the problem is greater than the pain of paying for the solution.
Ultimately, by now it’s probably quite clear to you how important it is to introduce both sides of the gap during a sales presentation. It’s the only way to provide your readers with a complete picture of how impressive an impact your product will have on their lives.
Remember to use your target market’s most basic yet dominant desires — we all hate problems — as emotional highlights to your descriptions. It’s important to elicit an emotional response in your reader, and “widening the gap” has the potential to do so.
An added benefit is, the whole of this process works to build your relationship with the reader, and by extension the reader’s relationship to the product.
By presenting the gap effectively, you connect with your reader by relating to their predicament as well as their dominant desires, while inflating both at the same time.
So that, when you finally reveal your product, they are not only ready for the solution, but also predisposed to accept it, desire it even more, and eager to buy it.
Obviously, you will want to practice and perfect this technique.
Just remember the four steps outlined. Mind the gap, and it will help if you keep a solid picture of your target market so that you use words, phrases, situations, stories, and “reasons why” that your reader will be able to relate to, appreciate, and be compelled by.
You’ll soon find that “widening the gap” is a natural part of your copywriting repertoire.
