Liking Gap Reset

The Liking Gap is what psychologists refer to as the difference between your perception of how much someone likes you, and the reality.

Would you believe it, experiments find that in the workplace, we tend to under-estimate this.

In other words, people often 'like' us more than we think.

From a selling viewpoint, we can easily go overboard towards the extremes here.

"They love it!!" :: "We're nowhere ¡"

I use the upside-down exclamation mark there as a wail of despair. Like a long, lingering teardrop.

The good news though, is that the winning seller never dies wondering.

We can test too.

Set up actions. Ask for things. Move the chess pieces.

I wonder aloud whether assessing any Liking Gap on a bid would help with deal management.

We might even place this in the context of that most robust of concepts; fit.

Imagine the good ol' 2x2.

A matrix with the axes being Fit & Like.

Fit for how we feel the match between what they want and what we offer.

Like for how we sense they feel towards us and our proposal.

Where we plot in the Hi-Hi quadrant, we could well be onto something.

Where any of the other three featuring a Lo come into play, we need work. Or strong qualification.

This reminds me of an oft-used grid of mine in political mapping. The ♡/$ matrix.

Plotting the love for us of each buyer-side personality against how much clout they hold in terms of authorising spend.

The added element with the Liking Gap idea, is that we try and connect a decent, undeniable, success-ensuring Fit with their emotional attachment to us.

The painful truth may well be, that if their Like for us is in the Lo half, no amount of data 'proving' our case may be enough to get them over our line.