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. In fact, 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?

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As a copywriter, one of the most important parts of my job is conducting research. And in fact, when my copy fails, aside from poor targeting or a poor offer, it’s almost always due to poor research.

As copywriters, the information we need may not be as readily available as we want it to be, particularly when we’re working with a new company or product. We have to dig. Or as my friend and top copywriter John Carlton says, “We have to put on our sales detective hats and dig deep.”

Sure, we can go through the product. We can go through the client’s collateral materials. We can conduct competitive research and perhaps even check out competitors’ products.

But the most important and salient research comes from…

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