A gap list is only a plan when each gap has a number beside it. This guide compares the three ways to value a missing product, account or lane, at list price, at the customer's own rate, and against an external wallet, with the cases each fits, the bias each carries, and the rule of stating the basis on every list.
A gap without a value is a product name. Sixty gaps without values are a list nobody reads. The three methods below turn a gap into a figure, and the one rule that matters more than the choice is that the list says which method produced it.
Gap value = list price of the missing product × the customer's expected quantity
Use it for new products with no purchase history anywhere, and for upper-bound sizing in a plan.
Bias: overstates, because almost nobody pays list. A list valued this way ranks correctly but sums to more than will close.
Gap value = what the customer spends per product it already buys × the number of missing products
Or, more precisely, the customer's spend on products of the same type it does buy, applied to the missing ones.
Use it for cross-sell and range gaps: a store that stocks four SKUs, a client that holds two practices, an account that owns one of three modules.
Bias: understates for customers who buy little today and could buy much more; overstates for a customer whose one product is unusually large. It is the most credible number in front of a salesperson, because it is what that customer has actually paid.
Gap value = wallet estimate − what you hold
Use it for share of wallet, where the total is outside your systems: institutional clients against a benchmark, operators against rig activity, shippers against tendered volume.
Bias: depends entirely on the estimate. The estimate's basis has to be on the row, and where none is reliable, report coverage, which needs no estimate, rather than share.
| Situation | Method |
|---|---|
| New product, no history | List |
| Cross-sell to an existing customer | Own rate |
| Range gap in a store | Own rate, by SKU type |
| Share of a client's total spend | Wallet |
| New account, no history | Band average, labelled |
One account, two missing products, three methods.
| Method | Analytics gap | Automation gap | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| List | $30,000 | $36,000 | $66,000 |
| Own rate, from Core at $48,000 | $24,000 | $28,800 | $52,800 |
| Wallet, estimate $140,000 total, $48,000 held | $92,000 |
Three different numbers, each right for its purpose. The cross-sell list should show $52,800. The account plan can carry $92,000 with the wallet's basis beside it. Nobody should see $66,000 and $92,000 on the same page without the labels.
Every valued gap carries its basis: "at the customer's rate per product held", "at list", "against Coalition wallet estimate, Q2". A list with mixed or unstated bases cannot be ranked, and a ranked list that cannot be reconstructed is discarded the first time a salesperson disagrees with a line.
Probability baked in. A gap "worth $40,000 at 30 percent" is $12,000 or $40,000 depending on who reads it. Keep probability out of the list.
Methods mixed on one list. Wallet-based gaps for the top accounts and own-rate gaps for the rest, ranked together. The top accounts win the ranking by method, not by opportunity.
Own rate from one product. A customer whose only product is unusually large produces inflated gaps. Use the type-matched rate, or cap at the band average.
Basis lost in the export. The value survives into a slide; the basis does not. Carry it as a column.
The SaaS whitespace, range gap and share of wallet guides each use one method and say which. Covirage shows the basis on every gap it lists. The glossary entry on whitespace has the short version.
The customer's own rate, for cross-sell, because it is what a similar sale to that customer has actually closed for. List price overstates; wallet estimates depend on the estimate. Accuracy matters less than consistency: one method per list, stated.
On the list, no. A gap value is the size of the opportunity; probability belongs to the pipeline once the opportunity is worked. Mixing the two produces a number nobody can reconstruct.
Use the band average: what customers of that type and size spend on the product. Label it as such. A new account's gaps are prospects, not targets.