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Glossary

The language of Third Level Selling™, defined the way AI Bob uses it. Each term links to the lesson that teaches it, so you can meet a word here and go deeper whenever you want.

Difference → Preference → Proof

These four are a sequence, not four separate words. Work them in order — never polish a claim before you know which step it is on.

  1. 1Difference — What makes us different?
  2. 2Preference Difference — Why should this particular client care?
  3. 3Preference Proof — Why should the client believe it?
  4. 4Proof Statement — How do we communicate the evidence convincingly?

The method

What Third Level Selling is, and the three levels a provider can operate at.

Third Level Selling
A method for winning, retaining and expanding client relationships by engaging clients at a deeper personal, professional and strategic level. The objective is to move beyond being a qualified vendor to becoming the preferred provider and ultimately a strategic partner.
Taught in:Lesson 1Lesson 12
Vendor
The first level. You are qualified and you compete on capabilities, price and responsiveness. Interchangeable with the other qualified firms on the list.
Taught in:Lesson 1Lesson 3
Preferred Provider
The second level. You have positioned well and the client leans your way, usually on relationship and track record — but the preference is not yet anchored in differences that matter to this specific client.
Taught in:Lesson 1Lesson 12
Strategic Partner
The third level. You are differentiated on the client — their problems, objectives, situation, preferences and decision process — not on yourself. This is where price pressure drops and relationships expand.
Taught in:Lesson 12Lesson 25
Vendor-Centric
A conversation, pitch, proposal or presentation focused primarily on the service provider — who we are, what we do, our experience, capabilities, people and solutions.
Taught in:Lesson 3Lesson 23
Client-Centric
A conversation, pitch, proposal or presentation organized around the client's problems, objectives, opportunities, preferences and resistance. When you talk about yourself, it is to show how something you do supports a specific client need or desired outcome.
Taught in:Lesson 23
Airbags
Important but undifferentiated claims — experience, expertise, capabilities, resources, service, relationships, solutions — that sound the same as every competitor and therefore do little to create client preference.
Taught in:Lesson 3

Value, motivation and resistance

Why a client acts at all — and what pushes back.

Value
The client's perception of whether the benefits of taking action outweigh the resistance of getting there. Value = Motivation − Resistance.
Taught in:Lesson 5
Motivation
The forces causing a client to want to act. Made up of problem motivation and outcome attraction.
Taught in:Lesson 5
Problem Motivation
Problems, dissatisfaction, threats, pressures or consequences that create a reason for the client to change.
Taught in:Lesson 5
Outcome Attraction
Objectives, opportunities, improvements or desired future outcomes that pull the client toward taking action.
Taught in:Lesson 5
Resistance
The forces working against client action: perceived risk, time, effort, disruption and cost. Every solution carries resistance — which is why going back to the solution when a client goes quiet makes things worse.
Taught in:Lesson 5Lesson 10
Value Zone
The space where a client's motivation clearly exceeds their resistance. Work performed inside the Value Zone is worth paying for; work outside it feels like an expense.
Taught in:Lesson 5

Markets and the Decision Funnel

Where the client is in their thinking, and how they narrow the field.

Invisible Market
The portion of the market where the client has not yet committed to acting or to selecting a provider. The client's question is “Why should I change?”
Taught in:Lesson 8
Visible Market
The competitive portion of the market where the client has decided to act and is evaluating providers. The client's question becomes “Why should I choose you?”
Taught in:Lesson 8
Client Decision Funnelalso: Decision Funnel
The process through which clients narrow potential providers from broad consideration to final preference: Search → Screen → Select.
Taught in:Lesson 6Lesson 7Lesson 11Lesson 12
Screen
The second stage: narrowing the field on qualifications, experience, expertise and other criteria. “Who can do it better?”
Taught in:Lesson 6Lesson 11
Select / Preference Stage
The final stage. The remaining competitors are all qualified, so the question turns personal and risk-oriented: “Who is going to take better care of me?” Capabilities no longer differentiate here.
Taught in:Lesson 6Lesson 12
Gaining Access
Earning a first meeting in the Invisible Market by offering a reason to meet that is about the client's business, not about your firm — the First Meeting Value Proposition.
Taught in:Lesson 9

The seven outcomes

The things you either have with a decision maker or you don't.

The Seven Outcomes
The seven things you go after in every important pursuit: personal relationship, professional relationship, project/situation difference, preferences, decision process, Preference Value and a Momentum Recommendation. You either have each one with a decision maker or you don't.
Taught in:Lesson 2Lesson 24
Personal Relationship
Understanding and connecting with the individual beyond the immediate transaction — personal interests, experiences, motivations and priorities, where appropriate.
Taught in:Lesson 14Lesson 15Lesson 16
Professional Relationship
Understanding the individual's professional responsibilities, objectives, pressures, risks, priorities and measures of success.
Taught in:Lesson 17Lesson 18Lesson 19
Project/Situation Difference
Something unique or important about this client's particular project, business situation, market conditions or circumstances that should change how you approach the work.
Taught in:Lesson 20
Preference
What a client personally or professionally values in how the work is performed or how the relationship operates — usually shaped by past experience, current concerns, desired outcomes and competitive alternatives.
Taught in:Lesson 21
Decision Process
How the client will actually make the decision: decision makers, influencers, criteria, stages, timing and process.
Taught in:Lesson 22
Client Profile
A structured way to record and assess how deeply you understand a client across the seven outcomes, and where more discovery or relationship development is needed. It is the working file for a live pursuit, not a one-time exercise.
Taught in:Lesson 24
Momentum Recommendation
A specific recommended next action, matched to the client's motivation and decision stage, that advances the relationship or the decision. It replaces traditional closing techniques with a logical next step. When a client goes silent, the Momentum Recommendation returns to the original problem, never to the solution.
Taught in:Lesson 10

Difference, preference and proof

The hierarchy that turns a claim into a reason to choose you.

Difference
Something meaningfully different about your firm, approach, people, resources, process or solution compared with the available alternatives. A difference on its own does not create preference.
Taught in:Lesson 4
Preference Difference
A difference that matters to this particular client — because it improves an important outcome, solves a problem, captures an opportunity, or reduces resistance.
Taught in:Lesson 4
Preference Proof
Credible evidence that a claimed Preference Difference is real and can reasonably be expected to produce the promised client benefit.
Taught in:Lesson 4
Proof Statement
A concise combination of story + benchmark + testimonial that substantiates a Preference Difference and gives the client a reason to believe it.
Taught in:Lesson 4
Story
A relevant example of how you created a similar result or handled a similar situation for another client.
Taught in:Lesson 4
Benchmark
Objective evidence — results, metrics, comparisons, experience, data or other facts — that supports a claim. Demonstrated market dominance — a rank, a share, the largest portfolio, more completed work than any competitor — is among the strongest benchmarks: it answers "Why should I believe you?" by reducing the client's perceived risk.
Taught in:Lesson 4
Testimonial
Third-party validation from a client or other credible source supporting the claimed difference or result.
Taught in:Lesson 4
Preference Value
Differences that are better, important to this client, and provable against the competition. Preference Value makes clients prefer you more, choose you more, and potentially pay you more.
Taught in:Lesson 4Lesson 21
The Three Questionsalso: Three Preference Questions
How are you different? Why is that important to me? Why should I believe you? The three client questions that move a claim from Difference to Preference to Proof.
Taught in:Lesson 4
Preference Value Propositionalso: Positioning Statement
The complete Difference → Preference → Proof statement, said out loud: the client's problem or objective first, the difference second, the proof third. Keep them in a library and bring out the one that answers the concern this client raised — risk, effort, speed, disruption.
Taught in:Lesson 4Lesson 23

Conversations and questions

How you talk to a client so the real problem surfaces.

Strategic Conversation
A conversation focused on the client's business — problems, objectives, opportunities, risks, priorities and future — not simply the immediate service requirement.
Taught in:Lesson 17Lesson 18
Tactical Conversation
A conversation focused on the immediate assignment: scope, specifications, deliverables, process or solution. Necessary, but rarely enough to create a Third Level relationship.
Taught in:Lesson 17
CID — Cause, Impact, Doing/Consideringalso: CID
A questioning framework for going deeper on a client issue: What is causing it? What impact is it having? What are you doing, or considering doing, about it?
Taught in:Lesson 17Lesson 18
Give-and-Take Question
A question that offers something first — an observation, a pattern you're seeing in the market — before asking, so the client gets value from answering.
Taught in:Lesson 17
Hang Out in the Problem
Staying in the client's problem long enough to understand and build motivation, instead of jumping to a solution. Premature solutions are the most common Third Level mistake.
Taught in:Lesson 5Lesson 17
Premature Solution
Offering a recommendation before the client's motivation exceeds their resistance. It moves the conversation into risk, cost and effort — and into resistance mode.
Taught in:Lesson 5Lesson 10

Practice and coaching

How the behaviour actually changes.

Deliberate Practice
Purposeful practice of specific Third Level behaviours with feedback and coaching, rather than gaining experience by repetition alone.
Taught in:Lesson 26
Coaching
Helping someone improve their own Third Level response rather than supplying the answer. The structure: here's what I like best, and here's how I think you could make it better.
Taught in:Lesson 26
Third Level Attitude
The disposition the method depends on: enlightened self-interest — you win by helping the client win. Technique without the attitude backfires.
Taught in:Lesson 26

A term missing? Ask AI Bob in Work With AI Bob — this list grows as the program does.