Plain-language answer
Where do internal buying beliefs conflict with customer language and behavior?
The belief-gap method keeps internal belief, customer language, and observed behavior as separate evidence classes.
Short answer
Use evidence that can survive a second reader.
- No customer evidence produces Unknown.
- Customer language without behavior produces Stated only.
- Recorded contradiction produces Contradicted.
- Customer language plus observed behavior produces Observed.
Worked example
See the decision in a fictional case.
- Internal Belief
- Buyers choose us for strategic creativity
- Customer Language
- You made the decision legible enough for the board to approve
- Cohort
- Recent retained clients
- Date
- 2026-07-12
- Observed Behavior
- Shared the decision artifact in the board pack
- Sales Language
- Distinctive strategy
Use Customer TruthInspect the full methodTake it into the matching Petrichor work
What this answer cannot establish
- The method does not infer population-wide belief from a small interview sample.