Mastering the Complex Sale: How to Compete and Win When the Stakes are High!

by Jeff Thull

Praise for Mastering the Complex Sale "Jeff Thull's process plays a key role in helping companies and their customers cross the chasm with disruptive innovations and succeed with game-changing initiatives."
―Geoffrey A. Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm and Dealing with Darwin "This is the first book that lays out a solid method for selling cross-company, cross-border, even cross-culturally where you have multiple decision makers with multiple agendas. This is far more than a 'selling process'―it is a survival guide―a truly outstanding approach to bringing all the pieces of the puzzle together."
―Ed Daniels, EVP, Shell Global Solutions Downstream, President, CRI/Criterion, Inc. " Mastering the Complex Sale brilliantly sets up value from the customer's perspective. A must-read for all those who are managing multinational business teams in a complex and highly competitive environment."
―Samik Mukherjee, Vice President, Onshore Business, Technip "Customers need to know the value they will receive and how they will receive it. Thull's insights into the complex sale and how to clarify and quantify this value are remarkable― Mastering the Complex Sale will be required reading for years to come!"
―Lee Tschanz, Vice President, North American Sales, Rockwell Automation "Jeff Thull is winning the war against commoditization. In his world, value trumps price and commoditization isn't a given, it's a choice. This is a proven alternative to the price-driven sale. We've spoken to his clients. This stuff really works, folks."
―Dave Stein, CEO and Founder, ES Research Group, Inc. "Our business depends on delivering breakthrough thinking to our executive clients. Jeff Thull has significantly redefined sales and marketing strategies that clearly connect to our global audience. Read it, act on it, and take your results to exceptional levels."
―Sven Kroneberg, President, Seminarium Internacional "Jeff's main thesis―that professional customer guidance is the key to success―rings true in every global market today. Mastering the Complex Sale is the essential read for any organization looking to transform their business for long-term, value-driven growth."
―Jon T. Lindekugel, President, 3M Health Information Systems, Inc. "Jeff Thull has re-engineered the conventional sales process to create predictable and profitable growth in today's competitive marketplace. It's no longer about selling; it's about guiding quality decisions and creating collaborative value. This is one of those rare books that will make a difference."
―Carol Pudnos, Executive director, Healthcare Industry, Dow Corning Corporation

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Entrepreneurship, Audiobook, How To

304 pages, Hardcover

First published May 2, 2003

Reviews

[Kyle Fenner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for a high level overview. Thull‘s principles are valuable to explore but this book drones on after the first several paragraphs. It’s clearly used to drive sales to his organization, but a good book nonetheless.

[Mariate Pérez Luz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un magnífico manual para entender cómo funcionan las ventas de productos o servicios de alto valor en el mundo empresarial actual.
Ofrece un marco paso a paso que se puede aplicar a cualquier empresa que venda productos o servicios complejos.
Must Read para los profesionales de marketing, ventas, consultoría y coaching.

[Cole Schoolland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't let the retro cover deceive you. This is an excellent sales book for the modern environment.

[Nguyen Duy Pham · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there are a lot to chew here, the truth is, this book still got infected with the same business self-help book syndrome: Taking way too long to get into the meat of the problem.

I implore you google for the "Executive Summary" of this book for a more succinct and productive reading. The ideas are pretty good and applicable, especially phase #3 - Design the Complex Solution - of the 'Four Phases of the Prime Process".

[Hanssens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting but outdated and quite focussed/biassed on his own theoratical fundamentals. Altough this might be an interesting approach, it is for sure not the one size fits all solution that is applicable for every commercial flow that is not concerning a price product. Is staying quite on the surface as well

[Grace Hsia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good; echoes pieces of the Startup Owner's Manual. Offers interesting perspectives and strategies to improving the sales process. Good examples. (I.e. How doctors go about diagnosing a problem vs. the usual sales pitch.)

[Rob Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Provided some insight, but was often rather vague and still pretty rooted in the traditional sales world. Could be useful for people who are really looking to specialize in sales, but for those of us who have to do sales as a part of a larger project, it wasn't as helpful as it could be.

[Kate Gold · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am barely going to acknowledge this book because I had to read it for work and I really only skimmed it as fast as possible just to get through it. https://katieboe.wordpress.com/2019/1...

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly repetitive and dry. Figure 9.1 on value leakage is the highlight of the book and likely should have been at the beginning. The book seemed focus on selling an approach while also cautioning about teying to just plug in a process.

[Cindy Messerly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like this book does a great job at showing how value differentiation can increase your likely hood to make the sale.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

some good ideas

[Jimmy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Looks like there is nothing new. Very unsystematic.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for businesses looking to grow, especially if things have been a bit stagnant for you lately. It forces you to think differently about how you approach your clients. It’s unlike other sales books in that it talks about the entire organization’s role in the “sale”. But instead of focusing on the transaction itself, it looks at the entire lifecycle of a customer. The actual sale is one small step in the overall process.

4 stars because some sections felt repetitive and I could have used a few more examples.

[Derek Neighbors · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid book that will help those willing to put in the work, to navigate the world of complex sales or consulting. Thull could have delivered the message in half the words. Mind you the book was a quick read, but it got repetitive at times. Putting the process into practice requires a lot of nuance, not sure how well it will translate to many sales professionals who want a quick fix

[Jon Malmgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent sales book about how to present complicated offerings to your customers, allow them to digest your product and how to get them to understand the value of your offering. Highly reccomended for anyone in tech sales.

[Jordan Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeff Thule outlines a framework for complex sales. It's an excellent kick starter book for anyone new to a sales role. My favorite parts were about common traps that sales professionals fall into and how to avoid those traps.

[Jonathan Crary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did like this book. Yes, it did start to repeat itself, and I wanted it to expound into more detail, but I thought the framework was quite good, and there were some key examples. Overall, it's definitely a must-read for those who sell into this chaotic marketplace full of "commodities".

[John Tallett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Educational. It will be interesting to see if this system takes hold in my lifetime

[George Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for large enterprise consultative sales.

[Bett Correa-Bollhoefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best business books I’ve found. Absolutely a must read,

[Jeffreyalpert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imperfect, but the clearest view I've read of how sales to large enterprises actually work in practice.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haiku review:
Sleazy sales people
And “product-first” replaced by
Collaboration.

[Marcela Mayora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best sales book I've ever read!

[Ben Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few years ago I picked up and read The Principle Solution, a useful book on modern enterprise selling mostly targeted at Senior Management. The second edition of Mastering the Complex Sale is the handbook that defines the skill and category best though. An incredible read that’s full of useful, actionable information with the added benefit of several years of real-world experiences added to back up the methods.
This goes on to my ‘everyone must read’ list, alongside Linchpin and Good to Great.

[Juan Mauricio · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is directed towards business-to-business sales transactions, but the principles that underlie it are true for almost every kind of sale. Sales is redefined in this book to be more of a consultation practice rather than a mere transaction. If you want to understand how to effectively guide your buyer to a decision to change the status-quo, then this is your book.

[Pete Aven · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you sell a complex product to large, complex organizations then do yourself a favor and read this. The last 30-40 pages the author gets a little too pushy with his product as he's trying to sell his sales classes, but overall this is a great read and very useful.

[Abhishek Mishra · Rating 5 out of 5]

quiet a good one....

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boy did I need to read this!

[Katie Kunsman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have this in my Kindle app, so I go back and revisit it from time to time. What a great resource.

[Christian]

Good foundational concepts - 4 to be exact. Lacks in explanation of the entire questioning process etc. but there are other good books for that.