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Summary: Other sales books start to look silly after you read this
Review: Jeff Thull's insights add a new dimension to the field of business-to-business selling. If your sales process involves selling to multiple people, with multiple perspectives and objectives, you need this book. Thull argues that many people follow the outdated, predator model of selling, and that poor results from that approach should be expected. Instead, Thull wants sales people to focus on helping customers make the best decision, even if the business goes to a competitor. By focusing squarely on the solving the customer's problem, rather than focusing on the needs of the salesperson, you will have more long-term sales success. The book does a good job of codifying how the top 3%-5% business-to-business salespeople win. This isn't warmed-over sales advice. Thull's book is a roadmap for selling success. Editor@ManagementConsultingNews.com
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Summary: Stands Head and Shoulders Above the Rest
Review: Jeff Thull's insights add a new dimension to the field of business-to-business selling. If your sales process involves selling to multiple people, with multiple perspectives and objectives, you need this book. Thull argues that many people follow the outdated, predator model of selling, and that poor results from that approach should be expected. Instead, Thull wants sales people to focus on helping customers make the best decision, even if the business goes to a competitor. By focusing squarely on the solving the customer's problem, rather than focusing on the needs of the salesperson, you will have more long-term sales success. The book does a good job of codifying how the top 3%-5% business-to-business salespeople win. This isn't warmed-over sales advice. Thull's book is a roadmap for selling success. Editor@ManagementConsultingNews.com
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Summary: The ultimate sales book for hunting whales ( 4 1/2 stars)
Review: Mastering the Complex Sale is the ideal book for "whale hunting" or going after the really big, really comlicated sale. In my business (government IT), sales cycles are long and complex, not the "one call close" Fuller brush type. Thanks to the author, I now have a game plan for going after the big game.
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Summary: Timely, real-world techniques, especially for this economy
Review: So many sales books rehash the same old stuff: seek out decision makers, ask questions, describe benefits, demonstrate ROI. Not this one-in fact, the author makes a compelling case that those skills are hopeless out of date. A few years ago Mack Hannan wrote a great book called "Sales Shock." This book is not only a worthy successor to that one, but also focuses strictly on the ever so complex sale at the top of the sales pyramid.
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Summary: Packed with Knowledge!
Review: This excellent guide explains a methodology that can help anyone in sales. This sales approach depends essentially on seeing the sale through the customer's eyes, and involving the customer in designing a solution to his or her own problems. This approach goes against some standard practices in sales, but those standard practices antagonize customers and build distrust. Author Jeff Thull offers helpful reminders on the value of researching individual customers, picking the right entry point to an organization and other best practices. However, he sometimes seems over-enthusiastic and over-optimistic about his system's infallibility. After all, in some organizations, sales people who tried to follow this methodology would be criticized for failing to meet more conventional targets, such as number of calls per week. This detailed method for conquering many-level, multi-step sales is time and research-intensive, but highly effective. We applaud his emphasis on the value of asking and listening instead of speaking. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Regurgitation of Sandler and Heiman
Review: Thull has taken Sandler's system, added some bits of "New Strategic Selling" from Heiman, and called it his own. Please don't get fooled, even if he did persuade some notable business authors. I've also been to his seminars, and have needed a sales process for a complex sale, and he added no value. I learned nothing new. I tried to use his style of "diagnostic" line of questioning, and customers saw right through it, and it even confused sales calls. Went back to my own hybrid system, and started closing deals again. Save your money and time, and use the originals.
Rating:
Summary: Regurgitation of Sandler and Heiman
Review: Thull has taken Sandler's system, added some bits of "New Strategic Selling" from Heiman, and called it his own. Please don't get fooled, even if he did persuade some notable business authors. I've also been to his seminars, and have needed a sales process for a complex sale, and he added no value. I learned nothing new. I tried to use his style of "diagnostic" line of questioning, and customers saw right through it, and it even confused sales calls. Went back to my own hybrid system, and started closing deals again. Save your money and time, and use the originals.
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Summary: Smart system for winning complex sales
Review: Thull's right -- the same old, tired sales process and tactics aren't good enough to consistently win big B2B sales with lots of decision makers, complex problems and solutions, and long selling cycles. His book describes a fully-developed alternative -- a mindset, skills, and a system called the Prime Process -- for getting on the right side of the table and helping customers come to high-quality buying decisions. If you've got the right product/service, this book shows how to prove it to customers. 5 stars for breaking away from the pack.
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