Thull is a leading-edge strategist who, as president and CEO of Prime Resource Group, has designed and implemented business transformation programs for companies such as Shell Global Solutions, 3M, Microsoft, Siemens, Citicorp, IBM, Raymond James, and Georgia-Pacific. His other published works include The Prime Solution and most recently, Exceptional Selling.
Complex sales are those which involve a lengthy process of cultivation and solicitation, a “circle of influence” within which the purchase or pass decision is made, a product or service whose functions/features/benefits/etc. require technical verification, and a substantial purchase price. In this volume, Thull focuses on the process by which to “compete and win when the stakes are high.” To understand how to master the complex sale, one must first understand how and why the role of the salesperson changed throughout the last half of the 20th century. Thull diplomatically but clinically explains the inadequacies today of sales strategies, processes, and skills which were effective from the early-1950s until about the early-mid 90s. One paradigm inevitably gives way to another. According to Thull, “It’s not about selling–it’s about managing [a prospect’s] quality decisions.” Actually, approach may be the purest form of selling: to serve as advisor, concierge, consigliere, consultant, etc. when collaborating with a pre-qualified prospect to make the most appropriate purchase decision.
Thull carefully organizes his material within ten chapters that range from the first, “The World in Which We Sell”, (almost worth the price of the book all by itself) to the last, “A Complex Sales Future,” in which Thull agrees with Jack Welch that we must either control our destiny or someone else will. To many readers, Chapter 6 (“Designing the Complex Solution”) will be of special interest. In it, Thull suggests that “Prime professionals approach [Thull’s] solution design phase of the complex sale as an exploratory process. The aim is to equip the customer to make the best, most effective choice among the solutions competing in the marketplace.” As he explains, “The easiest way to begin to define the parameters is to ask customers how they expect their situation to look after the problem is solved.” Thull then makes an especially important point when alerting his reader to the “trap” of unpaid consulting which begins “when we cross the line between defining parameters of a solution and creation of the design of the solution itself.” Please consult the book for Thull’s complete explanation of each phase of The Prime Process.
In today’s increasingly more competitive marketplace, Thull observes, “There is no Magic!–Spectacular success is always preceded by unspectacular preparation” as well as by a better system, sharper skills, and “above all” discipline. The Prime Process is not for every organization, nor does Thull make such a claim. Carefully consider what it involves and, especially, what it requires.
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