The Marketing Complex

Many marketers spend their days continually reducing brand positioning into single sentences to answer questions such as 'What is the brand message?' or 'What is the USP?' This tendency to perpetually condense and simplify is a carry-over from a long-gone era when products and services remained static, and changes in platforms happened much more slowly. Today, however, the reality is that brands are infinitely more complex, and span territories, consumer groups and categories. Therefore, to boil a branding message down into a single sentence or USP severely limits a brand's potential scope. After all, a brand is like a person, and a person could never be accurately described in a single sentence. The Marketing Complex examines the current obsession with over-simplification, and fearlessly challenges marketers to consider whether they are blurring the line between simplifying and simplistic. By exploring the origins and appeal of simplification through some of the best-known literature, the book conclusively proves that endless simplification actually only serves to limit a brand's appeal. By presenting a visionary new model, supported by examples, tools and expertly explained techniques, The Marketing Complex will enable marketers to recognise the important role that depth and multiplicity play in communicating a brand message, and to boldly embrace complexity when crafting their brands.

'The Business Marketing Course' has been written by a team of authors, led by David Ford, from the IMP (Industrial Marketing and Purchasing) Group. It is the first time that an introductory level textbook on business marketing has been developed based on the IMP approach. According to David Ford, business marketing is the task of selecting, developing and managing customer relationships for advantage in line with the skills, resources, strategy and objectives of both the supplier and customer companies. Business marketing (or industrial marketing as it was formerly called) involves the marketing of products and services to commercial enterprises, governments and other not-for-profit institutions for use in the products they, in turn, produce.

"The Business Marketing Course is an important and insightful book that brings together the main theories and contributions of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group in a student-friendly form. The book provides complete coverage of the role of business relationships and networks in domestic and international business - a topic that is now gaining widespread attention among researchers and practitioners and is a vital part of student learning." —Professor Ian F. Wilkinson, School of Marketing, University of New South Wales, Australia "The second edition of this fine book offers another step forward in terms of structure, coverage and significance. The thoughtful use of figures, tables, boxes and assignments provides further clarity for students." —Professor Luis Araujo, Department of Marketing, Lancaster University, UK The new edition of this widely used business marketing text has been completely revised and rewritten. The Business Marketing Course provides a comprehensive insight into business marketing in a compact and accessible format that provides the ideal foundation for courses on business or industrial marketing. The new edition concentrates on the reality facing business marketers operating in complex and dynamic business networks. The book provides a structured approach to both technology and the development of the marketer’s offerings as well as an expanded guide on how to analyse business networks and customers and how to develop marketing strategy. The book is essential reading for students who are studying business markets. It is also an excellent guide for all managers who would like a clearer understanding of the complexity of networks in which they operate. The book is still firmly based on the ideas of the IMP (Industrial Marketing and Purchasing) Group. It includes a new chapter on how marketers can work effectively with colleagues in other functional areas. The new edition is presented in a highly readable style with extensive use of examples and illustrations. Each chapter in the book concludes with a study assignment based on the authors’ own experience of teaching business marketing.

If you specialize in complex sales, the business-to-business transactions that involve multiple decisions made by multiple people from multiple perspectives, this is the book for you! It presents The Prime Process—a diagnostic, customer-centered approach that clearly sets you apart from your competition and positions you with respect and credibility as a valued and trusted advisor. If the stakes are high and you’re expected to win, this book will give you the edge you’ve been looking for. Buy your copy today!

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

Win more deals with the perfect sales story! “Power Messaging is a foundational element in our global marketing campaigns and sales training programs. We believe the concepts are core to engaging in customer conversations that are focused on their outcomes and what they want to achieve.” —Karen Quintos, CMO and SVP, Dell Inc. “The concepts outlined in this book are critical skills to building a world-class presales organization.” —Ken Hamel, Senior Vice President, Global Solutions and Presales, SAP “Our new messaging, using the approaches presented in this book, is great and is being widely used by our sales team. We’ve never had a year end sales meeting with content that was met with such widespread acceptance and enthusiasm.” —Jerry D. Cline, Senior Vice President, Retail Sales and Marketing, AmerisourceBergen Drug Company “The best salespeople sit across the table and make change easy for their customer by creating a succinct story and vision for what to change, how to change it, and how it will impact customer results. An enterprise focus on sales messaging, using the concepts in this book, is the hidden secret to driving incremental sales productivity and overwhelming customer success!” —Ken Powell, Vice President, Worldwide Sales Enablement, ADP “The Power Messaging techniques in this book are the foundation of how our marketing team creates our sales messages, as well as the process our field sales teams use for delivering that message in a unique and compelling way. At Kronos our results are a reflection of the power of the tool.” —Aron Ain, CEO, Kronos About the Book: In today’s highly competitive world of complex sales, commoditization of your brand is one of the greatest dangers. You must differentiate yourself from the competition—or you will lose out. And the way to do that is through customer engagement. Rather than sell your own corporate story and brand message, you need to tell customers their story—the one in which they are the heroes and they achieve success. Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer have been developing and honing their Power Messaging sales technique for more than 20 years, and now they reveal all their secrets in Conversations That Win the Complex Sale. Presenting a catalog of facts or playing 20 questions with prospective customers is the surest way to lose the sale. Peterson and Riesterer provide the tools you need to recraft your message into a compelling story that wins more deals. With Conversations That Win the Complex Sale, you’ll learn how to: Differentiate yourself from the competition by finding your “Value Wedge” Avoid parity in your value propositions by creating “Power Positions” Create a message that can literally double the number of deals you close Spike customer attention and create “Wow” in your conversations Prove all your claims without resorting to lists of boring facts and statistics Your competitors are out there telling their own corporate story—a story customers don’t want to hear. Now is the time to seize the moment. This book is the one and only source you need to reframe your sales story and turn the tables on the competition by fully engaging their would-be customers. Conversations That Win the Complex Sale helps you create and deliver messages that customers care about, giving your brand the clear edge in today’s crowded markets.