40

A complex sale is a business-to-business (B2B) sales process that places a large number of actors in a long-term relationship with each other. The seller is then led to manage a particular commercial negotiation. This article focuses on the key factors of success in complex sales. In particular, it demonstrates the importance of the seller being empathetic toward the purchaser, in order to better understand the purchaser’s concrete needs. It also shows the importance of the interpersonal trust that is built between the purchaser and the seller during the sales process, and the central role of the reduction of the seller’s uncertainty when it comes to the added value of the solution put forward. The article also highlights that the seller occupies an important role as a “mediator.” Therefore, he or she interacts with the various different actors, bringing them closer together and favoring the conclusion of the contract. This study advocates the idea that the development of “mediation” training should improve complex sales negotiations. Its results are based on a qualitative empirical study in which thirty-five interviews were conducted with both purchasers and sellers involved in complex sales processes, allowing us to study seventy cases of negotiations.