We Just Updated and Expanded Our Most-Referenced Article: Here’s What Changed

In 2017, I wrote a piece about complex sales that soon became one of our most-referenced resources on the Membrain website. The piece, titled “What is a complex sale?” strove to provide a clean, compact, useful definition to help us, as a profession, understand the difference between complex and transactional sales.

In the nine years since, we have referred to that article in countless subsequent blogs, pages, and conversations. Meanwhile, other thinkers in the sales space have defined new categories of complexity, like distributed sales, and discovered many valuable insights that are helpful to the industry. And, of course, my own thinking on the matter has evolved.

So, with the support of my team and on the shoulders of nine years of studying and practice, I have updated the post to reflect a stronger, clearer, and more compelling definition for 2026. I’ve also expanded the article with new insights, deeper discussion on the impacts of complexity on how we sell, and new tools I’ve learned to help complex sales teams be even more effective in their work.

Here’s What’s New

The Definition Itself

The heart of the piece remains the same: A simple, clear definition of complex sales. Now, simplified to be even clearer and stronger. The new definition:

 A complex sale is one in which the buyer perceives a high level of risk.

It often involves multiple stakeholders, potential disruption to the buying entity, and longer sales cycles.

The updated article explains the reason for this change, as well as why some common criteria were rejected as defining characteristics, in favor of this much simpler definition.

New Sales Strategy Section

In the second part of the original version, I discussed the impacts of sales complexity on salespeople, sales process and methodology, and sales technology. In the update, I’ve added a section on sales strategy. This section focuses on the different needs in each environment for automation versus human touch.

Updated Sales Process Section

I’ve expanded and updated the sales process section to discuss not only the importance of a  formal, dynamic, milestone-based sales process in complex sales, but how that process breaks down into distinct workflows at each stage, and the key skills necessary to navigate each stage.

Expanded Section on the Role of the Complex B2B Salesperson

Bottom line, the role of a salesperson in complex B2B sales is not to sell. It’s to become a catalyst for decision-making. In the new version of the article, I explain why this is and the skills salespeople must master to excel in the profession. 

Added Systems Thinking As a Core Salesperson Skill

In the nine years since the article originally published, I have extensively studied the field of systems thinking. The DSRP framework created by Derek and Laura Cabrera of Cabrera Lab has been deeply influential in how I think about sales in a complex environment. In the updated piece, I cover the key tools that DSRP offers to salespeople for navigating complex environments and building the shared mental model that catalyzes buyers to make the decision to purchase.

Insights and Details Added Throughout

The original article was less that 1,000 words. The new one is nearly 2,500. That length reflects the deeper clarity and insight I have gained over nine years into what it takes to succeed in a complex sales environment. The new piece contains deeper reflections, more detail, and clearer explanations than the original version.

If you’ve visited the “What is a Complex Sale?” article recently, you might want to go take a new look at the refreshed version. I’d love to know what you think. Tell me, what would you add to it?