Carlos B Thimann – Founder-Partner of Ready.Prep.Close, LLC
After returning from London, where he obtained his BS in Economics and Computing from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), in 1980 he founded Sysgen Data C.A., a hardware company that was at the time a pioneer in the sale of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) servers and IBM PCs, in his native Venezuela. He sold the company to the then NCR distributor, who was also a DEC partner. During these years is where his sales career started in a very pragmatic way, meaning no formal sales training, except the competitive ecosystem of those early technology times, and his instinctive will and committed passion to deliver Value to clients.
In 1989 he joined a local consulting firm who also happened to represent several software companies, among these was MSA/Mc Cormack and Dodge, the largest mainframe software powerhouses of the time. In August 1989 he received his first formal sales training in Atlanta, GA, USA, from the then leading Solution Selling Methodology – now SPIN – created and delivered by Neil Rackham.
This milestone is what Carlos considers the beginning of his professional, successful, consultative sales career that helped him close millions of dollars in software sales and consulting services to the Financial and Manufacturing sectors, in Venezuela (1989-1995).
In 1996 he migrated to the USA where he continued his career in direct sales and channel management for several software companies, in different industry sectors, with different technologies, such as: Best of Breed Financials (Dun & Bradstreet Software/Geac), Supply Chain/Manufacturing (i2 Technologies), Business Intelligence and Analytics (Cognos, SAS, SybVen-Sybase), Core Banking (Temenos), Maritime and Trade Intelligence (PIERS/IHS/IHS Markit). These positions where in Business Development and Channel Partner management for the Latin American region, where he has travelled extensively for the past 30 years, selling to different companies, consultatively positioning the solutions at hand and closing millions of dollars with a satisfied and refence able customer base. In all these companies he continued to receive formal Sales training such as The Complex Sale, Target Account Selling, SPIN, SAS Methodology, i2Technologies Methodology, and many others, adapted and delivered by those companies.
With Dun and Bradstreet Software/Geac Carlos made President’s Club (Bermuda), with COGNOS (now IBM) he made President’s Club (Cayman Islands), and most recently, with IHS Markit he made Sales Club (Riviera Maya). During his career, he has had many recognitions for exceeding quarterly sales quotas.
Carlos is still active in Sales with his company Optimise Consulting, Inc., which is a Channel Partner of S&P Global Market Intelligence selling to its existing and new customers, in Latin America. Optimise Consulting also partners with other companies and has closed New Business for them, achieving sales targets; he collaborates with his Executive Sales Director.
Carlos says that all his 30+ years in sales have brought him many personal satisfactions, from the financial security he now has, to the different customers who trust his consultative sales style. His credibility is a big plus and being thorough, professionally upfront and viewed as a trusted advisor when it comes to establishing those important one-on-one interactions with the different levels of stakeholders, are his daily axioms.
Sales is a passion for him and now he wants to instill his knowledge and expertise to those new women and men entering this fascinating and rewarding career.
On an Academic front, Carlos taught Fortran IV at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Faculty of Economics, School of Statistics from 1978-1985, a third semester non-elective subject. His passion for teaching led him to become a part-time teacher at Broward County Public Schools, where he still teaches, sporadically, in the ESOL – English as a Second Language – program.
On a personal level, Carlos has been married for 50+ years, has four very successful sons and daughters who hold Executive positions in several USA large corporations. Carlos has nine grandchildren who are part of his and his wife’s history, in a few words: “that an immigrant who has made the USA his new country, can talk and coach newcomers into embracing the benefits of this wonderful land … Yes, you can!”.
