In this episode of The Adaptive Edge, Julia Feng reconnects with Clive Miller, a UK-based sales consultant and trainer who has spent nearly 30 years helping people sell complex, high-value solutions into other businesses. This is the first time in twenty years to catch up with Julia since Clive delivered enterprise-selling training to Julia's clients in Shanghai and Beijing. Clive opens up about a formative low point in his own business: after the September 11 attacks cancelled several of his contracts, he later borrowed against his home to try to scale his boutique consultancy into a full training business, sank roughly £400,000 into the effort, and ultimately had to stop and rebuild. It's the story behind why he first came across the term VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous), coined in 1987, and one he says applies more than ever today.
The heart of the conversation is Clive's CLEAR model for complex, multi-stakeholder B2B sales, namely Circumstances, Leverage, Expand, Advantage, and Requirement, which are built on three rules: make no assumptions, declare your intent to make no assumptions, and don't talk about your solution until you’ve obtained all of the information you need to align all the steps in your sales process with all the steps in the customer’s buying process. He explains why salespeople instinctively rush to pitch (because it feels like progress) and why that instinct is exactly what causes deals to go quiet, that's what he calls "the black hole," where a prospect stops returning calls because the seller gave away their only reason to keep talking. He also shares the advice that shaped his own career: listen more than you talk, ask questions and get out of the way, and know that in a complex sale you're managing two "herds of cats" — your own organization and the customer's, not just delivering a good pitch. Read more on three rules and CLEAR:
https://salessense.co.uk/sales-call-process
The two also talk candidly about AI: Clive uses ChatGPT daily for research, content, and even restoring old family photos, and references the book "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies" by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares as a sobering counterpoint , while still believing, as he puts it, that "the future is definitely VUCA," and the only way through is to keep pressing forward.
Clive's free and paid resources, mentioned in the episode:
- The Sales Success Formula (free) — how to build a high-performing sales team or become a high-performing salesperson.
https://salessense.co.uk/sales-success-formula-download
- The Sales Professional Toolkit (paid)
https://salessense.co.uk/professional-selling-skills-manual-p-sptk
- The Power to Speak (Free)
https://salessense.co.uk/public-speaking-skills-ebsoyf01
He also recommends Rudyard Kipling's poem "If—" for anyone navigating a hard stretch. https://poets.org/poem/if
Connect with Clive Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clivemiller/
Connect with Julia Feng: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-feng
Get Julia's book, "The Adaptive Edge: Navigating Complexity and Change": https://a.co/d/0d5Q2YWI
Want to share your own story on the podcast? Schedule time here: https://cal.com/julia-feng/podcast
Explore our live online Flagship Program with AI Role Play: Adaptive Advantage: 9 Core Skills for Navigating Complexity and Change (https://positivechangeenablers.com/public-programs/adaptive-advantage.html)
Need to engage Julia for 1:1 executive coaching to navigate your challenge? https://www.positivechangeenablers.com/our-service/executive-coaching.html
Positive Change Enablers helps individuals and organizations build the adaptive capacity to thrive through complexity and change. Learn more: https://www.positivechangeenablers.com
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