James Newell sold more than £600M worth of vehicles in 12 years and never missed a target. On episode nine of Sales Rewritten, the founder of Clear Sales Message explains why selling is really about communication, and why he walked away from the best job in the world (on paper).
James Newell has sold more than £600M worth of vehicles. He never missed a monthly target. And he has never thought of himself as a salesperson.
Search for “salesman” online, he says, and you get the Wolf of Wall Street caricature. Many sellers copy that behaviour because they think it’s how selling is done, even when it doesn’t fit who they are.
In episode nine of Sales Rewritten, he tells host Alex Wood why selling is really just communication, and why he walked away from it all in 2017.
James joined a well-known car manufacturer in 2006, in a B2B role selling anywhere from 500 to 1,500 vehicles a year to fleets, chauffeur firms and leasing companies.
“I was a man who sold cars, but not a car salesman.”
On day one, he was handed a phone, an outdated CRM and a target. Nothing else. So he watched the team’s top performer and broke down what he did. Struggling colleagues kept pushing for the sale. The top performer built relationships, put clients first and kept widening his net.
Within a month, James had worked out what selling really is. In his words, it’s a conversation with money at the end.
Every Sunday, the manufacturer released a stock list of thousands of vehicles, each one coded by spec. Turning a single inquiry into a quote could take half a day, and James was losing deals because of it.
So he paid a freelancer on Fiverr around £30 to build a spreadsheet that priced the entire list automatically.
“My colleagues would start work on the Monday, then take an inquiry, then it takes half a day to quote...I had every single car priced on Sunday afternoon.”
He later added a list of useful links that answered his clients’ most common questions before they asked.
The result? Fewer questions, more orders.
Speed wins deals, and so does knowing exactly who to call. See how data enrichment helps you find and contact every stakeholder, not just your champion.
Over 12 years, James never missed a monthly target - but that didn’t stop him worrying about it.
“I worried about it every single month. And I think that was the secret... I never stopped thinking and worrying about it.”
He stayed three or four months ahead of his pipeline and never rested on his laurels. Eight years into running his own business, he still carries that fear.
It isn’t pleasant, he admits, but it helps him perform.
A brand new car every six months. Working from home, years before the pandemic made it normal. On paper, James had the best job in the world.
“I came to this really sad realisation that you can be really, really good at something, but just not enjoy it.”
With kids on the way, he went to networking events, told rooms full of business owners exactly that, and asked for advice. Someone suggested he teach people how to sell. When he tried, he found that most people couldn’t clearly explain what they did for a living.
That became his niche. He launched Clear Sales Message, a name his wife picked, and made five figures in his first month of self-employment.
James calls the root problem the false consensus effect - we describe what we sell from our own point of view, in terms that make sense to us, not to the buyer.
His favourite example comes from the airline industry, in which adverts rarely show a plane or a seat.
“Because they’re selling the destination, not the journey.”
People buy a feeling or a better state, not a feature. For most of his clients, that feeling is confidence.
Understanding your customer starts long before the first call. Find out how sales intelligence helps you walk into every conversation with real insight.
Prospecting is a numbers game, James says, but following up is not.
“Nobody’s waiting for the 14th follow-up to then break and then buy from you.”
“Just checking in” and “bumping this up” add nothing. Every follow-up should bring something new to the conversation.
And on cold messages, he never opens with “Hi [name]”. His best-performing outreach starts with three words that land in the preview text: simplifying complex offerings.
A follow-up lands better when it's tied to a reason to reach out. Our guide to B2B buying signals shows what to look for.
There is plenty more in the episode, including why James stopped name-checking AI in his clients’ messaging, why you should never outsource your thinking to AI, how memory tricks beat sales scripts, and why he believes anyone can learn to sell.
James Newell is the founder of Clear Sales Message. Over 12 years in B2B automotive sales, he sold more than £600M worth of vehicles without missing a target. Since 2017, he has helped more than 500 businesses simplify their sales message. Find him on LinkedIn.
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Alex Wood tells Surfe's story across every part of the business, from product news to onboarding new users and everything in between. He oversees all aspects of Surfe's video content production, communicating new features and connecting with audiences. Born in the UK. Based in Bristol. Can quote every line of Jurassic Park 🦖
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