By | Published On: March 30, 2023 |

Welcome to episode 123 with my guest St John Craner

St John comes from a farming family in the UK.  He has over 25 years of corporate and marketing agency experience in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

As a regular conference chair, speaker, and blogger.  St John writes for Interest.co.nz, Farmers Weekly, Dairy Exporter, NZ Marketing and Idealog. He is passionate about NZ Ag and its contribution to the economy.  As Managing Director of Agrarian, St John trains rural companies on how to generate more qualified leads and close more sales using proven tools and techniques, systems, and strategies.

 

 

So, what does this episode cover?

We begin by discussing St John’s statement “psychology is a sales superpower if you master it well.”  St John unpacks how important it is to understand a buyer’s brain.  He feels that many salespeople struggle because they don’t understand the basic principles of psychology where buyers are motivated to buy in an ethical and moral way.  He feels that if salespeople actually have more sympathy and understanding for the buyer, they are far more likely to make a sale.

We discuss the concept of salespeople coming off as self-serving.  As a buyer is it easy to pick up on someone just trying to hard-sell a product to you and often we find this off-putting.  St John suggests that more time should be spent on qualifying rather than selling.  The best way to do this he believes is to ask the buyer really good quality questions, such as, “do you mind me asking, what is the problem you’re trying to solve here?”  Opening with sentence starters in a soft and non-threatening way allows access to the buyers’ brain by putting them at ease. He feels the pivotal moment in sales is when salespeople can convey sincere intent and a duty of care. Good questions will get good answers allowing a salesperson to identify whether they can actually help the buyer or not.

What else did he say?

First impressions from salespeople can either be great or off-putting.  We chat about how manners and etiquette can also make a difference between a buyer being receptive or not.  St John refers to poor first impressions as the “show up and throw up routine,” where salespeople often just show up and verbally vomit on you!  Those who are too quick to prove to buyers their technical prowess often overwhelms potential buyers. It’s also important to plan and prepare.  It’s no good if a buyer asks you a question that you don’t have the answer to!

You can find out more about the pragmatic approach St John takes towards training companies on how to generate more qualified leads and the services his company offers by visiting his website https://www.agrarian.co.nz/.  This is a hugely valuable episode and I know you will find it very interesting.  You can hear more of this podcast when it airs on Thursday.