Patron Saint - Prime mover magazine

During the past 30 years at JT Fossey Trucks in Tamworth John Saint has sold more than 3,500 new trucks with all but a few being single unit sales.

I genuinely love it and I still get a buzz handing the keys over.

I’m fortunate that I’m based in rural Australia. We’ve got good honest fair dinkum people in our area who buy and operate trucks. I really enjoy meeting new people and helping them realize their future. A lot of items in our world were bought or obtained through a sales person. Sales people vary in the degree of interaction in a given product or service. ?I use the example of trucks because they are the basis of my selling experience and the industry that I refer to in my

sales story. It’s a transaction between two identities resulting in the change of

ownership. It’s important not to push and if you put a good enough proposal forward, it will come back to you. The product you are selling needs to be reputable, of sound quality and be represented nationally by other dealers, and globally by the franchise organization. The product needs to be fit for the intended business and the job at hand. Pretend that you own the business...it's your company, lock, stock and barrel. The road to sustained successful selling depends upon the good and the right things you say and do every day. Time is a valuable tool, so make the most of it. Everyone wants to be successful and respected for what they do, and a good salesperson has to earn this. I’ve always based my selling on getting to know the customer, things such as what they need and what are the most important points for them and then designing a truck specification and formulating a deal around that. It’s understanding what they want, what they need to achieve, how long they want to use it for, and then building the truck to suit all of that. You can still make adjustments as you go along. Some of the conversations we might have during the sale process can be far from talking about trucks. It can be an historical overview about where they’ve been in their own operation and where they want to go. My reputation is built around people wanting security in their dealing, where they talk with someone who knows what they are doing, who can deliver what they want and then make sure they are going to be supported afterwards. It’s important that sort of grounding is in our sales strategy. People often over spec for what they

really need to achieve, and this results in trucks that disappoint in terms of

the expectations of economic and efficiency factors, as well as driver acceptance.

There are a lot of things that go into the pot when we start talking about what

truck to buy and can include having reference back to previous sales, customer

testimonials, my own experience in the industry, and what they believe they

want from a truck. All those things go together and we design a truck

specifically around each customer’s key requirements. It’s teamwork from day one! Unless they are on the same page in understanding their role in the team every day, it won’t work. Over the years I’ve learned a lot and I want to continue to do so, but I also want help others who are in a similar situation trying to get

established. It’s important for all of our staff to have an understanding of why we are here and why we do what we do every day, and understanding that the customer is committed to our dealership for the product and support and that we need to deliver that back at the same level they have invested in us.

It’s important our people feel they are contributing and we share customer feedback both good and bad. Having a sense of urgency, having the required knowledge and having empathy for the customer are factors we work on every day. Our inductions for new team members are quite extensive so they get an immediate understanding about how it all works.?