The Rural Sales Show

“In order to be a thought leader you need to have leading thoughts.” This week we welcome back my Minnesota Agritech marketing buddy Dan Schultz. Dan and I talk this time about the traditional ad agency model, why we are both seeing so much “marketing theatre” (aka. vanity metrics), the importance of being provocative and then nuanced in your positioning and what AI tools like ChatGPT and MidJourn...

“What’s an idea you wish your market would buy into?” This week we welcome Philip Morgan to the show who is a positioning and specialisation coach. Phil is based in Montana US and specialises more in the tech entrepreneur and services space but the wisdom he has and shares is as applicable to Ag. He is deep, articulate and cerebral thinker. Phil and I talk about what effective positioning is and i...

This week Agritech pro Dan Schultz on the show. Dan is US based in Minnesota and works with several SAAS/Start Up Agritech firms advising them on how to market better. Dan and I talk about what Agritech firms are doing right and wrong, how they can improve their marketing results and why getting inside the minds of your farming clients is so important. We also talk about why psychology plays such...

Chrissy Wozniak runs the North American Ag podcast which is in the top 0.5% of all world podcasts celebrating all the positive benefits of Ag so we get very lucky to have her on the show! We talk about the “handshake business” of tradeshows, do’s and don’ts to stand out at trade shows or Fieldays/fieldday events, how to use marketing automation to reduce wastage, why building your list is your lif...

This week we welcome Tony Martin on the show who is former Trade Commissioner for NZTE in Vietnam and Dubai who was responsible for trade and market access. Tony is now CEO of Prevar – the innovation arm of Apples & Pears NZ and also runs an Executive Coaching business that teaches top execs on mental fitness. We talk about the importance of thought control and measuring the right ratio between po...

This week we got super lucky to convince best-selling author and world top 10 sales podcast host Andy Paul on the show. Andy is a massive advocate for human connection when it comes to effective selling. He shares many insights gathered from a 50 year career in sales when he first started out with Apple. We talk about showing up as you as a sales person, the importance of creating memorable buying...

Julia Jones is a well known to many on the NZ and Australian Ag speaker circuit and is also Head of Insights at NZX. She has an infectious enthusiasm and energy so I got her on the show to talk about what makes her tick, her life lessons, advice for a friend, how to combat impostor syndrome and much more. Julia is one to always watch – and follow. Enjoy. Show Notes: To connect with Julia reach out...

Aaron Schultz is the founder of Outback Mind Foundation doing great work in the field of rural men’s health. Aaron and I talk about all the pressures of growing up in rural whether it be alcoholism, workaholism, depression, anger or anxiety. We talk about the importance of routines and rituals, creating space and structure in your day, eliminating negative self-talk and how you can improve your me...

Gerry Williams is the founder of Pacific Basin Exports (http://www.pbex.co.nz/) and his name might be recognised to a few of our New Zealand listeners. Gerry is one of those humble blokes who’s done a lot and achieved a lot in life, and I encouraged him to come on to the show to share his story. Guys like Gerry have an enormous amount of life and business experience we can all learn from and we sh...

Did you know 93% of all purchases start with search? Kaylene runs a successful search and content marketing agencies in Sydney who wanted to come on the show and share her wisdom on all things search, digital, SEO and lead generation. We talk about what makes a good website vs a bad one, the importance of targeting the right keywords and how to set up your content and digital marketing strategy fo...

Stu Taylor is GM of Craigmore Sustainables, who I had the pleasure of studying alongside down at Lincoln University when we both completed our Kellogg Programmes many moons ago. Stu is a big deep thinker, and I’ve always admired him for his people management skills, so I got him on the show to talk about just that. We talk how to have those difficult courageous conversations, managing poor perform...

This week we welcome Mark Elliot former High Performance Director of Triathlon NZ, Bike NZ, NZ Olympic Winter Sports and now Board Members of Paralympics NZ. Mark and I talk about what it means to be a high performance coach training Olympians and world champions and the parallels we can draw between high performance sport and business. Marks talks about the importance of taking care of the micro-...

This week we welcome my good mate Lynley Allison who has been an IronMan World Champion (Kona) and a top endurance athlete on NZ shores. Lynley has been part of high performance coaching most of her life including Triathlon NZ, Rowing NZ and Cycling NZ. On this episode Lynley shares her very personal story of how she had to overcome extreme adversity and face some tough choices. You will learn imm...

This week we welcome Changing The Same Game (https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/changing-the-sales-game/id1543243616) host Connie Whitman who trains sales teams in banking, finance and credit unions in the US. Connie is a big advocate of human-centred selling and shares some of the tools and techniques she teaches others. We talk about the importance of listening vs speaking, how buyers communi...

This week we welcome my good friend Phil Gerbyshak who is a US based sales trainer who runs a fantastic sales podcast with guests like Tom Peters, Seth Godin and Marshall Goldsmith so we got lucky getting Phil on the show. Phil shares decades of sales insights and experience including his 5 Ps: - pipeline - preparation - practice - performance - perfect We talk about the importance of managing up...

This week we welcome Wesleyne Greer, Founder and CEO of Transformed Sales. Wesleyne is a US-based sales trainer and coach who runs a fantastic sales podcast that focusses specifically on training and teaching sales managers to become better sales leaders. We talk about why sales managers deflect, deny and defer sales training for themselves and why the multiplicity of a sales manager makes a bigge...

This week we welcome learning machine and world-class leader Michael Simmons. Michael is a best-selling author and has written for Time Magazine, Forbes and the Harvard Business Review. He’s best known for his coaching and training in teaching people how to learn. He is an unapologetic life-long learner and has taught me a ton personally in the last decade including his famous “5 hour rule” for de...

This week we welcome Chris Dufey who is a highly successful fitness and coaching entrepreneur and father of 4 beautiful daughters with his wife Lauren. Chris shares his story starting from a home life where money was always short to recently selling his business in a multi-million dollar deal after many ups and downs both personally and professionally. Chris is a living example that if you want to...

This week we welcome highly respected and recognised senior journalist and PR/Corporate Communications Expert Pattrick Smellie. Pattrick has worked for The Australian, been Chair of the NZ Parliamentary Press Gallery and editor for the Dominion Post. Pattrick also worked under Finance Minister Roger Douglas back in the day and is now CEO of BusinessDesk – a leading media subscription company now o...

This week we talk to my good mate Richard Alderton who is an expert in Adaptability Coaching. Richard is a former CEO of DeLaval TetraPak and worked with GlaxoSmith Kline, Boots and now advises the NHS on adaptability. We talk about how traditional change management doesn’t change anything and why adaptability works (focussing on the software of people) when change management doesn’t (the hardware...

This week we welcome Steve Hines who runs a successful 700 cow dairy farm in Waikato, NZ and is a former Fonterra Shareholder Council Chairperson. Steve talks about his previous career in sales and what you need to do to sell to farmers effectively in today’s world. He shares a ton of tips and tools, along with the mistakes you shouldn’t make that come straight from a true blue farmer. If you’re a...

This week guest Jonathan Stark conquers commoditisation by laying a challenge to rural business owners. Jonathan is one of the world’ best pricing and positioning experts with a worldwide following (just Google him to see what we’re talking about). He’s a big fan of writing emails every day to his list – and he proves how it works for him after being taught by global marketer Seth Godin. We talk P...

“If you want to 10x your business you need to 20x yourself.” This week we talk to the amazing Mike Agugliaro who is one very impressive human being. He’s sold 2 x 8 figure companies in the last 5 years and now runs a world-class life transformation coaching business with his wife Jennifer. Mike’s shares his story that started at 15 when he was left on his own, to running a hugely successful trades...

This week we talk to my good mate Jess Hanara who holds the world record in power lifting for squat (148kgs) and dead lift (185kgs). She also bench presses 98kg. Jess is probably one of the strongest mental and physical human beings I have ever met (she also happens to be my PT). We talk about the importance of self-responsibility, the discipline of training and the power of visualisation and ritu...

This week we talk to Richard Petrie, former NZ Black Caps cricketer, coach and consultant who now specialises in advising architectural firms on optimising their sales and marketing. Richard shares the same passion and curiousity on human behaviour, nature and biases so we have a great conversation based on his big cerebral brain. We talk about finding out what people want and helping them get it...