Selling to the Oil & Gas Industry10 Rules
The Oil and Gas Sales Experts
1. Be the Consultant, not
the Sales Person
Understand the clients
business. It challenges,
constraints, their KPI’s,
business culture and the
problem that your solution
is solving. Read (and
understand) the annual
report or at least the 10K
and truly comprehend how
your client makes money.
Also understand their
competitive differentiators.
Know their business better
than they do and stay on
top of news and events that
may affect it.
2. The Business is Everything
Regardless of what you are selling,
make it a business issue. So instead
of selling software to IT, take what
that software does and align it to a
business issue. Make sure you can
verbalize the business case and
real value of investing in your
product or solution. The business
side of oil & gas has the majority of
the budget and can make buying
decisions much quicker than
anyone else. So the business is
where you should be selling. Not
to IT, HR, Legal, HSE, etc. which are
shared services and who only have
enough budget to “keep the lights
on”.
3. Collect all Necessary Data
Before you can formulate strategy, you
need to gather all the necessary
information. The size and scope of the
problem your solving, its cost to the
business, the cost of not fixing the
problem, the names and roles of the
decision making team & their geographic
location, budget available, buying process
of your client, timeframe to make a
decision, who your competition will be
and any hard success metrics that you
have from previous clients that are
similar to this one. Remember that in the
larger oil & gas companies there are
multiple business units (BU) that do no
communicate. So Halliburton’s Well
Control is a totally separate culture than
their Coiled Tubing BU. So insure your
data accurately reflect the BU you are
dealing with.
4. Build a Strategic Plan
Even for small sales this is
important. The process
varies but basically you
want to apply logical rigor
to the process of taking
your client from initial
meeting to closing the
deal, taking into account
all the different factors.
There are many plan
templates online to help
you get started.
5. Set the Agenda
You need to really understand the
organizational dynamics and
business culture of your client, then
set the agenda with the business by
aligning yourself to the biggest
problems that your solution can
solve. Then stay focused on that
problem & solution and do not let
yourself, your team or the client get
sidetracked.
6. Connect with a Senior Person
You need to establish a credible
and high trust relationship with at
least one senior person in the
business. Your day to day dealing
will probably be with people
much lower down the food chain,
and your senior person may not
attend most meetings. But if
things get stuck, you need to have
someone to air your grievances
too that sees the bigger picture.
Often establishing that connection
can be achieved through third
parties or through proper
networking.
7. Understand the Politics
The organizational chart can
be misleading and it is
essential to understand the
power-base and influence-
dynamics that transcend the
visible structure. Remember
that the oil & gas industry is
truly global, so there may be
dual reporting at the
geographic and the business
unit level. Align your value
with serious problems,
important outcomes and
winning agendas. Solutions
must be embedded in the
customer’s business
processes and not within the
micro- group that you may be
talking too.
8. Have Heightened
Time Awareness
Sales cycles in oil & gas
are the longest of any
vertical I know. Because
of that you need to be
very aware that your
actions today will
influence the sale a year
from now. One of the
benefits of building a
strategic plan is it allows
you to stay on track with
daily/weekly/monthly
tasks so that your sales
momentum is never
lost.
9. Manage Risk
Risk resides in what you cannot control
and especially from ignorance. In the
software industry, 90% of risk is in
demonstrations (think about it). Across all
industries, risk also resides in people that
may interact with your client. Anyone on
your team afflicted by arrogance or an
inability to listen represents enormous
risk. Beware of your own executives who
seek to interact with your prospect
because they can easily say something
damaging or introduce unwanted
information. Competitors are a risk only if
you do not know their business, so
learning their strengths and weakness is
just as important as knowing your own.
10. Enjoy
You can go through life seeing
your glass as half empty. Or you
can choose to go through life
seeing your glass as half full. The
oil & gas industry is a wonderful
place for professional
salespeople, as you get to truly
help people and solve real
business issues. And you get paid
VERY well. So enjoy the
experience!
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Thank You
The Oil and Gas Sales Experts http://modalpoint.com
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