Dr. Shaun West has sold a variety of products and services in the B2B energy sector, including EPC projects, consultancy services, transactional services, and long-term service agreements. Some examples provided are a $16 million EPC project and $800 million long-term service agreement. The document discusses objectives of understanding the B2B energy market, customer needs, and determining what and when products could be sold. It emphasizes that not all customers have the same needs, so a variety of products and services may need to be offered.

1. +
B2B in the energy sector
Dr Shaun West

2. +
What have you ever sold?
… a very common question…

EPC project



Consultancy services


2M EUR repair contract at +50% GM
Long-term service agreements



Intergen (one engineer at 2000GBP per day plus costs)
Transactional services


Idoha Power rapid install gas turbine power plant
16M USD
800M USD +12 year agreement with EDF (in France, in French)
16M EUR 6 year agreement on 4 new units in Iraq
The sale of a dream

220M CHF acquisition of a service company

3. +
Objectives
①
Be able to build a picture of the market
②
Be able to understand your customer in detail
③
Work out what and when you could sell

4. +
Not everyone buys white sliced
bread...
… so why sell as if they do

6. +
First a bit about Sales and
Marketing
Sales

What is it?
Marketing

What is it?

7. +
Discussion 300 seconds

8. +
First a bit about Sales and
Marketing
Sales

The tactical selling process

…
Marketing

The strategic view

…


Business Market Management, Anderson and Narus, Pearson Education
International, 2004
Principles of Marketing, Kotler et al, Pretince Hall, 1999

9. +
High value products in the
energy market
Learning to understand your market
Strategic

10. +
Objectives of this section
①
To be able to build a story board for a market study
②
To understand the customers needs and wants
③
To value the market

11. +
What are the markets?
http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9048887&contentId=7082549
Data is available

12. +
What are the ‘products’
Products are ‘homogenous’ but there are differances

13. +
Who are the ‘suppliers’?
There is concentration and segmentation

14. +
Who are the ‘customers’?
Half are stare owned – half are commercial companies

15. +
Where are the installations?
There is no hiding!

16. +
Where are the installations?
The data is out there so no excuses not to use it

17. +
What do they produce
Make sure you know the products they produce and any cannibalsation

18. +
What is the typical life cycle?
Different products and services are needed during the life cycle

19. +
What are their needs?

New build

Routine maintenance

Scheduled maintenance

Breakdown maintenance

Rehabilitation

De-commissioning/demolition

20. +
What is annual size the (power)
market?

New build


GW installed per year x cost per kWh
Maintenance (routine, planned and unplanned)



Fixed cost per kW installed
Cost per MWh x TWh generated
Rehabilitation


GW installed x 1/15 x cost per kWh
De-commissioning/demolition
http://www.westgov.org/wieb/electric/Transmission%20Protocol/SSG-WI/pnw_5pp_02.pdf

21. +
High value products in the
energy market
Learning to understand your customer’s needs
Tactical

22. +
Objectives of this section
①
Be able to map relationships
②
Be able to improve the odds of closing
③
Be able to use some basic account management tools

23. +
Sales is all about ‘failure’

Some people don’t need to
buy from you

Some people don’t want to
buy from you

There are other suppliers in
the market

9 out of 10 opportunities will
lead to failure

How do we improve the
odds?

24. +
Who/what should we target first?

How can Ansoff’s matrix help us?

25. +
Who/what should we target first?
Existing clients
New clients
Same stuff
Easy
Hard
New stuff
Easy(ish)
Tough
But then you do need to define new and existing…

26. +
Improving the odds
Communications and
promotions
Sales/Customer relationship
Enquiries received
Accuracy of the 4 sales
variables (interpretation)
Orders received
Ratios can only be trended and monitored for improvement

27. +
Improving the odds
Leads
Demonstrate you understand the
market
Change sales person with customer, not
an indicator that the person is a poor
performer only that they don’t ‘gel’
Prospects
Messages to show you understand
their needs
What do ‘they’ value
Improved interpretation of customer
requirements and flexibility in getting as
close as possible to their ‘visions’
Orders
Know how to close the deal
There is more than price to work with

28. +

How well do you understand the
sales variables?
Understanding and interpretation of these variables is ‘THE’ key
to success in sales – Give the customer what they want BUT…
If we know what is wanted is not the right choice, we need to ‘Educate’ the customer to
make the right decision
4 Variables
- Scope
- Price
- Response
- Terms
Listen to the customer, understand their needs
Variables are inter-related (you can change the price
with the scope etc) – but you need to know your
customers priorities
Educating a customer simply means providing information and guiding him to the result.
These are the diplomacy skills required by successful sales, never tell the
customer what he needs, they must find this for themselves

29. +
How do you find out who has
influence?

How well do you understand how the decision will be made
in the buying center?

Who has real power?

Who can influence whom?

30. +
Map out the relationships
Relationship based

Map the relationships within and
externally

Who else within the company knows
the client – can the have an influence

The sales manger has to manage the
‘chess game’

Who are the gatekeepers, influencers
and decision makers

Who do you have access to?
http://elpresedente.deviantart.com/art/Not-Complicated-at-all-RelationshipMap-339638424

31. +
Do you know the decision makers
and influencers?
Primary roles
• Deciders
• Influencers
Secondary roles
• Users
• Buyers
• Gatekeepers
• Those who make the decision
(regardless of their title)
• Set specifications and/or provide
information to help them evaluate
alternatives
• Use the product/services
• Manage the process
• Mange the flow of information
If you do not know them the odds are not in your favour

32. +
Example: CRM system for sales
Who?
Typical concerns
CEO, CFO
•
•
•
•
Can you prove it works?
Are the costs justified?
What are your references?
How long will you be around?
•
•
•
Cost reductions
Process control
Reduced cycle time
VP-production
•
•
•
Is the system compatible?
Can you customize reports?
Who looks after the system
•
•
Integration
Minimal increase work
VP-sales
•
•
•
Will the reps use it
Will they waste time playing with it
Will they censor information
•
•
Improved sales visibility
Better forecasts/reduced paper
work
Sales reps
•
•
•
•
Will the management spy on us?
What is in it for me?
Is there extra work for me?
As long as I delivery so what?
•
More time to make productive
sales calls
Better information and better
customer services
Frederic Dalsace, HEC, 2005
Value elements
•

33. +
How do you maintain your
relationships?

If you only sell to them once every few years…
Discussion

34. +
How do prevent commoditisation?
Discussion

35. +
Do you know what your customers
have bought?

For any one client (more than one sales manger) have an
overview


What have you sold to them by site and technology
Use the internal references to improve sales to other sites

If none use external referrals to support
Plant
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Technology
V94.2
V94.2
V94.2
Frame 9E
Frame 9E
Frame 6B
Frame 6B
Frame 6B
Overhauls
Y
Y
N
Repairs
Y
Y
N
New parts
Y
N
Rotor repairs Actions
N
Blah, blah…
Y
Blah, blah…
Blah, blah…
Blah, blah…
Blah, blah…
Blah, blah…
Blah, blah…
Blah, blah…
Sell them more, widen the scope… gas turbine, steam turbine, generator…

36. +
How well do you know your
customers?
Hard data based

Do you have the list of late payers?


Higher margin clients are worth
more than low margin clients
Do you know which clients recognize
value


Highly
loyal
Most valued
Partners
Limited
loyalty
Commodity
buyers
Underperformers
Low service cost
High service cost
Do you have the margin by client?


These are not good clients even if
they buy stuff
Price buyers are not worth having
Do you know how to become your
clients ‘right hand’?

Do you look for to you to find
solutions to their problems?
Four kinds of buyers (Narayandas)

37. +
How do your top customers make
their money?

Find out how and why they make money


Most power plants are different (layout)


What are their business drivers?
Different operational challenges
Most make money by selling different ‘products’



Utility, IPP, CHP….
PPA, FPA, merchant operation, reliability, availability payments,
ancillaries services
Base load, mid-merit, peaking, peak load

38. +
How will your tender be
evaluated?
Discussion

39. +
With the customer or client

Remember that what you dislike in salesmen they
may dislike too





Listen to the client



Death by PowerPoint (200 slides of the standard pitch)
Salesmen who just talk and talk
Salesmen who know better
Getting stuff late…
Do we have solutions, or do others we know have
solutions to their problems
Who is involved in the buying process – you’ll be told if
you listen
Involve the client in the process



They have ideas (many much better than ours)
Get payment to show commitment (this is part of the
close)
Make their life simple (can I come an collect the parts…)

40. +
What is the value stack?
Features vs benefits
Value received
Price paid
(features)

Value stack consists
of all the elements
of the customer
stacked on the of
each other

The decision maker
needs to understand
this to ‘make the
right decision’
All benefits
(tangible
and
intangible)
Narayandas, 2002

41. +
How do you chase leads and close
deals?

The sales funnel helps with
prioritization

Update and review it weekly
(Monday morning job)

Use it to help close projects but
not allowing you to miss a
deadline

Have proposals ready on time
(five days early is good practice)

Use it to priorities what helps
operations the most at that time

42. +
How do you chase leads and close
deals?

Review all visits and
interactions



CRM is a pain but it can help
Don’t just copy to those who
need to know, tell them what’s
important directly
(don’t drown people with
information)
Drive the process

Take the initiative and say what
YOU think is the right thing to do

Speak to others who you think
might have a contact within the
target

43. +
High value products in the
energy market
Have we achieved the objectives?

44. +
Objectives
①
Be able to build a picture of the market
②
Be able to understand your customer in detail
③
Work out what and when you could sell

45. +
B2B in the energy sector
Dr Shaun West