Come learn the 10 rules you need to know, to successfully sell to the Oil and Gas industry. Brought to you by the Oil and Gas sales experts at modalpoint.

1. Selling to the Oil & Gas Industry
10 Rules

2. The Oil and Gas Sales Experts

3. 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.

4. 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”.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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/monthl
y tasks so that your
sales momentum is
never lost.

11. 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.

12. 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!

13. Please share this presentation
Thank You
The Oil and Gas Sales Experts http://modalpoint.com
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