The price of crude oil tanked from USD $100.00 to around USD $40.00 in the last few years. Many suppliers to the Oil & Gas industry has taken a hit where plants started switching to cheaper alternatives, jumping from high end European and American products to Asian brands. With fewer Greenfield projects around, many companies have then focused their strategies either on Brownfield or targeting different industries. Is there any hope for these suppliers? We say yes, with USD $80.00 per barrel in September, hope seems to be on the horizon.

Here are 10 tips on selling to the oil & gas industry.

1. Be A Consultant, Not Just A Sales Executive

  • Always be understanding of your clients’ needs from their manpower, revenue output, and budgets so that you don’t appear as “another salesperson”.

2. Sell Service as A Business Issue

  • Be it software, hardware, or new machinery; sell your services in a way that your clients would see it as a business proposition and not any department-specific needs.

3. Data Accumulation

  • This means for you to know EVERYTHING about your clients before you can come up with a sales plan. Their locations, budgets, manpower, key decision-makers, investors, how gov’t regulations affect them, etc.

4. Align Your Business With Your Clients

  • Basically, you set the agenda by understanding your client’s organizational dynamics and business culture. Align your client’s problems with your solutions so you can be their absolute solution.

5. Rapport Building

  • Relationships are the most important key aspect for every sales force in existence especially when you are dealing with upper management or chief officers or engineers or procurement. With proper rapport building, your image as a professional and trustworthy consultant would be firm in your client’s eyes.

6. Understanding Politics

  • Not to say our actual political structure but the politics of your client’s organization. Oil and gas is a global venture thus the layers of operation and management are different and not always on par. Understand who is better than being stuck with 1 particular group.

7. Be Timely Efficient

  • It’s a no-brainer that this industry is heavily time constricted with many deadlines come and go. Just as your client is on the clock, you, too, should be on the same timeline to not only speed the process of the sales but also the delivery of your service.

8. Risk Assessment & Management

  • Despite your proper planning, it is impossible to know everything that goes on in your client’s world. You need to assess everything that could go wrong, that would go wrong and manage expectations on how you can deliver for your clients.

9. Strategize

  • Planning for every step is crucial from cold-calling, setting up appointments, meeting with key decision-makers all the way to closing the sale. Strategize each step.

10. Reap The Benefits

  • At the end of the day, it all comes down to the end result of your hard work. Many salespeople tend to skip this part and go straight away for the next deal which is not only exhausting but dissipates the satisfaction of closing a big sale. Take a break, enjoy the moment.

How To Sell In Oil & Gas For Sales Engineers

Sales Ninja offers the best solutions and selling techniques in the business! And when we say business, we mean ALL businesses. We have trained hundreds of companies across 20 industries on the art of selling, cross-selling, presentation, sales leadership, rapport building, and more! Because Sales Ninja understands that sales are what brings in the revenue and that 5-figure income many can only dream of.

P.S: Our Oil & Gas client that distributes various products to the industry increased 37 new opportunities after going our 4 days Account Management Training for Sales Engineers.

Click HERE to reach out to us and our Senior Solutions Manager will get in touch with you with the speed of a ninja!