Using AI to Drive Long-Form Sales

Welcome to the Oil and Gas Sales and Marketing podcast, where every week, your hosts, Mark LaCour and Matt Bertram share proven strategies and real-world tactics to help you connect with customers and close more deals. Let's do this. All right, welcome back to another episode of Oil and Gas Sales and Marketing podcast by OGGN.

My name is Matt Bertram. I'm here at the Cell Well Conference and Norris Conference Center in Memorial City area, Houston. And I have Ian Yarte with me to talk about long-form selling of his well-production tool using AI. Is that—did I get it right there?

Yeah, you got it right, Matt. Thanks. Well, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

So today, we're going to talk about, well, how you approach sales and how you train your salespeople to reach people where you know you have a lot of different stakeholders that you're trying to reach. You know, I've been in the industry on and off, but mostly on, I think, 20 out of my 30-year career, you know. And I started as an MWD field engineer back in the days with Baker Hughes back in 1995

and moving to the NOV for a while and, you know, so it's been on and off for a while. But in the mid-2000s, I worked for IBM. And a lot of the sales was also associated with, you know, working with big enterprises, you know, with the projects, with the majors, you know. And then the last 16 years, a technologist solutions company called Timbergrove here in Houston, and, you know, lots of stories.

I mean, I think the—for oil and gas in terms of the enterprise, the first thing for me is that you're not selling once, right? You're really what you're doing is securing the next meeting. That's all you're doing, right? But there's so many stages. There's so many stakeholders, you know, especially if you're selling to the larger enterprises,

you know, you've got to secure many stakeholders, right? You have usually the specialists who has the head on—you know, their hair on fire, you know, they're like—they're trying to solve the problem. And they're the ones who cannot sleep because they have, you know, goals and—or they're producing or drilling or they're doing something associated with, you know, getting the assets to produce, right?

That's—those people are the ones that you need to gain their attention usually first, right? So one of the questions I have is the mid-sized producers, right? That's like a whole different game. It is. And then the majors, I've seen people go in under other MSAs that people have had as like a subcontractor because the process is so—

It's very long, very long. You know, we have luck, I guess, and sometimes that we have been in front of the right set of stakeholders at the right time, meaning, you know, their bonuses are tied to it or, you know, something is happening that—or is it a problem they've been trying to solve for years with no solution? And at some point, there's either a change of leadership or something's happening so

we have to do something now. So, you know, timing is important, too, right? I mean, it's not all, you know—it's not all I'm a gray salesman and I can't do anything, right? I sell, you know, ice to the skimals or anything like that. It is more like I can—it's being in front of the right people at the right time, which

means persistency because I have customers that, you know, maybe we run into a conference in this two years later and we're having the same conversation, but now they're ready to act, right? So yeah, I think with the mid-size operators is a lot of gaining their trust, right, initially of that specialist or the person who is in charge of the operation, you know? And then next is, you know, obviously, you have—at some point, you're going to have

to gain the trust of their bosses, you know, their managers or their directors, you know? So what is your approach? Like do you frame going after the executive suite differently and then when you're talking to the line people to get their bosses approval, are you working top-down and bottom-up? Yes. Yeah.

Both approaches, right? So we market, you know, our materials and our conferences and everything for both, right? We—very different messages, very different messages, right, and very different conversations to be had, right? At the executive level, you don't have to be an expert in the technical side, but with the mid-level managers, you need to understand really well what you're talking about, right?

And so you have to demonstrate competency in the technical side as well, you know? So there's typically, like, salespeople and then there's maybe, like, a technical support lead that comes in. If someone's trying to, like, get into oil and gas sales or they're new in oil and gas sales, because it's a consultative sale— It is.

You have to know what you're talking about. Yes. Like, you're not just selling features and benefits here, right? Yeah. Like, you have to understand the problem, you've got to understand the pain points, and you've got to be able to speak their language.

That's why I think that there's such a gap of industries that are trying to sell into oil and gas. It is. It is. I think part of it is, you know, there is this—I don't know what will be the right word, but, you know, people are a little tired of getting pitched at, and, you know,

I tell you as an example, right? We were in a conversation with a—we were brought to the table by a large systems integrator and software, you know, developer. And so we came into the table because the previous group that they brought in said the words in a meeting with the CIO of that company, the oil and gas company, that data is data, right?

And immediately they were thrown out, right? And we came in, you know, because we had expertise in oil and gas and the upstream side, because the oil and gas is huge, right? So upstream. And as soon as we had the conversation, he was at ease, because we could, you know, we understood what he was talking about.

We asked the right questions, you know? I mean, we had got sales because we went into the room and asked just questions about the, you know, that we know about the process in the industry, that we knew the answers, at least, you know, of how other companies do. And we were asking specifics about how they work, you know? So, you know, yes, you're absolutely right.

It's trying to find, like, understanding their problem and then how your solution fits that problem and tearing the language to their specific needs. And how you're different, right? Because there's so many companies doing similar, you know, things, right? Product or services. And how are you different?

How are you really going to solve my problem? And they really want to get down to the, you know, the nitty-gritty, right? So it's, and by the way, executives on oil and gas, they're not all about the numbers. I mean, they are, right? But they're also, usually, of them came through the ranks. So they are experts in their field, you know?

So you talk to a VP of production, this person very likely went through production for years. He's not going to be just an NBA that doesn't know anything about production, right? So, yeah, that's the difference. So I have a question for you. A lot of times, the sales team comes in, they put the best ponies forward, right? Like, they showcase whatever they have.

But the real question is, who's going to be working on my project, right? And things get handed off. So I'm curious how, how you deal with that and how you sell the entire team. I think in the end, they want to know, are you going to be, can we hold you responsible for what's going to happen here? If you're confident that you can do it, right?

Sometimes that, that question can be adverted by saying, we are going to be responsible. And we guarantee the work, and we're going to work with you until it works. That's kind of what they guarantee my company, right? And I think that that helps us a lot overcome who's going to be on the project. Because in the end, also, they have the same problem, right? They don't, every single worker in their lines are not going to be always the, you know,

the top one, right? And so I think they understand that. I think it's a matter of, do you have, what are the risks? Do you understand what the risks are? What is your mitigation for the risk? All right, so it's, again, consultative sale.

Let's not add just like, here's the pricing, here are the benefits. There is a whole plan, how are you going to implement it? How are you going to mitigate risk? How you're different from anybody else, right? I think that's, that's part of the process. So I would love to hear your elevator pitch or your sales pitch at a conference here.

If you run into somebody that has it, pitch me your company so people listening. Yeah, sure, sure. I think, so we, we help companies basically produce more with less. How do we do that? We basically give you a set of predictions about your production, right? So that workers, when I arrived, they are not blindsided for what's happening.

So they're not reactive. And so by, by reducing the reactiveness to the, to the operations, we reduce a lot of the costs associated with that and we can increase production as well by a 15%. That, that's the, the high level pitch, you know? I love it. All right.

Is there anything else that we, I know there's so much to cover, but is there anything that is like something that you believe all salespeople need to know when they're going in or how they need to be thinking about that approach? And like, for example, what if the deal goes sideways or something like that? Like how they position themselves, like you said, the, the trust component, but throughout that sales process, there's a lot going on.

Like what's the biggest takeaway, I guess? I think to me, you know, oil and gas is huge, but it's not. So your reputation, it is your currency. Are you perceived as somebody trustworthy? So this is something you're going to have to build from the beginning, right? Are you trustworthy?

Are you reliable? Right? Do you know what you're talking about? Right? So that means you have to educate a lot yourself. Companies might not offer you, a lot of the big companies offer, you know,

education plans and you can, but I think pick up books, podcasts, right? You have many of them to choose from. I think getting educated, go to networking events, meet people, ask questions, be known, you know, and know other people, develop the relationships. It takes time, right? It's not, Roma wasn't built in the day, right?

So your career will not be built in one day. So I think the biggest takeaway is, you know, guard your reputation as it's your life because it is your sales life. Yeah. And if somebody wants to find out more about what you or your company is doing, how do they get in touch with you?

Sure. I mean, you know, we're, we're Timbergrove.com. It's our domain name, right? I'm in LinkedIn, Ian Oriarte, very easy actually by default and by design. I'm very easy to find. So very uncommon name first Ian and last you, you're Oriarte.

So very easy to find me here. Awesome. Well, thank you for coming on the show. Everyone, remember, make a difference, not a sale. Thanks for listening to OGGN, the world's largest and most listened to podcast network for the oil and energy industry.

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