Lesson 1 of 8 · Selling in oil and gas
The fastest way to lose a first meeting is to describe your product accurately.
Specifications, tolerances, the certifications on the datasheet: all true, all beside the point, and all the reason the room goes quiet.
The show puts it as an old line about hardware. People do not buy drills. They buy a tool that drills, that makes holes. Nobody wants the drill. They want the hole.
This holds at every deal size in this industry. Whether it is one inch ball valves or multi-million dollar blowout preventers or drilling fluids, what moves is the benefit, not the features and functionality.
So before the meeting, answer one question in a sentence a non-engineer would repeat: what problem does this solve, and what does solving it get them? If your product lets a crew do more with fewer people, that is the sentence. Say that one, not the datasheet.
People do not buy drills. They buy a tool that drills, that makes holes.
Source: Oil and Gas Sales Basics. Not just for Newbies, episode 6 of the Oil & Gas Sales & Marketing Podcast.
Which means knowing what this particular buyer counts as a problem.
The next step
If the way energy buyers actually buy is costing you deals, talk it through with ModalPoint, the go-to-market firm Matthew Bertram runs. A 30-minute discovery call: no scope, no commitment, and a mutual NDA before anything substantive. You get a reply within one business day, and the first call is with someone who works in the sector.