Hey, folks it’s that time…Oil and Gas Predictions for 2018.
We’ve done this since 2014 (2015, 2016, 2017), and we went back and looked and we have about a 75% success ratio. Which is actually pretty good, considering we aren’t professional analysts. But we do get this information from our clients and also the research we do all year long. So are you ready?
Number one. Online searches. Up until recently it didn’t matter if your company made 1-inch ball valves, if you showed up on Google. Surprisingly we’ve done the research and from 2014 to the end of 2016, online supply chain searches in oil and gas globally have grown 1700%. That’s right, 1700%.
Why? The old guy in the warehouse who knew where the 1-inch ball valves were, he didn’t go online and look for anything. If his boss told him to get some, he had vendor A, B, and C because he’s played golf with them for the past twenty years. They went out drinking, dinner, hunting, fishing and so on. So he knew where to get the ball valves. And if for some reason his vendors couldn’t supply him, he had a stack of paper catalogs he’d looked through. Well now he is gone. He’s taken the package or he’s retired. The new young person right out of school that took his job, when his boss says get me 1-inch ball valves, first thing he does is look for it on Google.
If your company doesn’t have a strategy to show up in organic search — searches for whatever your company does. Whether it’s a process, a service, parts, whatever. If you don’t show up in online searches, that it’s going to start hurting your business now. And you’re going to lose large chunks of your business in the future.
Online Searches-Vital for Oil and Gas Predictions for 2018
I know several large (and I mean really large) oil and gas service companies that are aware of this, and they’re working on it right now. Now the cool thing is if you’re a small company, you can pull ahead of these larger companies. If you go online right now and search for oil and gas sales experts, you’ll see me, modalpoint dominate huge multi-billion dollar companies, because we understand the importance of this. If you want to see some really extra cool, go search for oil and gas speaker and see who comes up number one. So that’s the first one for Oil and Gas Predictions for 2018, online searches.
Number two. This new younger workforce; they act and think differently. We talked about number one. This new younger workforce is coming in and they’re going to expect consumer grade technology. No matter how well you treat them, no matter what type of path to future success they have, they’re not work for your company for 20 or 30 years because they want different work experiences. Just the paycheck isn’t enough for them. They want to make a difference and they want to understand what’s going on, and play a part.
So this new younger workforce is coming in and it’s coming very fast. Right now, about 33% of the oil and gas workforce here and Europe are under the age of 35. In five years, this will be 70%. You have no choice, they’re coming and that’s who’s going to be running our industry. You got to get used to it, but that’s one of our oil and gas predictions for 2018.
Labor Shortage (No Really)
And then, everybody is going to think I’m crazy. Remember, last year I called the — the inflation on land at the very end of 2017 which is going on right now, so we got that one right.
So number three. Labor shortage. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know we’ve had a bunch of layoffs in industry especially upstream and the service companies, but we’re facing a labor shortage; skilled labor, unskilled labor, managerial, project managers, engineers. There are simply not enough young people going to school to supply the need that we have.
So, one of two things are going to happen. You will see a price war breakout, which is never good for our industry. Or we’re going to have to look at ways of running our business with less people, and that’s an interesting way to go. We think there’s going to be a technology play there so we are keeping an eye on that. So, number three is labor shortages.
Number four for Oil and Gas Predictions for 2018. Changing buyer behavior. If you’ve been in sales in oil and gas, you’ve always looked for the “decision-maker”. Well he doesn’t exist anymore. It’s now a decision making team. And what used to be a linear track from discovery to close is now all convoluted, because all the different decisions have to be made by different groups of different people. If your sales and marketing organization doesn’t understand how that’s changing, you’re going to get left behind. So change in buyer behavior is number four.
Then, number five. We’ve hit the valley of negative public perception. We think 2018 the public perception of oil and gas (which is not good right now) will hit rock bottom. It’s interesting, of the millennials about 13% think of oil and gas in a positive way. The generation, the one right behind them, it’s a negative 3.5%. Come on people, as an industry we have to change that.
We have several oil and gas podcast and that’s our mission on the podcast. Its to help change the young people in the world’s opinion of this great industry (see bottom of this page). And we think in 2018, we’re going to hit the bottom of that negative public perception. And then we will start coming back up. We’re starting to finally understand how to use social media. And the world at large is starting to understand the prosperity that we bring with cheap, abundant, reliable energy. So rock bottom public perception and starting to reverse that trend is an Oil and Gas Predictions for 2018.
Oil and Gas Predictions for 2018 – New Business Models
Then new business models. Come on, Schlumberger is now an operator? You have pipeline companies that are actually standing up ethylene crackers. The world of oil and gas is changing and there’s these new business model that companies are trying. If you think about Schlumberger forming joint ventures with NOCs, what they are doing is testing the waters. They do that all the time (think OneSubsea). And once they get it figured out, then they’ll go full-blown and become an operator as one of their business units.
Imagine Schlumberger is an operator. Number one they can sell their services at cutthroat prices, which reduces the overhead of those wells, which means they can make money where anybody else can’t. Or they can keep their services the same, but make sure they provide the on time and help that operator which it would actually allow Schlumberger to produce oil in a more economical way. Either way they win, so they’re mitigating their risk by becoming an operator. That is really cool. And like I said, there’s a whole bunch of different models being tried and this is something new for oil and gas in 2018.
Then finally, number seven. We’re having confidence in upstream sector. Prices are still low and prices are going to stay relatively low forever. That $50 to $65 price range, but we’ve driven so many inefficiencies out of the system that we are now comfortable with that price range. So investors, upstream companies, the NOC’s, the majors, the super majors, they’re starting to spend money again in upstream. They’re not going to do silly stuff and land still rules, but you’re seeing that confidence come back in upstream which is good for everybody.
Then, pay attention. Here in the U.S. we’re going to have a boom in midstream; pipelines, tankers, rail, etc? Look at all the pipelines being built in the Permian. Why? Because it drives efficiencies and it’s safer for the environment. Plus it makes it a more predictable model not just to move the crude that you get out of ground, but to remove around the fresh water you need, to move the produced water to move around natural gas.
There’s a whole Renaissance of new pipelines being built in the U.S. and you need to get ahead and understand it because it’s number eight Oil and Gas Predictions of 2018.
NGL’s Will be Huge
Then NGL (natural gas liquids) they’re going to be huge. As we increase our production the world has an appetite for our NGLs. NGLs things like butane, pentane, propane and we are producing the begebe’s out of NGL’s and we are selling it to the rest of the world at very high margins. That’s stuff we use to almost just throw away, we are now selling and making very healthy margin on. So NGLs are going to be a huge business boom and are part of our Oil and Gas Predictions for 2018
Now I called this wrong in 2015. But I’m going to call it again and put my neck on the line. Number ten for Oil and Gas Predictions 2018, Mergers and acquisitions. I think the M&A activities will go through the roof in 2018. I think you can see large service companies combined to join forces. I think you will see a lot of independents combining. I think you’re going to see companies that just to be used thought of a technology company buying bits of oil and gas because they know they can make money out of it. I think the M&A activity for 2018 is going to be crazy and that’s just good for everybody.
All right. So, I just rattled off our ten Oil and Gas predictions for 2018. Can you do me a favor if you found it useful, can you share this? You know forward it to a friend, do the all company e-mail, post it on Twitter, whatever.
But this is our predictions for 2018. I hope you found it valuable. And like I said we have the podcast. I’ll put a link in the show notes so you can go check those out. We have a bunch more in the works. And we’re really building this Oil and Gas Global Network media super power in oil and gas. Its fun and we’re making a difference. So, go check that out as well.
Mark: Hey, folks let’s learn something new about the oil and gas industry.
All right. It’s been awhile, but we have Rhod MacKenzie with Rusmininfo back on the show.
How are you doing today, Rhod?
Rhod:I’m good, Mark. And you?
Mark: I’m doing good. It’s — you and I both been busy and then, we had all these storms come through and it’s just been awhile, but you know one of the things I want to talk about it if anybody’s followed us for any length of time is you and I got this oil price thing pretty darn close didn’t we?
Rhod: Well, we last spoke in December and oil was $51 and the doomsayers were saying it will go to $30 or even down to $20. Yeah, here we are sitting today and Brent’s at $58.83, WTI is at $52.05, so I think we’ve pretty much called it as it would be over $50 for the foreseeable future.
Mark: Yeah. And so, we’re getting ready to do our predictions for 2018 next month which is just a week or so away. But, we see that the price is probably going to stay around there regardless of what happens regardless of what OPEC does regardless what the United States does.
Now, the only thing is if for some reason hostilities break out into actual conflict in the Middle East, you’ll have a spike in oil prices but it’ll be a temporary spike. You know the U.S. is producing a ton of crude and gas, Russia is producing a ton of crude and gas regardless of the sanctions, both countries are exporting and I think that we’re seeing and I’ve said this before, this is the beginning of the destabilization of OPEC.
You know where Russia and the U.S. and other large producing countries once they start exporting, OPEC has less and less control over global prices.
Rhod: Well, I’d like to sort of disagree with you slightly there.
Mark: Okay.
Rhod: We recently in Russia had a visit from the king of Saudi Arabia.
Mark: That’s right.
Rhod: He went to Riyadh, the King actually came into Russia with a thousand people in four jumbo jets. He took over every five-star hotel within a 10-minute radius of the center of Moscow and they even changed the deco for him.
Anyway, what is culminating this has happened already over the last six to nine months is apart from OPEC, you know, OPEC and Russia is working hand in hand as they’re the two biggest producers of oil, Russia and Saudi Arabia to actually stabilize. As we talked last December, less is more. If you produce less, you get more money because the price stabilizes.
Russia is now working as they say hand and glove with Saudi Arabia and the other members of OPEC drawing in other people who are not part of OPED into making sure that the oil price stabilizes. Now, that’s good for everybody.
Mark: Right.
Rhod: For producers for consumers because there’s a level of stability. And I think that’s going to continue.
Mark: Yeah. So, I agree with you and this is funny because you and I usually agree upon everything. And one of the cool things about both — both of the countries we live in is it’s actually really nice you can disagree and still be friends.
So, one of the things that we saw coming when Russia started working with OPEC, you know, that’s something from United States’ point of view that from an economic point of view we shouldn’t want that to happen because now you’re looking at two biggest producers in the world partnering together which then gives them leverage over global prices.
And I’ve been saying for years is that we need to revamp our efforts to work on our relationships with Russia because I as an American we rather Russia and the US be partners as far as oil prices than Russia and Saudi Arabia or Russia and Saudi Aramco. So, you know it’s where it is because of our politics and it’s — but I just don’t think it’s best for the U.S. And, you know hopefully in the future as we get things stabilized hopefully are relationships with — between us and Russia can improve because the Russian people are great people.
And it’s one of the things I’ve run into in one of our conferences recently is we had somebody — had a couple of delegates from Russia and they were talking about the differences in what the news reports in the relationships between us and Russia and what the Russian people believe, right? The Russian people at this point and correct me if I’m wrong, a lot of them are kind of worried that the United States the people in United States don’t like Russia and that’s not true at all, but that’s been fed by our media not by actual real people and real event.
Rhod: That’s correct. I mean I don’t run into many Americans in Ufa, but I run into quite a few on my trips up to Moscow. And, yeah, I mean the whole attitude has been ramped up by the media. I mean you might find this ironically funny, but Rex Tillerson who’s the Secretary of State when was he was CEO of ExxonMobil in 2003 received the Order of Friendship medal from Russia because of his contributions to the friendly relationship between the U.S. and Russia.
So, hopefully some sort of reset can happen. We would certainly welcome it and the Russian people would certainly not demonize and we’ll go into that later in the program and I’ll show you some when we get to the alcohol section of it.
Mark: The alcohol section. You know it’s us, we have an alcohol section which fits in perfectly, right? So, what else is going on?
Rhod: Well, basically Russia and the sanctions have pretty much failed.
Mark: Yeah, I agreed a hundred percent. We just need to remove what’s left, but, yeah, a hundred percent they haven’t done anything.
Rhod: I mean it’s record gas exports to Europe and despite everything Russia share of the market in Europe has gone from $33 to $37 this year and will continue. Russia has displaced Saudi Arabia as the largest exporter of oil into China and that’s only going to continue.
And also, from a perspective that might be slightly worrying is Russia and China are now trading oil in one.
Mark: Yeah. I’m a little worried about that too.
Rhod: Yeah. Well, obviously that’s a huge amount I mean the volume of trade is signed then the oil deal over a period of 20 years is $400 billion. That $400 billion dollars that are not going to be in dollars.
Mark: Right.
Rhod: So — plus Russia and China are two of the largest countries with gold reserves and they’re actually backing this trade with gold. So, if Russia sells China oil, it gets physical gold back in return, not pieces of paper. So, so that’s quite an interesting concept of what will go forward. Iran is now trading if — with China again in its own currency and that was only going to continue.
Mark: Yeah. So, what do you think about the LNG exports from the U.S.? We’re starting to enter the European market, is that just such a small percentage that it doesn’t really show up…?
Rhod: Very small.
Mark: Yeah.
Rhod: Very small. Mark, basically you’re exporting a little to Lithuania and a small amount to Poland. But, basically you cannot compete in price with pipeline gap.
Mark: Right. I know that.
Rhod: It’s just too expensive. So, basically it’s a thing that Americans won’t make any money. I mean the real place to sell LNG is the Asia Pacific.
Mark: Yeah, Asia Pacific, of course.
Rhod: Yeah. That’s the other biggest consumers of LNG because they don’t have a lot of their own gas.
Mark: Right.
Rhod: So, Japan, Thailand, other parts of Indochina, etc. Those are the places that are premium markets for LNG which is why Yamal which is the biggest project in Russian history which is going to cost about $35 billion in its three different phases is going to stop exporting almost totally its LNG to Japan to South Korea and to China.
Mark: Hey, Rhod let me stop you right here because if this is the first time anybody is watching us, let’s talk a little bit about what you do. You don’t sound like you’re Russian, so it sounds like you’re from another part of the world.
Rhod: Yeah. I am from another part of the world a place called Scotland.
Mark: Okay.
Rhod: But, I’ve been in Russia for 26 years for the last 13 of them I’ve been in a city in the Ural Mountains, an oil and gas center called Ufa which is spelt the way it sounds which is U-F-A.
Mark: Yeah.
Rhod: In fact, it’s the only city in the world with airline called is exactly — has exactly the same number of letters in it as the name of the city.
Mark: That makes it convenient even when you’ve been drinking you can still get home. And so, you have a company called Rusmininfo, what do y’all do?
Rhod: Basically, what we do is we gather from over 2,000 different Russian language sources from a local regional and national level in Russian concerning the oil and gas sector. We translate it from Russian into English and we fly that out to our clients. It’s so categorized, so if you’re interested in drilling or seismic surveys or petrochemicals, you only get the news that you actually require, nothing more nothing less.
We have an archive going back 10 years, so if you want to do a research paper on what has been happening in Russia. But not only Russia, we cover as Azerbaijan, we cover Uzbekistan, we cover Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan which is, again, Turkmenistan has one of the largest gas reserves in the world .
Mark: Yeah. And so, other companies if they want to do business in Russia, you actually help them figure out what projects are being started, where they are, what’s the budgets, what’s the scope of the project. So, you basically hand them the data or the information on these large projects all over Russia?
Rhod: That’s correct. I mean some of my clients for example one of my most famous and well-known clients within oil and gas industry is Wood MacKenzie. They take a fair bit of my data and put it into all their high- priced reports.
Mark: Yeah. We know Wood Mac very well. So, yeah, if you’re a company out there and you’re looking to do business in Russia, Rhod’s company helps you shortcuts and figure out where is the best use of your time and money so you can actually go in make the deals and start making some money and start actually doing some good work out there.
All right. So, I’m sorry, anything else?
Rhod: Yeah. Basically, it’s any part of the sector. I mean my sort of catchphrase is we cover everything from finding it to refining it.
Mark: Yeah. Yeah. So, any project any company out there that’s looking to do business in Russia, reach out to Rhod. He’s a great guy.
Let’s go back. All right. So, we’re – we’re talking about this Asia Pacific LNG market. Is Russia’s starting to look at that market? Are they starting to look to maybe export LNG and compete?
Rhod: Well, one of the major projects that was started in the 90’s and already shipped 10 million tons of LNG is on Sakhalin which is just above Japan. And Japan and China are the two biggest recipients of that. But, this project of LNG in Yamal which is one of the world’s largest gas fields is a joint venture between a Russian company called Novatek, Total, and the Chinese National Oil Corporation.
As I mentioned earlier, the total investment into it is more than $30 billion.
Mark: I didn’t even know – I didn’t even know that was even there. Wow, that’s really cool. So, they were actually kind of first to the Asia Pacific LNG market?
Rhod: Yeah.
Mark: Yeah.
Rhod: They compete directly with the Australians who obviously are a major LNG producer in that region. But Sakhalin has been going since I think 2003.
Mark: Yeah. It was interesting to watch what happen when Japan had their – tsunami and the country as a whole start to look somewhere else other than nuclear. And the thing it’s interesting to me about that is I’ve seen the data, nuclear is one of the safest ways to generate electricity there is, but when public perception runs the wrong way, then you have a shift in what you want to use to power your country and that’s where LNG is fallen in is is Asia Pacific their populations are coming out of an agriculture society, so they need more electricity. And at the same time there’s public sentiment against nuclear which is strange because it’s so safe, but it’s — it’s the way the world runs.
Rhod: Well, I think you’re correct that is relatively safe as long as you don’t build it in an earthquake zone.
Mark: Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Rhod: But, you are absolutely correct. One of the reasons that Gazprom’s exports to Europe are growing is the fact that Germany closed down its nuclear power stations.
Mark: Yeah. They’re inner wind program no matter what you read has been a dismal failure. [Laughs] And so – and, yeah, the only people that really are benefiting — the German people are suffering because their price of electricity is going up to the point that it’s driving out manufacturing which is Germany’s bread and butter you know.
Rhod: Yeah.
Mark: And it just benefits countries like Russia and everybody else that sells them gas. And the funny thing is they’ve actually increased coal-fired plants to fill in the gaps from the renewables which actually made CO2 emissions worst, but the public doesn’t know that.
Rhod: Yeah. I mean we’re in the process of finishing off by one of my major clients, Nord Stream the Nord Stream II pipeline which will actually double the amount of gas that goes under the North under the Baltic Sea into Germany and then to OPAL which is another interconnecting pipeline that then ships black gas down to Austria which can then be routed to Slovakia to the Czech Republic to the many southern republics.
Plus, there’s another pipeline that is going across the Black Sea and that’s called Turkish Stream and that basically will be able to gasify not only Turkey but with extra threads will goes into the Baltic States.
Mark: Yeah. That infrastructure is so important for the financial well-being of companies that export gas. It’s — people don’t realize how much pipelines are in this world. I can’t remember what the stat is, but I know here in the just in the United States if you took all the pipelines that are in the ground and connect them, you’d go around the earth like 17 times you know and that’s just here. And that’s one of the constraints globally.
So, there’s other parts of the world have huge oil and gas fields that are recoverable, but they don’t have to infrastructure such as pipelines to move it around, so it ends up being cheaper for them to import it even though they have their own. You see that happen in Mexico.
Rhod: Yeah.
Mark: Yeah.
Rhod: Yeah. That’s correct. I mean Transneft which means oil transport company translated into English. Neft is the Russian word for oil, right? So, they have 68,000 kilometers of oil pipelines.
Mark: Yeah. That’s crazy. I mean that’s — and the funny thing is the general public has no idea it’s even exist because most of it is underground. It’s like an interstate system underground to move goods around.
Rhod: Yeah. You’re absolutely correct.
Mark: Yeah.
Rhos: So, basically everything in Russia is getting better. Last couple of years have been tough, obviously the oil price going down, but this year the government benefitted by around $60 billion just by the oil price stabilization because they budgeted last year for 2017 oil at $45 if they took the mean average between the previous year of $40 and $50.
And, you know now they’re looking at it from a perspective of hang on a minute maybe $50 to $55 is going to be the mean level for the future.
Mark: Yeah. And I think so too and you’re starting to see U.S. and European companies figure out that’s the new future and so, they have to learn how to be profitable in that world. And you can be, it’s just you can’t be ridiculously wasteful like you were when oil was $140 a barrel.
Rhod: Of course. I mean what you have to understand that once you take the initial investment in Russia into the infrastructure and putting things together the average extraction even at difficult fields as we call them here is between $10 and $15 dollars a barrel.
Now, compare that with the U.S. and where even the shale oil, etc, shale gas, they really need $50, $60 even $70 to actually make money because they’re so indebted. I mean they can’t afford to invest.
Mark: Yeah. It’s interesting we’re starting to see the business models start to change. So, you have the cost to get to the oil, but the other thing a lot people don’t realize there’s a cost to get it out of the ground. It’s called lift cost.
Rhod: Yeah.
Mark: Then, you have to transport it and what’s traditionally happened in the U.S. is that everybody did this on credit, everything from the small mom and pop operators to the largest ones, they would borrow money go do the work and then have to pay that money back with some interest and it was this machine that they were always trying to stay ahead of have enough money to pay my loan debt my bill for that month, but I have to make more money because I know I’m going to borrow more money.
And so, we’re starting to see companies move back toward a cash basis which just makes more fiscal sense, right? And there will be times where companies have to borrow money, but you don’t want to borrow money to keep your operations running so you can borrow more money and it just it’s, you know, that just doesn’t work well especially in the volatile market. So, a lot of companies unfortunately didn’t figure that out and they went out of business, people lost their jobs.
But, we’re starting to see companies move toward more cash basis which I think makes more sense. And I think it’s going to even out these peaks and valleys a little bit. They’ll — it’s still a commodity still a global commodity it’s still up and down, but if we can just level it out so it’s not as much that, just benefits everybody.
Rhod: Well, I think you’re absolutely correct. And what you have to understand this is the last two years of the volatility of the oil prices being in the $30s then the $40s and low in the $50s is investment into new deposits, the finding of new deposits went.
Now, as you aware as I’m aware, it’s six years seven years from finding it to getting out the ground and there’s a lot of expense goes into that. Now, major companies in the West have continued to cut back on investment into being able to find new fields etc focusing cost-cutting on economies of scale that they could get in their current activities. So, they’ve actually neglected the finding of new deposits and the finding of new oil.
That’s going to come back and haunt them and the actual oil price three four or five years down the line you know. Those companies will find that their lack of investment into finding new oil and it’s going to cost them.
Mark: Yeah. So, it’s called exploration is what we call it in the U.S. Exploration’s budget has shrunk dramatically over the last five years. But, you actually bring out a point that I wanted to tell our audience. A lot of people think that companies like Rosneft or Chevron has went out and looked everywhere in the world where there’s oil. They know they only look where they could drill in the next few years.
So, the reserves the amount of oil this planet has – it grows every year because we find new oil. It’s one of those misconceptions where people think that we know where all the oil is or the big companies and they don’t, they only it — it only makes economic sense to spend that exploration money on what you’re going to drill in the immediate future.
The other thing that’s happened is new technologies, new geosciences, new sensors allow us to find oil where previously we couldn’t. So, the amount of oil and gas in this planet is it’s not technically unlimited, but you might as well think of it as unlimited. You know nobody worries about running out of sand to make glass or run out of iron ore to make steel. It’s the same way with oil and gas, we’re not going to run out of it. We’re going to quit using it, we’re going to hit peak demand before we hit peak supply.
So, just as a good point you brought that about the whole exploration part because a lot of people don’t understand that it’s all…
Rhod: Well, also many of your people who might be watching this don’t actually understand is Siberia which is just one part of Russia makes up 60% of it has a population of 11 million people and most of those are in six cities. The rest of it has been explored to a limited extent. That’s where some of the major gas fields are some of the major oil fields, but I say some of them Gazprom extracts and basically covers its extraction with new finds every single year. So, Gazprom produces let’s say 5 billion cubic meters of gas on its balance it’s already replace that by geological exploration and finding.
So, you have to understand is you imagine a country the size of America that only had a population of 7 million.
Mark: Yeah. It’s vast amounts of nothing. [Laughs] And I say nothing as far as I mean there’s like no people at such a sparse population.
Rhod: Oh, yeah. I mean basically the majority of the Russian population are my side of the Ural Mountains you know and you have cities like Tyumen, Tomsk, Vladivostok, etc, but very few of them are any more than a million people. And you can go a thousand miles north and there’s not a lot there.
Mark: Yeah.
Rhod: Apart from millions and millions of trees millions and millions of reindeers and arctic foxes and leopards and all sorts of amazing wildlife. And I don’t know if any of your viewers are into salmon fishing, but forget Alaska, you can fish in rivers and – but you have to get there by helicopter.
Mark: That actually sounds like fun. So, since most of our viewers are in the oil and gas industry, most some hunt and fish. So, it’s actually one of the podcasts we’re working on is the oil and gas to outdoors podcast because this industry has so many people that appreciate nature and the outdoors.
So, Rhod we’re getting kind of close to winding this thing down, is there anything else you want to talk about that’s going on?
Rhod: I think we pretty much covered. Let’s do it again in a month when — let’s do a year and what maybe in sort of one month’s time? Talk about I look back on the year and I can actually pull up some highlights, we’ll do some stats etc.
But, one of the things you touched on really at the beginning is the attitude between Russians — the Russian people and towards Americans and stuff. Your average Russian supermarket is huge, it’s not quite like a Walmart, but it’s getting there, right? And they have everything from live fishing tanks and live crayfish that you can take home in a bag full of water that’s still alive, right?
We have all this stuff and we don’t have people complaining that these fish are being maltreated etc. But, but the alcohol that is available in Russian supermarkets, I can buy wine anywhere in the world from Chile for whatever. But, just to amuse you, I’ve just got a selection from my own collection of alcohol I like to present for my guests when they come around for either my summer party on my Christmas turkey planning.
Now, this one’s going to amuse you. I can buy this for $20.
Mark: You’re kidding me. $20?
Rhod: That’s one liter of Jack for $20.
Mark: That’s crazy. And what’s crazy is it’s made in my own country, it should be cheaper here than it is there.
Rhod: And not only that, I can buy about six different types of it.
Mark: Wow. You know what’s funny about Jack Daniels, we just came back from Tennessee which is where Jack Daniels is made. The county that it’s made in is a dry county, so the residents can’t drink the Jack Daniels that are made in their county. It’s crazy.
Rhod: It’s very crazy. I mean we get all sorts of stuff. Now, you’re in Texas and of course you’re on the Gulf of Mexico and close to Mexico and this is quite popular with young Russians.
Mark: A tequila.
Rhod: Yeah.
Mark: Yeah. That’s really cool. And so, Rhod you’re saying it’s popular with young Russians? So, tequila is not popular with older people? Something relatively new?
Rhod: No. Basically, young people have seen it in the movies and stuff and decided to have shots of it, where the older Russian prefers his vodka.
Mark: Yeah.
Rhod: Or they are huge malt whisky aficionados.
Mark: Yeah. It’s funny, so here the younger population drinks wine and spirits not beer. And so, the beer companies are suffering from the younger generation because they don’t drink beers. It’s funny how generations have differences in what they want to consume.
Rhod: Okay. Well, next when we do it, I will pull up a selection of craft beers because that’s one of the biggest growth here is the young people drink more and more beers and less and less spirits.
Mark: Yeah.
Rhod: Right? This is quite amusing because we even get stuff like this.
Mark: I don’t even know what that is.
Rhod: It’s an aged rum.
Mark: Where’s that from? What part of the world is that from?
Rhod: That’s from Cuba.
Mark: Cuba. Okay. That’s pretty cool.
Rhod: One of the things I will amuse you with is being a British guy as you know I enjoy gin and tonic which is what I’m drinking. The actually make gin.
Mark:Wow. That is cool.
Rhod: This is actually made in Russia and it’s called Barrister because I think they thought it sounded like it was something very Eng…
Mark: That’s funny. And gin, if I remember it, gin is made from juniper berries? So, it’s something different.
Rhod: Yes.
Mark: Yeah. All right. That’s cool. So, you and I were to talk about this off the mic. We have in our budget for 2018 actually make a trip to Russia. We don’t have it approved yet, so we don’t know if we’re going to do it. But, I have been wanting to go to Russia forever and it’s, you know, it’s one of the biggest oil and gas producers or actually I think if I — so, today’s…
Rhod: The world’s biggest oil and gas producer.
Mark: Yeah. Today, it is the biggest of all and gas producer. So, it’s, you know, it’s been a dream of mine. It’s fun to have you on the show. Any of our listeners if you’re looking to do business in Russia or if you’re curious if it makes sense to do business in Russia, reach out to Rhod. He can help you walk through all that stuff.
Rhod, I know it’s evening over there, it’s Friday you’re getting to enjoy some time with your family. Thanks for coming on the show.
Rhod: Mark, always a pleasure. By the way, I do hope you’re not reported to the congressional committee on collusion with Russians to interfere in the oil and gas industry in the USA.
Mark: Oh, don’t even get me started on that. That’s our own media just doing stupid stuff and what unfortunately people start believing that sort of stuff and it turns into snowball thing it’s like have some common sense, right? No. But, I’m not testifying there. Actually, I wish I was, but they won’t have me there.
All right, Rhod. Once you get back we’re going to put a link to your website in the show notes so if people want to check out Rusmininfo just got show notes click on link you’ll see what he’s doing.
And, Rhod we will have you back in the show in about a month.
Rhod: Excellent. Thanks, Mark.
Mark: Yeah. So, folks I hope this helped. We will see you next time.
Mark: Hey, folks let’s learn something new about the oil and gas industry.
Today, we’re in beautiful Austin, Texas which if you don’t know is the capital of Texas. We’re sitting here with Greg Pollock.
How are you doing today, Greg?
Greg: I am fine, Mark. Good to be with you.
Mark: Yeah. And, Greg, you are heavily involved in this conference that’s coming up the first week of December called Clean Gulf. What is Clean Gulf?
Greg: Well, Clean Gulf which we’re celebrating our 27th year – believe it or not is a show that is designed to appeal to many sectors of those operating in the oil and gas industry.
We have exhibit, we have a trade show, we have content program content for the attendees to learn about what the trends are in the oil and gas industry not only with oil spill prevention or response, but even some drilling. You know it’s a multi-faceted program. And then, of course, there are opportunities to network and the fellowship that goes along with being at a conference.
Mark: And I’ve heard your content is exquisite, it’s so good it’s so high quality that if people want to learn more about this sort of thing, this is the place to go.
Greg: Well, we have obviously we’re – this is Texas, the world’s brightest stars are here. Fortunately, we have been able to tap into such a deep talent pool over the years to bring together the folks that program the committee. They actually build the content. So, we’re using the best and brightest to build the best show we possibly can.
Mark: Yeah. And so, OGGN will be there. We will report in as press, we have all the podcasts are going to be there. This is a great show. It’s actually for the first time actually going to be in Houston this year?
Greg: Yeah. Believe it or not we’ve been doing this for – well, we’ll be twenty seven years and this is the first time we’ll be in Houston. We’ve been in Galveston before, we’ve been in San Antonio, but we thought we would bring it back to – to really the heart of where the oil and gas industry is. So, we’re very, very excited about the prospects of being at the George R. Brown Convention Center, December 5th, 6th, and 7th.
Mark: Yeah. You gave the dates. Do you know the website, so if people wanted to learn more about Clean Gulf, where should they go?
Greg: It’s pretty darn simple, CleanGulf.org.
Mark: Yeah. We’ll put a link in the show notes.
And then, Greg, the other thing that I thought was really cool, y’all are actually giving away free passes to just the expo floor like people don’t have to pay if they want to go walk the floor?
Greg: Absolutely. If members of the public or maybe some folks who just don’t have the wherewithal, but they’re still interested in learning what are the best products that are out there to serve the oil and gas industry, you can get an exhibitor — a pass onto the exhibit floor where you can see all of that wonderful technology that our – that our vendors have on display.
Mark: Yeah. And so, we’re going to put that discount code in the show notes too, so you can actually watch the show for free.
All right. So, December 5th through 7th, 2017, George R. Brown in Houston. You’ll be there, right?
Greg: Absolutely, I’ll be there.
Mark: And, we’ll be there and you need to be there. So, if you want to learn more about this fascinating part of the oil and gas industry, go show up. If you go, hit us up on Twitter and if we can meet you in person we’d love to do this.
So, Greg, thank you so much for your time today.
Greg: Mark, thank you. It’s a pleasure being with you.
Mark: Yeah. So, folks I hope this helped. We will see you next time.
Mark: Hey, folks let’s learn something new about the oil and gas industry.
All right. We’re sitting here in TechStar with Craig.
How are you doing today, Craig?
Craig: I’m doing great. Thanks.
Mark: And so, you and I both have an event that we love to death that you are involved with which is the ISA Chili Cookoff, but the venue got moved because of the hurricane.
Craig: That’s correct. For years we’ve been hosting out, our venue has been in Houston Farm and Ranch Club and hurricane Harvey of course devastated it like it did so many other things. So, we were able to keep the date the same at November 9th, but we pulled off a minor miracle and found a new location and it’s called the Oil Ranch Hut in Hockley, Texas
Mark: Yeah. And so, if you’ve watched the blog for any length of time, you know that every year we’re at the Chili Cookoff. This is a big event around process control, but the money actually goes to a great cause, doesn’t it?
Craig: Yeah. So, our sponsors and our members are all involved in the oil and gas industry, but the purpose of this event is to raise funds for scholarships to students.
Mark: It’s a great event with all your peers in the oil and gas industry. If you’re in that process control world or you want to learn about the process control, what’s so cool about this is all the vendors are there, but they’re not trying to sell you anything.
What they’re doing is they’re trying to win a prize because everybody cooks chilies, so you get to eat get to drink beer and you can just talk to guys about process control and they’ll show you everything behind the hood including TechStar, y’all are going to be out there, aren’t y’all?
Craig: Yes. We’re going to be out there. We’ve been out there for I don’t – before I came to work at TechStar. But, there is no fee for attendees, it’s free of charge. All the beer and chili you can stand is free. The real benefit for people who attend is that there is going to be like forty nine different companies from the oil and gas industry that will have products to display and demo and just talk about to explain to you how – how the product works and how it benefits you.
On top of that, you get to network with all the – your co-workers that are also in the industry.
Mark: Audience, you have no excuse not to show up.
Craig, if they want to learn more, what’s the website?
Craig: It’s HoustonISA.org. And there’s a scrolling banner across the front that gives all the details on the event, when it starts, where it’s at and how to get there.
Mark: Yeah. And so, folks we’ll put links to the show notes, so this way you don’t have to be writing down. But, I’m telling you go and if you go, hit me up on Twitter. Craig will be there, the whole Oil and Gas Global Network will be there. We are actually probably recording some podcasts and videos, so track us down. It’s a great time, it’s worth your time going. Go.
Craig, thank you so much for your time today.
Craig: Thank you, Mark. I appreciate it.
Mark: Yeah. So, folks I hope this helped. We will see you next time.
I saw a post on LinkedIn last week. The writer of the post suggested that one cannot learn to sell by reading books. This statement is true, but not in the way the poor writer suggests. His suggestion is that there is no reason to read books to improve your performance, and that suggestion is not only incorrect, it is as stupid as it is dangerous.
I can’t imagine missing Neil Rackham’s SPIN Selling. That book provided me with the awareness that selling was, in part, about the exploration of the implications people and companies face when they don’t change. We talk a lot about “insights,” and there are plenty of books about that idea now, but Rackham was way out ahead here. Had I not read that book, I would have also missed the idea of an “advance,” a commitment that moves an opportunity forward without being the final ask. (This is idea was the spark for my second book, based on my experience using Rackham’s idea. You are free to insert your own quote about standing on the shoulders of giants here, should you decide it necessary).
More still, had I not read SPIN, I would not have bought Major Account Sales Strategy, still my all-time favorite sales book. These two books helped me personally generate hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. In total, I might have paid $50 for both books.
Thankfully, as a young person, I believed there were people who knew a lot more than me, and whose knowledge I could steal for myself simply by reading a book. I believed I could accelerate my acquisition of a certain outcome by reading and applying what I read.
What if I would have missed Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People? I would not have realized as early as I did that who you are matters more than what you do. I would have also missed all the books he wrote after that one, all of which changed by life and my results, Like First Things First.
If it were not for books, I would have never found Howard Bloom, and I would have never read The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Exploration of the Forces of History. Had I not read that book, I would believe that the word “meme” means funny ideas shared on the Internet and not the larger idea of how ideas infect our minds and how they spread.
I would not have become interested in evolutionary psychology were it not for Howard’s book. Were that not true, I would not have walked the shelves of Barnes & Noble and would have missed The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychologyby Robert Wright. I would have missed a book that increased my understanding of the deep structural psychology we humans share.
The list of books that have helped me produce better results in business and in life would take dozens of newsletters. Any suggestion that you should not read books should be rejected with extreme prejudice, and you should think carefully about taking any advice from people who believe there is nothing to learn from others if it has been published as a book. There is no reason to remain ignorant when help gaining knowledge and understanding is available to you for a song.
What is on your book stack?
Comment to send me your thoughts, ideas, and stories. Hit forward to send this newsletter to someone you know who could benefit from reading a book! Ask them to join us here each Sunday by signing up at www.thesalesblog.com/newsletter.
Do good work this week, and I’ll see you back here next Sunday!
Today, how to develop into an oil and gas expert. We get asked this question literally two or three times every month, for years. How to become an oil and gas expert. We have people that reach out to us that want to change their careers, and they want to do some of the stuff that we’re doing. So we’re going to rattle off the things you need to do if you want to develop into an Oil and Gas expert.
The first one, and if you have listened to me for any length of time you know this could come out of my mouth – plan. You have to have a plan. Not in your head, but you have to have it written down and it’s something that you need to reference often. You need to have overarching goals and then you need to have those goals broken down into actual things you can actually execute on. And then you need to have those actually broken down into tactical things, things you need to do every day to reach these parts of the goals. If you don’t have a plan, you never will become an expert.
If You Want to Develop into an Oil and Gas Expert, You Must Learn
Next learn. You have to educate yourself and the thing I see a lot of people do, especially in our industry is they know part of our industry. And they think that’s the whole industry. So they only focus on the part that they’re in, not realizing that’s only a small percentage of the entire industry. This industry is enormous, and you have to (at least at a high level) learn about the different parts if you want to develop into an Oil and Gas expert.
You have to spend time learning; formal education, seminars, classes, online events, conferences, expos, whatever it takes to continuously learn. And something else that you need to do if you want to develop into an Oil and Gas expert. You never, never stop learning. We literally put time in our calendars every month to learn, because there’s always something new to study and pick up. The moment you stop learning is the moment you stop being an expert.
Connect With Other Oil and Gas Experts
Then connect with other oil and gas experts. I have a lot of people I’m connected to, many of them on a different maturity scale than I am. Some of them are just starting their careers, some are the end of their careers. But I always get valuable and useful information out of my network. Your network, your other oil and gas experts you that you connected with. They help make sure you’re current, make sure that you’re aware of things that maybe you weren’t. We talk about learning a little while ago, well they also make sure that you learn the newest things. So having that network of other oil and gas experts, is unbelievably important.
And when you’re starting, especially if you’re just coming in in this industry and you’re trying to establish yourself. You have to have a broad knowledge, don’t specialize, learn at a high level the entire oil and gas industry.
The industry is made up of bunch of components. Basically you can break this down into upstream, midstream, downstream, and service. Go here to watch a short video we did years ago. The content is great, but don’t make fun of the quality of the video:-) It’s really good information to understand the broadness and the scope of our industry. You have to have that broad knowledge. Once you have that broad knowledge, then you can specialize if you want. But start off with a broad knowledge to develop into an Oil and Gas expert.
Practice Makes Perfect
Then like everything else, practice. Whatever you want to be an expert around, you have to actually do it. So in our case it’s speaking. Just helping the companies in their sales and marketing departments hit their goals. We actually do it. When I started doing this, I did a whole bunch of this sort of stuff for free, so I could get to practice. And even now, and my crew fuss at me sometimes for this, I sometimes do stuff that we don’t get paid for. But it’s part of me practicing my craft. You have to practice.
Then, here’s another one that sometimes you need other people to help you figure out. You need to identify your weaknesses. So you need to identify parts of your expertise that you’re not very strong in, and that’s where you need to spend your time to. You need to figure out how to take those weaknesses and turn them into strengths. If you don’t identify your weaknesses, you will have gaps in being seen as an oil and gas expert. Like I said it’s often very helpful if you have other people help point out your weaknesses and gaps.
I’ll give you a great example for us. I am not the best financial person in the world and I have other people in our organization that help me with that, because it’s a weakness. Now I’ve addressed that weakness. You have to be able to do the same.
Always Check the Source
You know we talked about learning and education. We’re living in a modern information overloaded world and there’s a lot of bad information out there. The information that you consume to help you be an oil and gas expert – check the source, every single time. There is so much misinformation, wrong information, politically influenced info and if you let those bad pieces of information get into your box of tools, then you start making bad decisions based upon bad data. And you’re not seen as an expert anymore. So every time, check your sources.
Here’s one you’ll actually not hear people talk about, but I think it’s probably one of the most important – desire. If you want to be an oil and gas expert, you have to believe in your heart that that’s where your calling is. That’s what you want to be, that’s what you want to do. You have to have a passion around that. If you’ve listened to us any length of time, you’ve seen us speak at any events. You know I have a passion around this industry; I love this industry. I love the stories in our industry, I love the people in our industry, I love the technology in our industry. It’s real and a huge passion of mine. You have to have that same desire.
To Develop into an Oil and Gas Expert Have Fun
And then, quite honestly even though it’s work, have fun with it! This is a wonderful global industry of people doing business with people. This industry likes to do good stuff for the planet, we like to provide prosperity to the world, but we also like to have fun. So enjoy that part as well. If you want to develop yourself as an oil and gas expert, you have to enjoy the journey. You have to have fun and if you don’t, you won’t ever get there.
So there you go, these are some tips on how you can become an oil and gas expert. If you found this valuable, can you do me a favor? There’s some social share buttons here, just click a couple of them help us share this blog post to more people.
This well-recognized training company called my friend and engaged him in signing his team up for their training. He brought his team into the call to get their buy into the program to ensure that they liked the program and would use it. On the next call with the salesperson, my friend said he wanted to talk it over before buying, and the salesperson started using old school, bullying tactics to try to get him to sign a contract.
The salesperson, attacking him personally, said “I though you said you were the man. I thought you said you had the authority to decide. You said you could do this.”
This is a hard sell. There is a reason it is no longer practiced by professional salespeople. It operates on the assumption that you can shame the person you are selling into signing a contract. It also assumes that the other person is weak, and that they will cave under this form of pressure.
Not getting a signature, the salesperson brought his manager on to the call, and they both started pressuring their prospective client, “Let’s do this man! Let’s get this signed, and let’s get your people into this training!”
By raising the energy, raising their voices, and increasing the intensity of their ask, they ratcheted up the pressure, making it more difficult for my friend to say no. This kind of self-oriented win at any cost approach is smarmy, self-oriented, pushy, manipulative, and the primary reason the word salesperson has a negative connotation—even though almost no one uses these tactics.
If you have to bully someone into buying what you sell, you are making up for a lack of sales skills with a form of force. This means that you are not good at selling, and that you are compensating for this fact using intimidation, manipulation, and coercion.
If you have to attack a person’s identity to get them to buy from you, the need to use tactics that belittle the person you are selling to is proof that you are really bad at selling. Those insults are a projection of the inadequacy that you feel, and an indication that you are willing to do whatever it takes to get what you want. But what you are missing cannot be cured by making a commission on a deal.
The fact that you cannot help a person make a decision to buy something they want or need willingly, without using force, coercion, or manipulation is proof that you suck at sales. It’s also proof of what you believe success in sales requires of you, even though you could not be more wrong.
Selling isn’t something you do to someone. It is something you do for and with someone. If you don’t have the skillful means to have the necessary conversations to win deals, then you work on that area and you increase your capacity to sell professionally.
There is never a good reason to sacrifice who you are at your core to win a deal. Period.
Comment to send me your thoughts, ideas, and stories. Hit forward to send this newsletter to someone you know who could benefit from the big idea here. Ask them to join us here each Sunday by signing up at www.thesalesblog.com/newsletter.
Do good work this week, and I’ll see you back here next Week!
Anthony Iannarino
P.S. Now you know why I close these emails and sign my books with the words “Do good work.” You may have thought it referred to the quality of the work. It doesn’t. I write that because I want you to do good while you do work.
P.P.S. My book, The Lost Art of Closing, is about how to gain commitments as a professional salesperson. It is the polar opposite to the approach described above. If you pick it up at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or 800CEOREAD (the best place for bulk purchases), email me you receipt to anthony@iannarino.com, so I can send you bonuses and add you to our Facebook Mastermind Coaching group.
P.P.P.S. I am not sure I am going to make the Sales 3.0 Conference in Philly on December 4th, but my friend Jeb Blount is going to be there. And so is another person I love like a brother, Gerhard Gschwandtner. If you want to be there, use the code “ai50phl” to get 50% off your ticket!
P.P.P.P.S. If you haven’t subscribed to my YouTube channel, go here to sign up. Every Day is back to every day.
Mark: Hey, folks let’s learn something new about the oil and gas industry.
All right. Today, we’re sitting here with Rick with Rigstar. How are you doing, Rick?
Rick: I’m doing great. Thanks.
Mark: And we’re going to talk about a conference that we go to every year, OilComm. Now, Rick you’re not just somebody that’s going to be at the conference, you’ve actually has been heavily involved with Oil Con for a long time.
Rick: Yeah, absolutely. So, I’ve been – I’ve been a member of the advisory board off and on over the last seven years, about five years on the conference advisory board. I’ve attended – worked for ExxonMobil for ten years. We were the group responsible for telecom on offshore oil rigs and land based rigs and temporary offices, so we’ve attended as a buyer.
When I made my way over to another one of the vendors at the show, I spent two years attending as a vendor. I spent a couple of years attending just as an outside person to the oil and gas industry, but not in telecom and now, I’m going to be back as – as a vendor again. So, kind of a well-rounded experience there attending from all angles.
Mark: Yeah. And so, from your experience if somebody is out there listening and they’re trying to figure out if they want to attend the OilComm, do they want to expend their travel budget, what would you tell them?
Rick: Well, so OilComm is just a two-day conference in Houston. It’s scheduled again this year back at the Houston Westchase Marriott. It’s right in the heart of the energy corridor of Houston on the west end of Houston.
It’s kind of like a one-stop shop, you are able to interface with every primary vendor in the industry from whatever telecom band you like you operate in. But, there’s folks from all the major oil and gas companies and service companies and it’s really an opportunity to get time in front of everybody that are your peers in the industry. It’s a really great value for sure.
Mark: Yeah. And so, you know we’ve been harping a lot on how technology has changed and technology continue to pour into our industry, part of that technology’s ability to work is its ability to communicate to talk and this is what it all comes about all the different venues all the different platforms that you actually can have communications.
So, you may not have attended OilComm in the past, but if you’re involved in any type of technology you need to understand how things talk and that’s what OilComm is a great event for.
Rick: Certainly. And, in OilComm while its primary focus is the telecommunication side of the business, you’re absolutely right there are folks from the cybersecurity point of view. There is going to be folks there from the physical hardware from the overall managed service side.
But, again, the real value comes in in the halls not just in the in the speaking sessions which I think we’ve got over 30 speakers this year from a variety of different country — countries and companies. But, going between the expo floor and the conference sessions or just on the expo floor, you’ll have an opportunity to meet and collaborate with people that are in similar roles in both competitor companies and your service companies and you don’t get a chance to get everybody in one spot very often.
Mark: Yes, that’s the part that we love about this, everybody is there. So, all three podcasts will be there. We would be there as press. We’re recording podcasts from the event.
Now, OilComm pushed out due to the hurricane Harvey, what’s the new date?
Rick: So, December 6th and 7th. Yeah, hurricane Harvey blew it out a few months, but the timing is going to be just right for everyone.
Mark: Yeah. And if people want to learn more about OilComm, where should they go?
Rick: So, OilComm.com, the website. Certainly you’ll find that there’s also another show at the same time called FleetComm if you’re on the fleet side of the business, but all that information is on the website a list of the speaker gallery, a list of the all the exhibitors, and a whole conference agenda as well as the networking events which are again a great way to meet industry colleagues.
Mark: Yeah. So, we’ll put links in the show notes, so you don’t need be writing anything.
Rick, thank you so much for your time today.
Rick: Certainly. Thank you very much. I hope to see everybody at the show.
Mark: Yeah. So, folks I hope this helped. We will see you next time.
If there is one single thing I could recommend that would help you produce better results faster, it would be this: eliminate the cognitive burden of thinking about the work you need to do.
I am writing this immediately after reviewing all my tasks in my task manager, Omnifocus. Right now, I have 160 active tasks. That sounds like a lot, but it isn’t. Many of those tasks are there because I am going to get to them someday soon, but they don’t need my attention right now. Some of them are placeholders for projects, and those are going to take time to complete, and they will have many more tasks attached them when I move on them.
This picture is my task manager. I have 14 tasks still to do today, some of them will take minutes, a few take more time. What these tasks have in common is that I am going to do them today, many of them were scheduled last weekend, and none of them were put here today. And that is one of the major keys to massive productivity, knowing what you are going to do before your day starts, or in my case, before the week starts.
Deciding what to do is not really work. It is the work you should do before you can actually do your real work. Separating the cognitive work, the thinking about the work you need to do, prioritizing it, and deciding when you are going to do it, eliminates spending more time than is necessary when you start your work day. Instead of having to look through all your tasks, rewriting your to-do list, or going straight to your email inbox, you get to work doing what is important.
When you have done the work of deciding what work needs to be done and have scheduled it, you can move from one task to the next, without having to stop to figure out what to do next, and without being distracted. That doesn’t mean that you can’t leave space. You can leave space in your day, and you should. You are not a robot. But neither do you have all the time in the world, and if you ever wished you had a 28-hour day, this is the closest you’re going to come to expanding the hours in your day.
About those 160 tasks . . . you have as many or more than I do. If you don’t know you have that many tasks, you just aren’t keeping a running a list in one place. If that is true, not only are many out of sight and out of mind, you are likely worrying about what you have forgotten.
Comment to send me your thoughts, ideas, and stories. Hit forward to send this newsletter to someone you know who could benefit from the big idea here. Ask them to join us here each Sunday by signing up at www.thesalesblog.com/newsletter.
Do good work this week, and I’ll see you back here next week!
Anthony Iannarino
P.S. If you have not yet purchased The Lost Art of Closing and joined the Facebook Mastermind Coaching program, you missed the second session yesterday. There were about 50 people live on Zoom, and close to 400 total in the group. We already posted the video for the folks who could not join us live. If you want in, order the book and send me your receipt to anthony@iannarino.com.
As an author, I know that writing 1,000 words per day for 60 days results in a book. By writing an additional 200 words a day, making my total word count 1,200 words instead of 1,000 words, I cut ten days off the time it takes me to write a book. By writing a couple of additional paragraphs each day, I have pulled that result forward.
If you make 20 outbound calls a day, or 100 a week, resulting in your booking five appointments, you will visit with around 250 prospective clients in a year. Dialing the phone and additional five times each day results in another 25 calls weekly, and one additional appointment. Instead of seeing 250 clients over the course of the year, you will see 300. This means you will have pulled most of the meetings you would have had in the first quarter of the following year into this year.
Let’s apply this same thinking to winning deals. How do you move a deal forward in time?
If your sales process takes an average 180 days to complete, deciding to compress the time required to have all the necessary meetings, can shorten the time it takes to win deals. For example, if you typically wait until you’re deep into the discovery process before bringing in the stakeholders who will need to support your initiative, moving these stakeholders into the conversation sooner not only improve the likelihood of your winning, it can also shorten the sales cycle.
By doing what you might do over the course of 4 sales calls in 2 sales calls instead, you start to pull your results forward, and you reduce the time it takes to win a deal, and you pull the results forward for your client at the same time.
While there is nothing novel or magic about anything written above, most of us don’t spend enough time thinking about how to pull the results we want forward in time, and most of us don’t take the necessary actions to do so.
What results do you need now, and how do you pull those results forward?
Comment to send me your thoughts, ideas, and stories. Hit forward to send this newsletter to someone you know who could benefit from generating the results they want sooner. Ask them to join us here each Sunday by signing up at www.thesalesblog.com/newsletter.
Do good work this week, and I’ll see you back here next Sunday!
P.P.P.S. If you have not yet purchased The Lost Art of Closing and joined the Facebook Mastermind Coaching program, you missed the first session yesterday. There were about 75 people live on Zoom, and 367 total in the group. We already posted the video for the folks who could not join us live. If you want in, order the book and send me your receipt to anthony@iannarino.com.
I can’t imagine missing Neil Rackham’s 
