The Sales-Operations Connection

Machine-generated transcript of “The Sales-Operations Connection”. Paragraph breaks mark a change of speaker. Click a timestamp to play from that point.

0:02 This is Under Pressure. Compressor Talk by Midwest Compressor. Strategies, systems, and stories from the compressor world. With your host, David Abshire. And now, on to the show.

0:20 Welcome to the Under Pressure Podcast, the number one interview podcast for oil and gas professionals. I'm your host, David Abshire. And with me today is Jason Lagrand, Vice President of Strategic Development at Midwest Compressor. Jason brings over 15 years of experience in the oil and gas service operations at Midwest Compressor. He's played a key role in driving exponential growth across six states, particularly in vapor recovery and wellhead compression. Today we'll dive into how Midwest Compressor continues to innovate in methane capture, operate, simply, sustain a be a sustainable energy practices with our customers. So good morning, Jason. Thank you for being on. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Jason, uh, let's uh let's start with your background this morning. How did you get into oil and gas service industry and what is your current role at Midwest Compressor involve?

1:15 Yeah, so um thanks, David. Appreciate you guys having me uh on the on the show. Always like to be a part here. Uh I uh got in the oil and gas space about 15 years ago and have always been on the the service side, right? I had a previous career and my father had been in the business on the upstream chemical side for about 40 years, and so I was invited to work with him about the last five years of his life. So um an excellent trainer, you know, building rep, you know, a reputation and and all of the basic customer service, you know, skills and needs. So I started as a chemical blender and then quickly moved on to a service technician and gained my CDL hazmat and drove you know five or six thousand miles a month at one point. Um in the beginning, I started to sell some pipe on pipe friction reducer to cool tubing outfits like truckloads at a time. So I was like, wow, this is fun, kind of cool on the sales side, right? And then everything just kind of went from there. And I've worked for a few smaller companies. I've also uh made a stop off at the Big Red Halliburton, which was uh a great experience, especially for the training and you know, all of the the the big company type things, and then joined Midwest Compressor uh a little over three and a half years ago, and uh have been around for exponential growth, as we mentioned earlier. And in my current role, I help support our sales staff, right, uh in uh six states where we operate, and then look for obviously strategic growth opportunities and partnerships that our company can uh help grow in a smart way. That's kind of a summed up for me.

2:55 Well, you you mentioned uh Midwest operates across several states. Uh what kind of projects are you currently focused on?

3:02 Wow, man, that's a good question. Uh, you know, one comes the top of mind, right? Uh we have a a helium project actually that we're working on in southern Colorado, which is really cool. So I guess this will be maybe our what second helium project in the company, you know. This one will be a little bit bigger longer term, and we actually are delivering our first two units there today. So uh happy you asked. Yeah, absolutely.

3:25 Yeah, it's exciting, it's exciting stuff to be able to work with new customers on new projects, uh, especially using our equipment, uh, just being able to, you know, see our customers able to flourish with our equipment and our technology that we use. Um for for listeners outside the oil and gas space, what's one thing about your work that people often misunderstand that you feel like?

3:49 Probably that what I do is easy because of my personality, right? They're like, man, you you should be in sales. Like you're probably real good at it because you know, you know how to talk to people. Well, that comes with a lot of like personal, I guess, insight and training, I guess, and just experience, right? Like, I have to get myself pumped up to go in to speak with people just like anybody else. Some people, oddly enough, may take a drink, some people may use mouthwash, some people may eat potato chips or chew mints. I literally have to stop and breathe for a second and think about what I'm gonna do, and then go in and and make the best efforts with uh hopefully everything in mind, right? Yeah, absolutely.

4:32 That's a that's a great answer. When you think about your upcoming podcast audience, uh many of them being field professionals and decision makers in the industry, what insights are you most excited to share with them?

4:44 So about the company itself, that you know, we're willing to do whatever it takes to gain opportunity if it's you know, if it fits within, you know, uh our ways of doing business and also maybe a new customer, right? We're a smaller company, easier to easier to work with most times, I would say. Not a bunch of red tape, but as we've grown, we've put uh a lot of uh things in place so we can work for you know some larger outfits, I guess you would say. And then also on the technology side, you know, we're always looking for better ways to uh suit uh the needs of our field service reps uh and also uh our customers on the you know on the service side for better runtime with our units. And just me personally, it's just good to bring, you know, be a part of a company to bring a good quality product at a great price. And uh I love creating opportunity and showing, you know, I I visit many different areas, right, to look at opportunities and gain work. And some areas I visit, oddly enough, you know, I would I would uh fair to say that they may be mistreated because of the types of equipment that they're actually offered by the current vendors, right? And the cool thing about Midwest Compressor is is you know 95% of our fleet is less than two years old because of our growth. Um, which typically brings higher quality product when you when you start up, right? Um and then they don't have these same folks don't have the the feeling of the good equipment is going to a more prolific basin, right?

6:23 So that's a couple things there. Absolutely. Well, one of the things you know that I know you spoke on at the petroleum alliance uh methane reduction meeting was a new compressor package that we've came out with. Would you mind just touching base and telling us a little bit about that package that we that we've released to the customers now?

6:42 Yeah, definitely. I knew that you would uh either you or myself would hold that in our back pocket for the interview here. So we that's pretty cool. So we have uh we're fortunate enough to actually set one of those in southern Oklahoma recently, and we have a couple of more out in in other areas, right? So we were able to kind of thin this out from the start where we went to the manufacturer looking for, you know, a certain application for a compressor, US of A manufacturer, which is nice close by, a very engaged group as far as a vendor goes for us, and then work with them on, you know, partner with them on building a package. Of course, we built it all, but anyway, and this no flare or flare out compressor is a smaller footprint, oilless, so it's better for the environment. It's also better on the service side, so it you know doesn't require as much service. And the short time that we've had these in the field, we're getting very good feedback, very good performance, and uh only time will tell, but things look pretty positive so far. So this package was originally designed for packing gas, right? So once an operator gets the VRUs and the the flare stacks and the the burners all set to where they're legal or compliant, then the FLIR camera may go over on location and see the larger horsepower compressors, and they're like, Well, hey, you know, we got we got a little something going on over here. And it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when, right? It's like you can't keep the packing so tight where you're not going to have, you know, some gas leakage coming by at some point. And then in some areas, you know, uh frankly, they're just not serviced uh as much as they should be. So we have a solution for that. Um set those bad boys up uh, you know, for the inlet of the little reciproc electric reciprocating compressor and pull on that. But we have found a couple other uses for it. 20 to 60 mcf can run at a higher suction pressure, which is really nice sometimes, right? And then discharges in 150 or 200 psi and um just extremely energy efficient because we typically package them with a seven and a half horsepower up to about a 20 horsepower electric motor. So that's kind of long and short of that. If I miss something there, be sure and let me know.

8:57 No, I I think you I think you did a great job covering it. I'm excited about it. Uh, you know, you brought up originally what it was designed for. And it's funny that, you know, obviously internally we see tons of other applications that could follow suit that we've been able to utilize it for. Uh, I did watch a little video the other day, you know, with a lot of the bigger reset compressors that are out there where you know there's been new valve designs that's been released to try to help methane reduction from the packing gas leaking and longer run times and things like that. I think I think you hit the nail on the head when you know uh things are just not maintenance uh correctly. Um, and you know, they follow all the intervals to be able to, you know, have zero methane leaks, uh, which is a big thing for all our major operators in the industry today. And this is where you know this package could fall in and of course help uh you know those operators, especially uh, you know, with it being oilless, uh, you know, this compressor could sit idle for you know three months before it even seen a leak and be able to you know start up and run and shut down. So it's very, very cool to see what we've been able to do with a small package that's gonna help our operators and our end users, you know, over the length of their their well life.

10:14 So you've seen, you know, for with you know, you and I both have had you know uh long-term experience uh at the field level, right? And there's things that you know we would like for them it to be the you know uh the golden goose, the best thing in the whole wide world. But when it comes down to field level, you know, what really happens, you know, we have to bring that up and talk about it, right? So, and if this gas is going to be leaking by, let's capture it, right? And uh do it, do it in a good way, do it in a very economic way, you know, and be compliant about it. So yeah, looking forward to that.

10:51 Yeah, absolutely. And so you've been part of Midwest growth from the early days. What's your journey been like personally?

10:58 Man, you know, I've had a lot of challenges, to be perfectly honest with you. You know, there's been a lot of uh a lot more great times than the challenging times. Sometimes it feels like it has felt like that we've had our hair on fire, but we've always, you know, found a way to make you know the good things happen, right? We've seen a lot of uh folks come and go, and we've been able to to hire up and get some other people on our teams that you know allow us to move forward as a company, you know. So all of the relationships that that you create with all the people that have been here over the time. I mean, you know, there's only a few of us left from whenever I started in the company, you know. So it's really good to see what we've created and and uh the the different areas. So I mean, I tell the story all the time that I used to work when I first came to work for you, I worked in the study of my home, you know. That's before my wife started working at home, and then she was like, Hey, can you get out of here? She's like, I can't stand the pacing and the selling and the you know uh the deal making you're trying to do here. It's like you can only, you know, she's like, Hadn't you already called that guy today? So anyway, we were fortunate enough to, you know, a couple of years ago get a little place down the road from where we are, and then you know, hire some field services people. And then we've recently expanded uh where my office currently is uh near Oklahoma City once more, right? So now we're going to take that and try to carbon copy it in other basins. So it's been it's been a great experience.

12:26 Yeah, no, that's that's great. I love that. So what's what's some of the biggest challenges that you see operators and service providers facing right now in the field?

12:35 Yeah, so you know, you're talking about maybe from a customer side cop customer basis, you know, cost is always a big thing, you know, when you're looking at the LOE on the on the casing drawdown side with what you know with the services we provide there, you know, we they really want to, you know, save every save every penny that they can, you know, whether it's a field level checkoff on, you know, a curb on that spending or approval on that spending, you know, for them to keep to continue what they want to do as far as increasing their production with our equipment, right? There's certain challenges they have internally that they have to meet just like everywhere else, right? So once we better understand those challenges and you know ask the right questions, we can we can really identify what the needs are. And some of those needs are just for us to be there when they need it. For we know that whenever they're uh not in such a good mood, it's not necessarily because of us, it's probably because somebody, you know, was coming down on them. And then they just want their service companies to be mature, handle things the right way, and communicate. Communication that runs you know through everything, the communication, um, challenges of will, you know, of uh the commodity prices, of course, right? And what we've seen over the last few years is a curb in spending or maybe a more a tighter budget so it things don't just go crazy wild like hundred dollar oil, if it were, you know, um, just to be to maintain production and drilling schedules and things like that, rather than adding 10 rigs, they'll have five, you know, or something, you know, something like that. Just uh financial maintenance, really.

14:13 Yeah, absolutely. No, that's a that's a great answer, Jason. On the operations side, uh, where do you see the bottlenecks tend to appear most often? And how have you been addressing them on your side from the sales perspective?

14:24 Yeah, so uh bottlenecks, let's see, sometimes, you know, manufacturing schedules, you know, uh on our side, you know, bottlenecks on their side when you know a customer says, hey, we need to, you know, order 10 more units and moving some of that stuff along. So just really from the field level to the office or the buyers that that that make the decisions, uh the final decisions. And uh sometimes people just aren't available, right? And you can't take that personally, it's just you got to ping them and and find out. You know, oftentimes when they want some information, you know, as a vendor, we we jump and give them you know what they need quickly, and and I think that we have it ingrained in our minds to that we should be received the same, you know, a time frame there. But that's not always that's always the way that it goes, to be honest. Most of the time it's fine, but you know, there there are those challenging times.

15:21 So yeah, no, absolutely. That's another great answer as well. So, Jason, you manage a large network of people across regions. How do you maintain that alignment between the field and field operations and management and just work together with everybody? You know, I know it can be challenging, especially when we're over multiple states. It's a lot to keep up with.

15:42 It is, you know, and you and I talked about some stuff the other day about how often we need to beware and and things, you know, to cover cover space. You know, with today's technology, you know, it makes things a little simpler. However, you know, I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a technology guy. I like to see it, feel it, touch it, be there, smell the air, you know what I mean? And you know, sometimes there are there are challenges, there are issues you have to take care of. And you know, one of the big things that we like to do in our company is uh face-to-face meetings, right? Whether it's a good one or a bad one, yeah, we like to be there. Um to you know have those uh conversations with our customers or would-be customers, and um out of COVID and then the uh persons, you know, customers and roles that are much younger now, they're just as good with a text or an email, right? These days. So sometimes just the face-to-face meetings that we shoot for to cover that it is a challenge. But you know, I think that the way that we've grown our sales team slowly but surely, um, it makes it a little more steady on the way that things run. And then those folks' availability for meetings and things like that with a smaller team allows a big line of communication, you know. I try to carry a personality where my staff is not scared to call me about anything, you know, but I'm very firm with them whenever you know the things that that I do require, I require them to be the very best, right? And for us to work on those things always. And one of the things we're doing right now is uh trying to simplify conversations, right? And get to meaningful things instead of you know small talk, right? Yeah, you can absolutely, you know what I mean? So a few things we've been working on are sales calls, but just the communication across everybody, having a smaller team growing it the right way, um, and using technology when we can to be there, you know, um if you're not actually there in person.

17:46 So yeah, absolutely so that those are those are all great answers, Jason. If if you could wave a magic wand and improve one part of operations tomorrow, what would it be for you personally? Oh man, let's see.

18:00 Maybe just a communications director. You know, like there's you know, uh something very simple, right? And of course, I'm uh sell sales team, you know, number one fan, right? Right. I mean, there's a lot that goes into you know gaining information from customers beforehand. And I'm not gonna say that the you know the sales type personnel is like, oh, but we need this, or no, we need that for the operations, you know. But I think that when information is provided, somebody if everybody would stop and look for the information before they ask it again for out of convenience, you know, I think it would it would uh really help because oftentimes whenever the sales team is asked for things they're driving or going places or in the middle, and to lose focus on what you're doing and have to go back to doing something that you've already created, already you know, things that you've already done, possibly most of the time, is just difficult sometimes because meetings are poignant, they're scheduled typically, and they need to happen. And then when one is pulled away from that, right, then it takes away the importance of that whenever something has already been taken care of. I don't know. That's the best way I can describe it.

19:12 Yeah, no, no, that's that's a great answer, Jason. No, thank you for that. When it when it comes to evaluating new technologies or vendors, how does Midwest usually make those decisions?

19:22 Yeah, man, you know, the buck stops with you. But, you know, uh, I'll just use my personal experiences. You know, I have a large network of people, um, I choose uh those people uh very particularly, right? And um, so I have a personal vetting system that I typically try to go through prior to, you know, looking at, you know, if somebody becomes a friend, they say, hey, I have this product, do you guys want to use it type thing? You know, um, because it's good to work with people that you you know of well. Um, and you know, naturally you want to help them. But what I typically do is go, hey, this is something that, you know, a memory bank or a list, these are things that we've uh discussed previously, wanted to look at. And then, you know, maybe like the insulation for the skids is a good one that we're usually talking about, right? And somebody brings it to me. I spend a couple of days with the guys at the you know, at the oldman's and you know, really learn who he is and stuff, and then have some conversations, and then, you know, so it's not wasting your time, bring it to you and the folks in operations to take a look at viable options to improve our products, right? That's kind of the way it usually goes.

20:27 Yeah, absolutely. And I could think of two or three off the top of my head that have been fabulous vendors, right? That we've been able to partner with, and I'm excited about because you have vetted them before they get to me and the team to kind of you know look at the product, and of course, too, from your side, you know problems that we've incurred in the field over the years, right? That you know, we've been looking for solutions for. So it's been really nice to have quality vendors that we can look at and evaluate and say, hey, this product is gonna make us better, and we can use this for the next 20 years, right? And certainly it helps a lot. Yeah, absolutely. So finally, one of the last questions, Jason, today is what excites you most about the future of Midwest compressor and the direction the industry is heading towards?

21:14 Yeah, so you know, I think as far as the vapor recovery gas compression side, it's it's very interesting to see, to look forward and you know, hopefully see the future continue to thrive on this side of things. You know, I come from an industry where I've spent most of my uh oil and gas career, right? Where there's many, many competitors, like probably times 10 uh versus since I've you know been invited into this space. So it's not necessarily a matter of if, but a matter of when you're gonna have the opportunity to work with maybe customers that you have before, right? And then I think you know, uh look forward to seeing the challenges of you know how fast we can build them again, because I think that's here pretty soon. And then, you know, just seeing the growth of the company, you know, until my dying days and you know, kind of seeing uh our employees develop. I really like to help and train and watch employees grow in their skill sets and things, and then you know, also my continued learning process. I mean, I've only been on the gas compression side for you know a few years now, so I'm always trying to ask questions to learn more every day.

22:29 Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you. Thank you so much, Jason, uh, for your time today. It's been fantastic for you sharing your insights and experience and your knowledge and your great expertise, uh, what you've created on the Midwest team and you know just helped us evolve and grow, which is exciting to see what our future looks like in the next five years, right? Like we're just we've got so many good things going. Before before we wrap up today, Jason, what's the best way for listeners to connect with you or learn more about your work?

23:00 Yeah, so uh I guess there's a couple of different ways. My phone number, and if you don't have that, I'm sorry, but no. And then, you know, my email address, or you know, you can always contact 859 Midwest. That is a you know sales and service particular number that our company has gone to using over the last about seven or eight months, and I can be I can't, or anyone in our organization can be contacted through that number.

23:25 Okay, great. Well, thank you for that, Jason. Well, thanks again for for joining us today, and thank you to everyone that's listening to Under Pressure at the Compressor Talk Pet Podcast. Uh, we'll see you next time. Thank you. Thanks, David.

23:43 This has been another great episode of Under Pressure. Compressor Talk by Midwest Compressor with your host, David Abshire. Until next time, keep pumping.