Published 4 November 2026 · Last updated 2 November 2026
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You're Selling Engine Oil. Your Customer Is Buying Something Else.
I was recently asked a question during my appearance on the Sales SLAP! podcast that has stayed with me.
We spend a great deal of time talking about understanding the customers we serve, the problems they face and the opportunities we might create for them. We develop customer personas, study their industries and encourage salespeople to look beyond the products and services they supply.
But the question from Simon Hares was a practical one. How does a salesperson actually turn that understanding into something useful?
My answer during the podcast focused on understanding the person, their problems and the market in which they operate. Reflecting on the conversation afterwards, I realised there was an opportunity to take that thinking further, particularly for those of us working in the lubricants industry.
The distinction I want to explore is between knowing that a customer has a problem and understanding the commercial consequences of that problem. The latter is often where the opportunity to create value becomes visible.
Are you really selling engine oil?
Imagine a lubricant salesperson supplying engine oil to a mining operation. The customer operates a fleet of trucks moving material from the extraction area to the next stage of processing.
The salesperson knows their products, understands viscosity grades, specifications and performance characteristics, and can explain the technical advantages of the lubricant they supply. All of that knowledge is important, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they understand the customer’s business.
Consider what happens when one of those trucks is unexpectedly taken out of service.
The immediate problem is mechanical. A vehicle has stopped operating and the maintenance team must establish why. However, the consequences may extend much further. Depending on the operation, fewer loads might be moved during the shift, production schedules could be affected and the mine may incur costs beyond the repair itself.
The maintenance engineer, reliability manager, production manager and procurement team may each see the situation differently. One is concerned about restoring the vehicle to service, another about preventing recurrence, while others are considering production performance or operating costs.
The salesperson who understands only the lubricant sees a technical application. The salesperson who understands the operation begins to see how that application connects to the customer’s wider business.
That doesn’t mean the lubricant caused the problem or that changing it would provide the solution. Those conclusions require technical investigation and evidence.
But it does mean the salesperson can begin asking better questions about the consequences of equipment performance and where improvements might be possible.
Understanding the problem is not the same as recognising the opportunity
This is an important distinction in B2B selling.
Discovering that a customer experiences equipment failures is useful information. Understanding the frequency, causes and operational consequences of those failures is far more valuable.
A maintenance team might describe repeated interventions as an unavoidable part of operating equipment in difficult conditions. Production may see those same interventions as lost operating capacity. Finance might see them as an increasing cost of maintaining ageing assets.
Each perspective adds something to the picture.
The opportunity for the salesperson is to understand how these issues connect and explore whether their organisation can contribute to an improvement.
That contribution may involve a different lubricant, but it could equally involve better condition monitoring, revised maintenance practices, improved filtration, more effective inventory management or specialist technical support.
In other words, the opportunity isn’t necessarily to sell something different. It may be to help the customer achieve something better with the equipment and processes they already have.
And this is where application knowledge becomes commercially important.
Using Total Cost of Ownership to discover value
One of the most useful ways to develop these conversations is through Total Cost of Ownership, or TCO.
Rather than focusing exclusively on lubricant purchase price, TCO considers the wider costs associated with purchasing, storing, using, maintaining and disposing of lubricants, together with the potential consequences of their performance in the application.
We’ve been developing a framework around 12 areas of TCO that can help salespeople explore where value might exist.
These include lubricant purchase price, stock and inventory, labour associated with oil changes, planned downtime, top-up consumption, oil analysis, filtration, used-oil handling and disposal, energy consumption, risk of failure, equipment life and actual lubricant service life.
The value of this framework isn’t that every salesperson should discuss all 12 areas with every customer. It’s that each provides a different perspective on the customer’s operation and may reveal a problem, cost or improvement opportunity that wouldn’t emerge from a conventional product discussion.
Let’s return to the mining fleet.
If the customer is concerned about lubricant purchase price, the salesperson might explore how that cost compares with the wider cost of operating the vehicles. Price per litre is a legitimate consideration, but cost per operating hour may provide a more meaningful basis for evaluating alternatives.
If the maintenance team is struggling with frequent oil changes, the discussion could move towards the labour required, planned downtime and the actual service life of the lubricant under operating conditions. There may be an opportunity to review maintenance practices, although any change in intervals would need to be supported by equipment requirements, operating evidence and appropriate technical approval.
If reliability is the priority, oil analysis, filtration, contamination control, equipment life and the consequences of failure become relevant areas to investigate.
For a mine operating in a remote location, lubricant inventory and supply certainty may also have considerable significance. The consequences of running out of a critical lubricant could be far greater than the difference between two suppliers’ prices.
Even areas such as top-up consumption, used-oil disposal and energy consumption may reveal costs that are not immediately visible when purchasing decisions are made.
None of these conversations guarantees an opportunity, and not every area will be relevant to every application. Some may reveal that the customer is already operating effectively.
But collectively, the 12 TCO areas give the salesperson a way to think more broadly about the customer’s operation and identify where further investigation might be worthwhile.
The objective is not to construct a financial justification for a product before understanding the application. It is to discover what matters, establish the current position and determine whether a credible improvement can be demonstrated.
The importance of asking the next question
The difference between a product conversation and a commercially valuable conversation often comes down to the questions a salesperson asks.
Consider a customer who says their haul trucks are experiencing too much downtime.
A product-focused salesperson might immediately begin discussing lubricant performance, drain intervals or engine protection.
A more curious salesperson would first want to understand what the customer means by downtime, how it is measured, what causes it and how it affects the operation.
They might discover that the primary problem is unrelated to lubrication. Alternatively, they may find that contamination, maintenance practices or lubricant condition warrant further investigation.
Either outcome is useful because the conversation is progressing through evidence rather than assumption.
It also helps the salesperson recognise when additional expertise is required. Understanding the commercial implications of a problem does not qualify someone to diagnose a technical failure.
The strongest salespeople know when to ask another question, when to involve a specialist and when there simply isn’t an opportunity to pursue.
That judgement is part of what makes them valuable to customers.
What the Buyer Revolution tells us
Our Buyer Revolution research has reinforced the importance of understanding how customers now approach purchasing decisions.
Buyers increasingly undertake their own research before engaging with suppliers. They arrive with product information, comparisons and often a reasonably clear idea of what they believe they need.
This presents a challenge for salespeople whose principal contribution is explaining product features and benefits. Much of that information is already available to the buyer.
The greater opportunity is to understand the customer’s particular application and operating circumstances, explore what they may not yet have considered and help them evaluate the consequences of different decisions.
This is not about challenging a customer’s knowledge for the sake of it. It’s about recognising that knowing which product meets a specification is not necessarily the same as understanding which approach will deliver the best operational and commercial outcome.
The modern salesperson needs technical and application knowledge, but also the curiosity and commercial understanding to connect that knowledge to the customer’s priorities.
That is a considerably broader responsibility than presenting a product catalogue.
What this means for sales leadership
There is also a leadership challenge here.
We often ask salespeople to sell value rather than price, yet how much time do we spend developing their ability to understand the customer’s operation and identify where that value might exist?
A salesperson can be trained to explain a lubricant’s features and benefits relatively quickly. Developing the ability to understand a mining operation, recognise the consequences of equipment downtime and explore the economics of maintenance requires a different level of learning.
It requires exposure to customers’ operating environments, stronger application knowledge, technical collaboration and coaching that develops curiosity rather than simply improving presentation skills.
Within our SPANCOP methodology, this is central to Approach & Analyse. The objective is to understand the customer’s operating reality, establish what they are trying to protect or improve and determine what evidence is needed before recommending a solution.
Sales managers have an important role in developing that capability.
Rather than simply asking whether a proposal has been submitted or when an opportunity will close, they might ask what the salesperson has learned about the customer’s operation, which problems have been validated and what commercial consequences have been established.
They should also be interested in what remains unknown.
Those conversations help develop salespeople who can think beyond the immediate transaction and contribute more meaningfully to the customer’s business.
So, what is it you really sell?
Returning to our original example, the mining operation may ultimately purchase engine oil. That is what appears on the purchase order and what the supplier delivers.
But the decision behind that purchase may be influenced by a much wider set of considerations: equipment reliability, maintenance efficiency, operational continuity, technical confidence and total operating cost.
The lubricant is part of the solution, but its commercial value depends on what it can demonstrably contribute to the customer’s operation.
This is why understanding the customers we serve must go further than knowing their industry or being familiar with their purchasing requirements.
We need to understand the problems they face, the consequences of those problems and the opportunities that might exist to improve their position.
And we need the application knowledge, commercial curiosity and evidence to establish whether we can genuinely help.
The product is what you supply. Understanding the customer’s problems reveals where you might create value. Evidence determines whether you can deliver it.
Perhaps the most useful question for any salesperson preparing for their next customer conversation is not simply what they hope to sell, but what they need to understand.
And for sales leaders, the question is whether we’re developing salespeople who have the knowledge, curiosity and confidence to find out.
