In February, Weatherford International annually gathers more than 300 of the multinational oilfield services provider’s top sales managers and up-and-coming leaders from 80 countries for Weatherford LIVE, a two-day sales event in Houston. The 2020 event was the second year that Paul Quinn partnered with Brian Vandenbroucke, founder and sr. creative director, Articulate Creative Services, to provide content development and presenter support for LIVE.

Theme & Scope

Weatherford created a sales conference agenda featuring 108 presenters in more than 40 unique presentations, from ballroom keynotes and breakouts to role plays and software demonstrations. The Weatherford LIVE 2020 event theme, The Power of Us, was chosen to communicate the company’s focus on collaboration between product lines and promote the selling of integrated solutions across the enterprise

Preparation

Three months before the event, Paul and Brian met online with each presentation team and its respective marketing manager to discover their initial presentation concepts, clarify the messaging, and discuss ways to deepen audience engagement. Based on these discussions, the teams developed their presentations in preparation for rehearsals the following month.

Onsite

For six weeks, the two-man coaching team resided in Houston scheduling and conducting between 4-6 rehearsal hours cumulatively for each presentation segment. Paul also wrote the keynote speech for Weatherford’s vice president of business development, which gave the coaches a comprehensive understanding of Weatherford’s sales objectives.

Insight

The breadth of their understanding of Weatherford’s strategy further expanded in coaching/rehearsals with senior executives. With its rapidly acquired knowledge of Weatherford’s leadership perspectives and the content of all 40+ presentations, the coaching team was able to disseminate these learnings to the presentation teams to ensure the richness and continuity of the messaging.

Event

Paul and Brian continued the rehearsals onsite at the Marriott Woodlands, helping the presenters adjust their presentations for the mainstage and breakout environments, providing techniques for reducing “stage fright,” and helping presenters make critical last-minute changes to session content. They also joined senior marketing managers in selecting honorees for the best presentations in various categories, who were given awards at the close of each conference day.

Results

Weatherford gave Paul and Brian credit for their considerable role in helping to clarify and shape the event messaging, ensure content strength and continuity, and create a supportive and productive atmosphere for presenters at all levels of the organization to make LIVE 2020 Weatherford’s most successful event ever.