Employee Spotlight – TONY ATENCIO

When a customer calls PESCO for a product, they can be guaranteed their technical sales representative knows what he is talking about. Tony Atencio has been in the oil and gas industry since 1990 and he went to work for PESCO in 1996 as a Field Service Technician before having the opportunity to move into Sales Department 2003.

“I’ve been on the drilling side of things and on the production side of things,” Atencio said, adding he was a dehydration specialist before coming to work for PESCO. He has the equipment knowledge. He knows how they operate. “One of the things that helps me is seeing all those different types of equipment from the San Juan to the Permian, to DJ, Powder River, and the Bakken. They all use different types of equipment. Every producer is different, but they’re all trying to achieve the same thing.”

Atencio is an outside technical sales representative. “There’s not much I don’t do. I sit on the design team. I do a lot of technical trouble shooting, customer relations, and I’ll even sweep and mop the floors at times.”

For Atencio, it’s all about the relationships with his coworkers and his clients.

“In the past we’ve done employee appreciation barbecues for the day and night shifts. We’ll cook burgers, sometimes steaks for them. I’ve been one of the main cooks which is fun,” Atencio said. “Everybody is important to us. We are all a team. I can’t do my job without them.”

He stays in continual communication with more than 30 companies, and then receives inquiries from new and existing companies that might be potential clients. “There are companies out there that we are looking to do business with, and I’m making contact with them.”

Atencio is a people person, and he loves to talk. “I love to make friends. In fact, I’ve made some great friends, whether they’re purchasing equipment from me or not,” he said, adding many of those relationships carry on outside of the company. “One of the things about my job that I enjoy the most is dealing with the different companies and their representatives – it is all about the relationships. We’ve built some amazing relationships.”

Atencio will call customers whether they are buying equipment from PESCO or not, but when they do buy equipment from PESCO, the service is unmatched. “The quality of PESCO equipment is second to none. We are known for the quality of the equipment we manufacture. We pride ourselves on being a strong Christian-based company. Those values are represented in everything we do.”

Part of building those relationships is encouraging the customers to come and visit PESCO. “We encourage surprise visits. Once the customer visits PESCO – the shop, the people, the environment – they say that doesn’t happen with other manufacturers and vendors they go to. We talk to everybody out there. They talk to us, and we joke with them. Everybody is important.”

Atencio said there is an open-door policy and customers can talk to any and all employees when they visit.

Once a product is sold, it must be designed, Atencio said there are certain conditions from the customer that have to be met. “We now are going to sit down, based on what the customer has given us, and we are going to design a vessel to meet their needs,” he said.

“We will review it with the customer, and if they see changes that need to be made, we will make changes until they are happy with it and it’s exactly what they want,” Atencio said. “Then, we will start the manufacturing process.”

According to Atencio, when PESCO looked at building Lease Automatic Custody transfer units, they had to be exact. PESCO’s electrical team designed them, and “it led to PESCO being able to offer those regularly now.”

One of Atencio’s other titles is trainer, and he has traveled throughout the Rocky Mountain region training PESCO’s customers on separation and dehydration controls. “It’s about educating our customers on how things operate and what to look for in troubleshooting,” he said. “I talk clients through a lot of things over the phone.”

Every workday is different for him, because he might get a call from a customer on an RFQ, or have an over-the-counter sale come in. “I may get a call with questions about a piece of equipment or it could be a customer needing information on how to install it,” Atencio said.  For Atencio, working at PESCO is all about seeing the company and its employees succeed. “I don’t look at my job as being about me,” he said. “We are a team.  I’m selling equipment for everybody who works here- from maintenance, to the shop floor. They all have families, we want everybody to be successful.”