Breaking Into The Old Boys Club

We hear it all the time that the oil and gas industry is an Old Boys Club. Many of the established decision makers at top tier companies have been around for a long time. The business of oil and gas has been forged on relationships that go back years and often decades. There would even appear to be a bit of a sorority effect where favors are exchanged to garner contracts and secure upcoming bids, although it is tough to get people to admit as much.

For companies that are on the outside looking in, the task of finding ways to establish connections can be very daunting. If a procurement manager or operations guy doesn’t know who you are or understands the value proposition your company can offer, how do you get their attention? Do you harass them with endless phone calls or emails until they finally submit to a meeting only to tell you that the likelihood of you ever getting their business is, well, slim. Why, you ask?… ‘Well we have been using the other company forever and there is no reason to switch.’ They give you cursory consideration of what you do but really are not interested in making changes to the current relationship. Is it fear of reprisal, laziness or simply that the current vendor is someone’s brother or uncle, and change has been a forbidden doctrine.

Since we launched Oilfield HUB over two years ago we have heard this refrain from many of the service and supply companies that come to us looking for help. Just recently we had an astute gentleman come to us representing a group of Chinese companies that have an especially difficult time generating business for a variety of reasons. He lamented the fact that his brethren will set up shop here and go up to two years knocking on doors to hock their myriad of products to absolutely no avail and then leave in haste back to China determining that there is no market for them. The hypocrisy of that scenario is that in the same discussion he told us that there are a number of Canadian companies that import products from China and re-label them under their own company flag with no one the wiser. Is it a perception of inferior product preventing the purchase of these products or just the fact that they don’t have an established connection?

Oilfield HUB is exactly what, not only Chinese, but homegrown companies need to help level the playing field. Providing the right information to the right people regarding who you are, and what you do makes the difference! We are helping to connect buyers and sellers in a non-threatening and informative way by providing a dedicated oil and gas destination to discover services and products that otherwise do not get attention. Moreover, we offer something that no one else in the industry can…the primary users rely on and use the HUB for their day to day operation of a well or project.

Think of the HUB as their internal vendor rolodex and inside track to the Operators daily purchasing activity. Now, with Oilfield HUB you have an open door to a new kind of relationship!!

Call me, and I’ll show you how you to become one of the HUB’s preferred vendors!

April 15, 2014

Dave O’Connor Vice President – Sales Leadstone Group Inc.

Get in touch with Dave:                                              dave.oconnor@leadstonegroup.com       (403) 910-4172