O&G Sales/Marketing?

[adamc]

Also posted on performance-shop, but just checking to see if I get any response here.

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Anyone have leads on sales or marketing opportunities withing oil and gas companies? (either producers, service companies, or drilling contractors?)

I've been unsuccessfully trying to break in to this sector for the last year or so (4+ years oil field experience, project management education, and general marketing experience developing websites/cdroms/etc), and I guess my resume isn't reading well or I don't have enough o&g specific marketing experience to land a position.

It's the old catch-22 it seems, and it's frustrating, as I feel that I have a fairly well rounded knowledge of the processes and practices used in almost every facet of drilling & production, and an eagerness and ability to learn more very quickly.



Perhaps if nobody has any leads they could at least take a glance over my resume and offer some advice?


Best,
Adam

[R-Audi]

Oil and Gas marketing typically refers to trading rather then sales.. but it sounds like its more sales related positions you are looking for... is this correct?

[adamc]

Yeah sorry, didn't mean natural gas marketing/crude scheduling or anything along those lines.

Rather marketing services, selling rig contracts, etc.






* although I think I may take the natural gas marketing course at SAIT just to pad my resume a bit, anyone taken this course?

[Ajay]

Have you tried recruiting companies? I know a fair amount of recruiting companies in Calgary deal specifically with professional sales/marketing positions.

Summit, Lock Search Group, and Questus are some of the better ones in Calgary.

[Si_FlyGuy]

Originally posted by adamc
Yeah sorry, didn't mean natural gas marketing/crude scheduling or anything along those lines.

Rather marketing services, selling rig contracts, etc.

* although I think I may take the natural gas marketing course at SAIT just to pad my resume a bit, anyone taken this course?

That course at SAIT covers trading, not the sales stuff that you're after.

[Evo prec]

contact oil service companies like Ensign they do what your looking to get in to

[Mangina]

What kinds of sales jobs are available in O&G?

[BlackArcher101]

adamc, do you have any experience in anything international?

If you want, I could look over your resume and give a few pointers. Might know a few others who might want to look at it as well

[adamc]

Ajay,

I have to a certain degree, I've had a few interviews with questus, and after getting all ready to go, going in, having a great interview, I always get told that I don't have quite enough experience (maybe they see that I'm younger than they expected, I don't know), but it certainly is a frustrating waste of time


SI_Flyguy,

yeah I know, just would be nice to have some insight to the market anyway, seeing as commodity prices directly affect this town (takes beer out of my mouth!)



Evo Prec,

I've had 4 interviews with a very well know international drilling contractor, and they have expressed an interest in having me join their rig sales team, just the downturn in the industry has forced them to freeze all hiring for the moment.

I met the sales manager for the company at the Global Petroleum show last year, and have been emailing him almost every month since then, along with going out for lunch on a few occasions.

Last time I was out with him, I asked point blank whether I had a job there or not, and he said yes, but he couldn't tell me when he would be able to bring me on.






Archer,
No international experience, I will pass my resume along though..

I think it's my lack of sales experience, right now the resume just shows retail sales experience from when I was younger, but I have been doing some sales for a web company that a friend and I own (offices in vancouver and vietnam, trying to get some more oil & gas jobs though)

I think my ability to bullshit is the biggest asset I have that doesn't come across on paper, I was at an o&g networking thing last week and spent hours talking about stuff I had no real experience in (I read a lot of industry news).

shoot me a pm with your email and I'll send it to you.

[mslbebiz]

Yeah, my guess is you don't have enough actual sales experience to be of value to these companies. I know that most want you to have O&G experience, but that stuff can be learned much faster than sales skills - making the latter more valuable.

Also, sales isn't about bullshitting -- maybe it's that attitude that's hurting you. Anyone can sell something if they lie/bullshit about it.

Age really isn't a factor in hiring for most jobs. Some, yes. But in almost every case, it's experience > age. You need to sell yourself and your skills to these companies just as you would any other product/service.

[adamc]

Yeah, I'm not really saying bullshitting as in the ability to lie, more like the ability to speak with people on many different levels (if that makes sense) the wrong word to use.


A liar couldn't expect to last long in this industry , calgary O&G is so tightly knit..



I really believe the ability to sell a product or service is one of those intangible things that you either have or you don't.

I'm not coming with a false sense of entitlement, but rather a genuine interest in building a long term network of contacts and business relationships in this city.

It's such a cliche but the catch-22 scenario does really apply here, how do you build that specific industry sales experience when nobody will give you a shot to show what you can do.

Is it necessary for me to explore selling cellphones? or trucks at a dealership?

[bamboo403]

Actually you probably wont need to. I have pretty much a sales profile that they seem to be looking for and it sounds like you are close too. I always seem to show up to late for the advertisement though. I have only been looking to get into this for the past 2 weeks. Another site Ive found very helpful is prominent-personnel.com. They also send out a bi-monthly newsletter with job postings if they find your profile is strong enough and they have alot of junior technical sales postings.

[mslbebiz]

^^ Gotcha. Sounds like you're the type of guy that should get hired without too much trouble.

From almost every ad I've seen, they want some type of past sales experience though. And that O&G would be an asset/preferred.

Have you considered taking a bolder approach to getting hired, and writing more of a sales letter selling your skills and good can-do attitude, rather than a bland resume?

You could even go one further and offer some kind of no brainer proposition where you either produce results for them as a sales person or you walk. No salary for x months until you've proven you're an asset to their company. Something along those lines.

Things like that make people sit up and pay attention, especially in the business world.

That site bamboo posted was intriguing too, enough so that I just ordered the book

Let me know if I can help in any way. I'm not currently in the O&G sales industry, but am currently changing careers and considering a sales position myself. I have about 8 years of sales & marketing experience and lots of ideas.

[bamboo403]

Ya any info from anyone would be helpful. I don't know how well I will be looked upon for O&G technical sales. My personal downfall is I'm freshly 23, I don't usually get the best response to my age lol.

[Pacman]

Originally posted by adamc

Is it necessary for me to explore selling cellphones? or trucks at a dealership?

I would go and do some type of B2B sales job that requires you to work a geographical territory. Selling cellphones or cars won't get you the outside sales/territory management experience that a lot of sales managers want to see.

Selling photocopiers for Xerox, Toshiba or Canon is the best way to go. It's not hard to get a job, as the turnover rate is quite high and they always needs new sales reps. The copier industry is well known for grooming outside sales reps and you usually start getting calls from headhunters after 6 months or so. If you can survive 6 - 12 months in the copier industry, you will have so many B2B, CPG, O&G and pharmaceutical companies banging on your door that you will need an excel spreadsheet to keep track of all your upcoming interviews.

[adamc]

Pacman, My dad is one of Canon's top sales reps (Ikon) and has been doing it for his entire career (Started at Xerox).

I know more about copiers and fax machines than I care to at this point, haha

So yeah, I've seen the ups and downs of that particular segment for sure, and have had thoughts about going in that direction.

Thanks for your thoughts though, very helpful as always




mslbebiz:

you make some good points and suggestions, I do have to approach it more pro actively.

Today I had a lunch meeting with a rep for a medium sized oilfield service company, just to pick his brain, and he gave me some great bits of advice (a lot of which seems "common sense" but really gets driven home when you hear somebody with experience putting it into words).

He did like my confidence, and just told me to tweak my approach a bit and was fairly sure I would be breaking through in short time.



I appreciate all the responses in this thread and have taken them all into consideration, please feel free to keep posting and we can use this thread as an ongoing resource.

[adamc]

Well I had an interview this week with a downhole tool company.

They liked me, and at the end of the interview told me informally that I had the job, and asked me to call back and accept formally by friday if I wanted the job.

So I spent a few days mulling it over, and decided that I would take a shot with them and see how it went.

I called today and now the offer is off the table? (manager said he had to speak with his boss on monday to clarify some things).

It's a small company and I'm thinking that they might be having some financial trouble, to the extent that they can't afford to do any more hiring at the time, which I understand.


But still, a bit of a let down and waste of time as I thought I had the position locked down.




Anyone have any more leads?

[Pacman]

Originally posted by adamc
Well I had an interview this week with a downhole tool company.

They liked me, and at the end of the interview told me informally that I had the job, and asked me to call back and accept formally by friday if I wanted the job.

So I spent a few days mulling it over, and decided that I would take a shot with them and see how it went.

I called today and now the offer is off the table? (manager said he had to speak with his boss on monday to clarify some things).

It's a small company and I'm thinking that they might be having some financial trouble, to the extent that they can't afford to do any more hiring at the time, which I understand.


But still, a bit of a let down and waste of time as I thought I had the position locked down.




Anyone have any more leads?

If things don't work out on this job....at least you got some good interview experience that will help you out in other interviews.

[icecreamvan]

Originally posted by adamc
Well I had an interview this week with a downhole tool company.

They liked me, and at the end of the interview told me informally that I had the job, and asked me to call back and accept formally by friday if I wanted the job.

So I spent a few days mulling it over, and decided that I would take a shot with them and see how it went.

I called today and now the offer is off the table? (manager said he had to speak with his boss on monday to clarify some things).

It's a small company and I'm thinking that they might be having some financial trouble, to the extent that they can't afford to do any more hiring at the time, which I understand.


But still, a bit of a let down and waste of time as I thought I had the position locked down.




Anyone have any more leads?

That's quite unethical for the interviewer to be misleading you like that. Count yourself lucky that you didn't find out about their lack of ethics later.

You sound like you are in dire need of an agent/manager. I'll do it for 15%, and I'll even let you call me Turtle.

[mslbebiz]

You sound like you are in dire need of an agent/manager. I'll do it for 15%, and I'll even let you call me Turtle.

LMAO, that's a sweet show.