More than just a marketing pitch, a focus on solutions is critical in the new economic reality in oil and gas.
As the price of oil continues to lag, companies are struggling to realign with the new environment. New environments mean those businesses that are adaptable will have the best chance to navigate the changes and come out ahead. With many analysts predicting prices will not return to peak levels for some time, what is the best way forward?
The standard way most organizations deal with leaner times is to make cost-cutting moves, such as layoffs and slashing marketing and R&D budgets. As Kevin Turko pointed out in the February issue of Oilfield PULSE, passing the cost-cutting ball to vendors is also an important strategy in the industry.
At Evolution Oil Tools, our focus has always been customer-based, and the current economic situation has not changed that at all. Even when times are tough, and you might argue even more so, customers have specific needs to be addressed and meeting them is critical to both organizations’ success. We listen to our customers and pay attention to where the market is headed.
A key element for our success is to focus on overall solutions and not individual products. Keying in on the broad requirements of artificial lift, flow control, and downhole completions in the environment of tighter oil prices has focused our efforts on providing a more inclusive offering to our customers, and they have been responding.
Solutions are answers to problems. For instance, we are aiming on delivering new larger-sized tools to meet the needs of the overall move to bigger well designs in the industry and to find solutions for new well completions, existing well workâ€overs, and abandonments that enhance production levels.
A solutions-based approach is not just about the sales pitch. It is an across the board strategy. In fact, as a B2B business, solutions-based selling may not be appropriate for sophisticated customers. In periods like these, customers don’t necessarily need you like they used to.
What we are talking about here is an internal process. This may seem like a simple idea, but implementing it across an organization takes a big effort and requires a buy in from the entire group. Once established though, the habits of the solutions-based organization bring in multiple benefits.
Our solutions-based focus also means we are doubling-down in providing comprehensive support documentation, running instructions, and more across traditional and digital platforms. Customers don’t just get a tool. They’ll get the technical and operational knowledge that lets them use that tool in the most optimal way. This means greater efficiency for the end-user, which is so critical today.
Increasing our solutions focus and engagement with the customer has really paid dividends in terms of helping direct our research efforts. Listening to and acting on our customers’ issues have been a major factor in our success. Extending social media action, constantly adding to our product knowledge library, and talking with our customers and end users helps us get there.
Success in a company is seldom defined by one dimension, but the overall experience of the customer is where the value is and delivering on value added solutions is how to get there, especially during some uncertainty in this current market.
