Just this week I sat down and had a conversation with a preferred vendor in Oilfield HUB. This gentlemen is one of the nicest guys you would ever have the pleasure of meeting. He is the president of an oil and gas fluids company. At roughly 55 years of age he has basically grown up in the business and ‘been there, done that’, but doesn’t seem jaded what-so-ever. He has a steadily growing business and keeps things simple by maintaining a select group of clients involved, and happy through the tried and true method of superb customer service.

By his own admission they do not quote on jobs by offering a lower price. In fact, he had a client recently tell him that his quote was 15% higher than his nearest competition, to which he replied, “Good! Usually I am north of 20% higher than anyone else.” The client was taken aback, but when he explained that their philosophy is that they use the best materials, don’t charge for extras such as site visits like the rest of the fluid world tends to do and really what mattered is that at the end of the well when AFE justification is paramount their value shines through. No mistakes means better performance.

But, the real advantage this company has is that the field guy, his partner, has 30 years of experience in the business and is willing to do the extras…he even sleeps in his truck at the lease to make sure there are no problems during drilling. Wow! How do you ever replace or compete with that? It’s like you can’t teach being tall when you are a 7 foot 2 inch center in the NBA.

That is the Great Divide.

There is a paradigm shift effectively working its way through the oil and gas industry. You may be aware of it. It would appear there is a large group of people that are closer to geriatric status than wet behind the ears classification. The older set certainly continues to play a role considering that many owners and decision makers comprise this group.

The gentleman I am referring to mentioned to me that he is all good with his core group of customers that, surprise, surprise, are his contemporaries. They have a routine of habitual weekly breakfast and coffee meetings mixed in with monthly dinner meetings that typically include spouses. Brilliant when it comes to customer retention.

The problem is: how does this established and respected industry leader gain any kind of recognition and acceptance among the ever growing group of young drilling engineers that are insipidly taking over the reins of many drilling projects. He confided in me that these young bucks admit to him that they covet the many years of experience he possesses and wish to maintain a relationship to learn from him because they are not able to get it in their own companies.

That is the Great Divide. How does an older but established business owner get the attention of those drilling engineers that have no idea who he is or what he does?

This is where Oilfield HUB comes in. The way people look for information has changed. Anyone younger than 30 has relatively no idea what a phone book is or what it might have been used for…they all go online to find information that they need. What do they call it? Constantly plugged in!

Our mature fluids business owner recognized that he better go along to get along so he established a position as a preferred vendor in Oilfield HUB. The HUB is an online directory that is directly connected to a vendor relation management tool for Operators and EPC’s. It is like having the yellow pages open on the desk of every oil and gas operations personnel.

In the words of this seasoned vet, “I joined Oilfield HUB to help me get noticed by companies that I do not have a relationship with as of yet. I think it will be especially helpful with younger folks that have no idea who I am or what I stand for. With the combination of the Oilfield PULSE magazine it provides tremendous value for our business.”

If you need help navigating the Great Divide…call me.

Dave O’Connor, Vice-President Sales, Leadstone Group Inc.