Fifteen buyer calls before you pick a segment.
A product that fits all of oil and gas has no obvious first buyer. We call three buyers in each of five segments and report which one is ready to buy.
15 buyer calls, about 6 weeks, from $25,000 with the quote fixed in writing
Book a 30-minute scoping callNo obligation. If this is the wrong tool, we say so on the call.
One dot per call. The “other” segment was ready to buy now.
Fifteen phone surveys, 2024. Three per segment across upstream, midstream, downstream, service and other.
The buyer was not an operator.
ModalPoint ran this study in 2024 for a software company whose product fits almost any industry. Most segments answered “buy someday.” The buyers filed under “other” were ready to buy now, and the person to call was not one of the titles the company had assumed. Those buyers put a yearly dollar value on the problem it solves.
Three calls per segment pointed the company at a buyer; it did not prove one. The result on record is warm next steps toward a paid proof of concept, not a signed deal.
No obligation. If this is the wrong tool, we say so on the call.
- A company with a product and no proven oil and gas buyer. Software, equipment or services that could sell to several segments, and a team that needs to know which one to spend the first year on.
- A company already selling in energy, with deals won and lost. Run as win-loss: the same fifteen calls go to buyers who chose you and buyers who did not. Scope and quote for that version are set on the scoping call.
- A company that has already picked its segment. Testing one segment does not need fifteen calls. The Market Entry Check does it with 5, from $7,500.
- Anyone who needs a sized demand forecast. A basin-by-basin demand number is an energy research house's job. We start where that report stops: which buyer, which first account, and what to say to them.
- A study of buyers outside North America. Our buyer network and the 2024 study are North American. For a market such as the Gulf, where national oil companies buy through tenders and approved-vendor lists, we can call North American and expatriate engineers who work those assets, and the readout says that is who we called.
The same core questions in every call.
One strong conversation can mislead you. A shared script is what lets a midstream answer sit next to a service-company answer and mean something. The core questions cover these, with follow-ups where an answer needs one:
- How they handle the problem today
- The biggest risks they see in it
- Which title is responsible for it
- What solving it would be worth, in their own numbers
- When they would look at a new approach
- Which segment they sit in
- 1
Which segment is ready
Every buyer is scored buy now, buy later, buy someday or would not buy, and by seniority, so the segments sit side by side on the same scale.
- 2
Who owns the purchase
The title that carries the problem and the budget. In 2024 it was a title the company had not planned for.
- 3
What it is worth to them
The benefit in buyers' own numbers, labeled as their estimate rather than a forecast.
- 4
A value proposition and a target list
The message the calls support, and the kinds of account to approach first, in order.
- 5
The proof they need before a trial
What a buyer would need to see before agreeing to a pilot: a reference customer, a field trial, a third-party review, a standard you meet, or approved-vendor status.
The price starts at $25,000 for 15 calls, and the written scope fixes your quote before any work starts. Every call is a real buyer; this study uses no synthetic panel.
Nothing starts until the scope is in writing.
The quote is fixed before the deposit, so the price you agree is the price you pay. If the scoping call shows the study is the wrong tool, we say so on the call.
1A 30-minute scoping call
- You
- Describe the product and the buyer you have in mind.
- ModalPoint
- Tell you which study fits, or that none does.
- The buyers we call
- Not contacted
2A written scope and a fixed quote
- You
- Read the scope, ask for changes, then approve it.
- ModalPoint
- Put the segments, the call count, the questions and the readout date in writing, with one fixed quote.
- The buyers we call
- Not contacted
3A deposit books the start date
- You
- Pay the deposit to book the start date.
- ModalPoint
- Invoice the deposit with the quote.
- The buyers we call
- Not contacted
4The calls
- You
- Agree the buyer profile with us: the segments, the titles and the kinds of company.
- ModalPoint
- Find and book the buyers. An industry expert we pay, matched to the segment, runs each call on one script.
- The buyers we call
- Hear that a company selling your kind of product asked, never your name. Answer the same core questions, and skip any they like.
5The readout
- You
- Get whether the segment is ready, which title owns the purchase, what buyers say it is worth, and the proof they need.
- ModalPoint
- Score every buyer on the same scale and set the answers side by side.
- The buyers we call
- Not contacted again. Quoted by title only, such as “a midstream integrity manager.”
Calls into your market can tell competitors where you are headed.
So the calls run blind in both directions.
Your name stays off the calls
Buyers hear that a company selling your kind of product asked us to learn how they handle the problem. Naming you would tell the market where you plan to sell. The one exception is a win-loss study: those buyers already know you, so the caller says who asked.
Their names stay off your readout
You agree the buyer profile with us, we find the people, and you do not see who took part. The readout quotes by title only, such as “a midstream integrity manager.” Buyers speak more plainly when nothing they say comes back with their name on it. In a win-loss study you give us the deals to call, and we still do not say which of those buyers took part.
This has a real cost: you cannot ring the buyer who said the most useful thing. If a buyer asks to hear from you, we ask you first, and with your yes we give that buyer your details. Whether to get in touch is then the buyer’s call.
Bring the product and the segments you are weighing.
Thirty minutes. You leave knowing whether this study fits, what the quote would be and when the readout would land. No obligation either way.