Some suggestions on how to network within the oil & gas market, with recommendations on what organizations to join.
After some feedback, here is the list shown in the video: API, SPE, SPWIP, NPC, AAED, AAPG, USOGA, NOMADS, AXPC, IADC, NPC, AGA, IPAA, PTTC, NPRA, TIPRO, IAGC.
Transcript of Session –
Hey. It’s Mark LaCour. Let’s learn some more about the oil and gas industry.
[Music]
You know one of the things that is really vital if you want to be successful selling to oil and gas market is networking. Now, networking means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but basically it’s a way for you to get connected to your clients in a not so traditional business setting.
A lot of people can do this very well, but a lot of people also do this very badly. It’s easy to waste a lot of money and time just not applying your networking tactics correctively. Bottom line is what you should do is figure out which organizations and groups your potential clients are members of, you need to join these groups and organizations and then become active.
We’re going to throw up a list of groups that we think are worthwhile you looking into, but just remember this, nobody likes to be sold to in that type of environment. What you want to do is actually cause some influence and grow some brand recognition. You want people to know who you are and what your company does, but you want them to understand that from you contributing to that group. That really is the key.
So, when you talk about networking within the oil and gas industry, one of the first groups that pops in my mind is the API, the American Petroleum Institute. It’s one of the largest political lobby groups in the US and it represents the interest of the oil and gas industry to our political folks in Washington.
I’ve been a member for about fifteen years. It is a great place to meet business leaders and executives within oil and gas industry and also understand what is going on. It’s a hodgepodge of different segments of the market, so whether you’re looking at upstream, midstream, downstream, or service, you will run into somebody there that represents one of those companies.
This particular meeting was the January 3rd meeting and we actually had John Hofmeister speak who’s a well-known subject matter expert and author who actually takes a very non-partisan view of oil and gas industry and what does it take to actually fix some of the problems.
So, this is the place you need to start at first and if I can help you reach out, I’d be happy to show you around, introduce you to people. Look, there’s yours truly. We’re sitting in what’s called the Tasting Room. This is the actual board of directors meeting and no, I was not allowed to have any of that wine although I really wanted to.
So, good luck to your networking efforts and remember, it’s very, very, very important and it’s something a lot of people overlook.
[Music]