Where to contact to become a approved vendor of major oil companies

[JLee81]

Hello, everyone.

My name is Jason and I am new to this forum.
This site has very helpful information about valves.
I am trying to contact major oil companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Caltex to become an approved vendor. but simply, I do not know where to start. Could you share some information about how to go about this project? Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[gr2vessels]

A good start would be to send an information sheet to those companies, in attention of their engineering department and purchasing department, listing all your valves and the competitor's ones, a short description to show how bad are all the valves they used previously, how good are yours and a hefty saving on the cost of the new valves. There is another trick, you could claim that all their existing valves have a hidden defects, all of them having been corrected on your valves;- it might work with the younger generation, who knows. You could also pose as a saviour and request them to discard all the old "preferred suppliers list" in favour of your company....
Another form is to inform them that you are willing to supply free of charge a number of valves. You double the guarantees provided by your competitors, to make it attractive to those buyers. Try to offer the kind of valves they normally use on their plant.
Be aware that your competition won't take this aproach lightly, you should be home and locked up before the dusk. Don't answer the phone after 9.00 pm and have handy your .22 at all times.
cheers,
gr2vessels

 

[JLSeagull]

What do you sell?

Begin to obtain the industry certifications required for your likely product. Certifications might be API 6D or ISO 9001. Start small then expand. Differentiate your product from other similar products. Attend trade shows as an exhibitor and tour the exhibits. Build a sales organization via sales representatives and distributors who already call on the operating company engineering centers. Advertise in the trade journals. Be able to deliver the product more rapidly or solve more problems than the competition. Present the technology at client "lunch-and-learn" sessions.

Determine if it might be easier to break into public works and municipality projects before visiting Shell Global Solutions.

 

[zdas04]

JLSeagull has it pretty close to right. Without both API 6D compliance and ISO ISO9001 certification, none of the big boys will talk to you. Period.

With the certifications, you've still got to differentiate yourself from the companies that people know and like. The worst thing you could possibly do is start slamming the compitetion. When I worked for a major, I bought millions of dollars worth of PBV valves. Now if you were to contact me and say that "PBV is junk" then not only are you throwing dirt on an excellent product, but you are questioning my judgement--not something I ever took kindly. If you were to then go to my boss and try to convince him over a golf game that we had been buying junk and it got back to me I would go on a mission to make sure you never sold a single valve to my company. An engineer on a vendeta is an awesome thing to behold.

A negative approach will always eventually fail. You've got to find some facet of your valve that is better than everyone else's (a tough sell), if you don't believe it then you will fail.

Once you've found your best-in-class characteristic you have to go on the road to sell it. Trade shows, write articles for industry magazines, e-zines, professional societies. If people start seeing "JLee81's Valves" in the places they naturally frequent, they'll start thinking you are mainstream and maybe consider you. The first decade or two you will be selling to the bottom tier of Oil & Gas (companies with a few hundred wells and dozens of miles of gathering). After that you might get on the approved vendor list of some medium sized companies. Unless you have a best-in-class item that is out of this world (maybe a valve that sells for $10/inch or an operating torque spec that is 10% of norm) then you won't get on the approved vendor list of the majors before you are very old.

David

 

[JLee81]

Thank you for all your thoughts.
My company has been in the business more than 20 years and currently onvendor lists of major oil companies in the middle east. I have all the certificates required to be considered as a competitor in the market and also have very strong connections with major valve companies in the US. I wish I can find a very skillful rep in the region(US)who has an experience in the task and can get in touch with reps in procument and engineering departments. If you know and would like to recommend someone please let me know.

 

[JLee81]

BTW my company manufactures performance/high performance butterfly valves in double accentric and triple offset. also urgently need a very good cryogenic engineer who has a previous experience in the development of cryogenic butterfly valve. Where should I go find such engineer?

 

[vpl]

JLee

These forums are probably not the best place to get your questions answered. They are not intended as a recruitment tool... see the fine print right below the "Preview Post" and "Submit Post" buttons:

Promoting, selling, recruiting and student posting
are not allowed in the forums.

If you click on the underlined "Posting Policies" you'll get a more complete answer... You can also read the FAQ in my tag line.

Patricia Lougheed

Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of the Eng-Tips Forums.

 

[JLee81]

Thanks for your advice.

 

[NGiLuzzu]

Jason,
about major Oil Companies' approvals and qualification plans: try to take a look at thread408-210086 within this Forum.


About your other needs: try to visit (for example)

http://www.linkedin.com/

...



Hope this helps, 'NGL