By Amanda Leon, founder of OilMoney.io. Houston-raised, came up in the Houston marketing team of Vallourec, and has run Unrth, a brand and growth studio for oil and gas and industrial companies, since 2017, with her boots on client locations in Midland and Odessa. Last reviewed October 20, 2026.
The operator finally said yes. You've got a date on the calendar, a capabilities deck you'd love to walk him through, and one shot at earning a second meeting.
Walk in knowing what this operator is running, what the person across the table is responsible for, and where you stand on the paperwork it takes to get a purchase order. Then spend most of the meeting asking and listening, and leave the deck in the truck unless he asks for it.
Show Up Ready
Before I go on location, I have to pop into the store for flame-retardant clothes. Carhartt makes some decent stuff, and on one of those runs I was glad to find they finally had something for us ladies that wasn't heavy-duty thick work pants: something like yoga pants, which delighted me as a woman who actually does yoga, and lo and behold, flame-retardant. I grabbed a long-sleeve shirt in beige too, because lighter colors take less sun and won't bake you in that Midland Odessa heat. Also flame-retardant. As much as people say safety first, it's great to know they also practice it.
A first meeting asks the same of you. Your homework is your FR: nobody across the table will compliment it, but he'll know fast if you skipped it. And if he looked you up before saying yes, make sure the person who shows up matches what he found. More in does my LinkedIn profile really matter if I sell oilfield equipment.
What to Prepare: Their Activity and Your Paperwork
Their activity. As of April 10, 2026, Enverus ranked ExxonMobil first among Permian operators with 34.0 rigs, followed by Occidental at 20.0, Diamondback at 15.8, ConocoPhillips at 14.2, EOG at 11.8, and Coterra at 11.7. The ranking predates the Devon and Coterra merger that closed May 7, 2026, so pull the operator's latest release for its current plan.
Your paperwork. Know your ISNetworld grade, your OpenInvoice registration, and how this operator issues purchase orders before you sit down, because Apache, Ovintiv, and ConocoPhillips each spell out their own rules, all laid out in getting on an approved vendor list. If the meeting goes well, setup is the next step.
Know What the Person Across the Table Owns
A public job posting tells you what your buyer's job covers, in his employer's words. Permian Resources' June 2026 posting for a production engineer in the Texas Delaware Basin, based in Midland, covers flowback, workover design, chemical programs, and LOE stewardship. The engineer designs and troubleshoots gas lift, ESP, rod pump, jet pump, and plunger lift, and writes AFEs for workovers. See selling to a production engineer.
Oxy's Midland completions engineer posting from June 2026 makes that engineer the on-site company representative for completions, the one who reviews and approves invoices (more in selling to a completion engineer). EOG's senior drilling engineer posting in Midland, first posted in October 2025 and still listed in October 2026, has the engineer writing AFEs and evaluating vendor performance (more in what a drilling engineer does).
Read the posting for your buyer's title the night before, and turn its duties into your questions.
Questions Worth Asking
In the meeting itself, good questions and listening beat anything you've posted. At most, your profile helped get you in the room. It won't carry the meeting.
- "What's taking most of your time this quarter?"
- For an engineer who approves invoices: "How do tickets get approved here, and what gets one sent back?"
- For an engineer who writes workover AFEs: "What's on the workover list, and what's driving your LOE?"
- For an engineer who evaluates vendor performance: "How do you score a vendor after a job?"
- "What would you need to see from us to try it on one well?"
Then stop talking. Write down what he says in his words, because you'll use them in the follow-up.
Who Else Will Weigh In
He isn't the only vote. Across B2B, Forrester's 2025 Buyers' Journey Survey found an average of 13 people inside the buyer's organization and nine from outside involved in a purchase decision. The 2025 Edelman and LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report found 71% of hidden buyers, such as finance, legal, compliance, and procurement staff, have relatively little or no interaction with sales (more in building a personal brand next to your company's).
He may also be careful for his own reasons. A Permian founder we work with told us younger engineers in the Permian are scared to rock the boat or stick their neck out. If the engineer across from you is one of them, he can like you fine and still not want to be the one who brings in a new name, so don't make him carry the whole case alone. Read the full story of the founder who told us that.
Ask him plainly: "Who else needs to be comfortable before this moves, and what will they want to see?" Then give him something he can forward without you there to explain it. More in how to sell to a whole buying committee at an operator.
What to Send After
Send it the same day, and keep it short:
- A recap in his words: the problem he described, what you agreed to do, and by when.
- The answer you owed him from the room.
- Your vendor status: registration, insurance, and your ISNetworld grade if this operator asks for one.
- One thing he can forward to the people he named.
- A date for the next step.
If he asked you to "send some information," see what to send when a buyer asks for information. After that, the job is staying known until he's ready to buy, which is what The Warm Walk-In™ does for you: it keeps your expertise, in your voice, in front of him and the people he forwards you to, between meetings.
Before the Second Meeting
He may look you up again before he sees you again. Find out what he'll find.
Send us your LinkedIn. We'll send back the Bison Walk-Around: five minutes of plain English on what's costing you callbacks and what we'd build. No call. No invoice. We give first.
If you sell services into the basin, our Permian oilfield service sales guide and our page for service reps pick up from here.
Sources and As-Of Dates
- ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, Diamondback Energy rank 1-2-3 in Permian (PBOG Magazine), April 17, 2026, citing Enverus data as of April 10, 2026. Rig ranking by operator; counts cover the whole Permian, not split by sub-basin.
- Devon Energy and Coterra Energy Complete Merger (8-K Exhibit 99.1), May 7, 2026.
- Ovintiv, Prospective supplier, checked October 17, 2026. OpenInvoice and ISNetworld.
- Apache Corporation, ISNetworld Requirements for Onsite Suppliers, July 2025. Grades.
- ConocoPhillips Supplier Relations, checked October 17, 2026. Purchase orders through GEP.
- Oxy careers: Eng Completions, Midland, Texas (JR109398), posted June 30, 2026, viewed October 18, 2026.
- Permian Resources careers: Production Engineer, Texas Delaware Basin (R-100338), posted June 24, 2026, viewed October 18, 2026.
- EOG Resources careers: Senior Drilling Engineer, Midland, TX (Job ID 10871), posted October 29, 2025, still listed October 18, 2026.
- Three Realities About B2B Buying Networks (Forrester), February 23, 2026, reporting the 2025 survey. Buying group size.
- LinkedIn Shares New Report on the Value of Thought Leadership Content (Social Media Today), July 14, 2025. The 2025 Edelman and LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report figure on hidden buyers.
The Warm Walk-In™ is an original method created by Amanda Leon and owned by The Valours Creative Innovation LLC.