New to Oil and Gas Sales? Start Here

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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.

I had only been home three or four days when my mom got me my first job, at Vallourec, because a friend of hers worked there. My mom has worked in oil and gas for more than 30 years. She's in procurement. I said, "Why, Mom? I didn't study drilling or petroleum." She said, "Get off my couch, you're going to work."

So I went, and Vallourec humbled me. I had only studied neuroscience and international relations, and in the Houston marketing team I walked into a world where I didn't know much of anything: fracking, drilling, the different heads on drill bits. The habit it gave me is the first one I'd hand any new rep. Put your student hat on. Listen and learn more than you talk, and sometimes forget what you think you know.

That habit carries you through the two things standing between a new rep and a first oil and gas order: the operator's supplier gates, and the fact that nobody on location knows your name yet. The gates are paperwork, and every operator writes its own. Start on the name the same day you start the paperwork, because the name takes longer.

Gates Before Relationships

A good first meeting does not get you an order, because the operator's supplier setup clears first, and each operator runs its own (ConocoPhillips, for one, issues purchase orders through its GEP portal and won't issue them by email). We lay out what Ovintiv, Apache, and ConocoPhillips each ask for in how to get on an operator's approved vendor list.

None of that asks whether the buyer likes you. Ask your office where you stand with each operator before you push, so you never sell a job nobody can buy.

Oilfield Terms to Learn First

  • Company man and toolpusher. The company man is the operator's representative on a drilling location. The toolpusher is the drilling contractor's location supervisor. They work for different companies, so don't mix them up.
  • Drilling, completions, and production engineers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts it plainly: drilling engineers design ways to construct wells, completions engineers decide how to finish them so oil or gas flows up, and production engineers take over after drilling to track output and raise extraction.
  • Field ticket, PO, and AFE. Learn these before your first job, not after a ticket bounces. Aimsio, a company that sells field ticketing software, lists common reasons operators reject tickets: the wrong signer, an approver without authority at that dollar level, work outside the PO or contract scope, and charges billed to the wrong PO or AFE. Aimsio adds that many customers require a second signature above a set threshold.
  • MSA and knock-for-knock. The master service agreement sets the insurance minimums and the indemnity terms, knock-for-knock among them, that your company works under with an operator. Start with what an MSA is in oil and gas.
  • District 8. The Railroad Commission of Texas oil and gas district covering 20 counties, including Midland, Ector, Martin, Howard, and Andrews on the Midland side, plus Reeves, Ward, Loving, Winkler, Pecos, and Culberson to the west.
  • Simul-frac and frac spread. Simul-frac is simultaneous hydraulic fracturing. API says about 3,600 of roughly 6,800 Permian wells completed in 2025 used it, and the Permian frac spread count averaged about 100 crews in 2025, 3% above 2024.

Who You Will Actually Sell To

  • On location: the company man. He's the operator's representative there, responsible for operations and safety on location. See selling to the oilfield company man.
  • In the office: the engineer for the phase. Drilling while the well is built, completions to finish it, production after drilling.
  • Behind the portal: supply chain and approvers. Whoever signs your field ticket needs authority at that dollar level, so learn who signs before the job.

For the role itself, start with our page for oilfield service sales reps and our Permian Basin field guides.

Where Permian People Gather

  • PBPA Top Hand Award Banquet, January 21, 2027. The Permian Basin Petroleum Association has served West Texas and southeastern New Mexico since 1961.
  • Southwestern Petroleum Short Course, April 19 to 22, 2027. Average attendance of over 1,300, with exhibit space for more than 90 companies.
  • Produced Water Society Permian Basin Conference, August 3 to 5, 2027, at the Bush Convention Center in Midland.
  • Permian Basin International Oil Show, October 19 to 21, 2027, at the Ector County Coliseum in Odessa. Its site lists about 20,000 attendees and more than 650 exhibitors.

Check each organizer's site before you book, because dates and venues can change. When you go, keep the student hat on. Ask more than you pitch, and follow up by name.

Earning Trust When Nobody Knows You Yet

The honest answer first: partnering with a distributor, agent, or veteran rep who already holds operator relationships gets you in faster than building a name from zero. If someone the company men already trust will take you along, go.

And if you don't feel like much of a salesman yet, you're not the first. An oilfield salesman we interviewed told us, "I'm an awful salesman." Out here, knowing the work and being known for it count for more than a smooth pitch.

Build your own name alongside the partner, because his relationships stay with him, and a name you build comes with you if you change companies. Being known before the meeting matters: 6sense's 2025 buyer research found 68% of buyers already knew a seller from the vendor that won (more in where to find oil and gas sales leads). An empty profile gives a buyer nothing to go on. A few clear, true posts about what you're learning show him you pay attention.

That's the job The Warm Walk-In™ does for a new rep: it turns what you're learning, and the stories you're starting to collect, into posts under your own name, and nothing goes out without your yes. For the wider picture, read how to sell to oil and gas companies and oilfield service sales in the Permian Basin.

Get Your Bison Walk-Around

Still learning which engineer does what? That's fine. Find out what an operator sees when he looks you up today.

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.

Get your Bison Walk-Around

Sources and As-Of Dates

The Warm Walk-In™ is an original method created by Amanda Leon and owned by The Valours Creative Innovation LLC.

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