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 studied neuromarketing. What people say they want isn't what they actually want. We're irrational, and we often don't know what we want, or how to say it. So when a buyer tells you "send me some information," hear it as the polite version of something he hasn't said yet.
Sometimes that something is no, and this is his way off the phone. Sometimes he's starting to vet you and needs something he can forward to people you may never talk to. One question tells you which. If it's real, send what the next reader needs instead of a brochure.
Brush-Off or Real Request: How to Tell
Don't go by the words. Go by what he does with them, and listen for detail.
- It's probably real when he names a job, a size, or a date, asks for something specific like a data sheet or your insurance proof, tells you who else will read it, or agrees to a time to talk again.
- It's probably a brush-off when it comes right after you say your name, asks for nothing in particular, and won't commit to a follow-up.
Before you hang up, ask what he's working on that you should tailor this to. A buyer with a real need will tell you. A buyer being polite usually won't have much of an answer, and that tells you plenty.
When it is a polite no, a short phone call two weeks later finds out faster than any attachment, so don't burn an evening on a packet nobody opens. If the deal has already gone silent, see what to do when an oil and gas deal goes quiet.
What Procurement Needs Before You Can Get a PO
Sometimes "information" means vendor setup, and no product sheet stands in for it. Operators like Ovintiv and ConocoPhillips put their supplier rules in writing, down to the portal a purchase order comes through, and we lay those rules out in how to get on an operator's approved vendor list.
So ask whether you're set up as a vendor. If you aren't, the most useful thing you can send is your tax number, your insurance proof, and where you stand in that operator's portal. A great data sheet can't get you a purchase order from a portal you aren't in. For how supply chain teams work past the gate, see getting known by supply chain.
Some Pipe Buyers Price Against a Published Index
If you sell OCTG, the request may really be about price, and some pipe buyers already have a yardstick: certain program buys are priced off a published OCTG price index. The company behind one such index says supply chain and category managers at oil and gas companies use its assessments when they negotiate contracts for program purchases, and that the largest players in the oilfield tubular market use its indexes to settle sales contracts.
So before you send a number, ask whether the buy is priced against an index, and if it is, show how your quote relates to it. On a pipe buy, it's the first question I'd ask. (I came up in the Houston marketing team of Vallourec, the French maker of VAM premium connections, pulling apart international drilling marketing data, so weigh my read on pipe pricing with that in mind.) If tariffs are the question you answer on every call, see how to explain Section 232 steel tariffs and OCTG once.
Write It for the Stranger It Gets Forwarded To
Your email may travel further than the man who asked for it. In the 2025 Edelman and LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, 71% of hidden buyers, people like finance, legal, compliance, and procurement staff, said they have relatively little or no interaction with sales, so they may read what you send without ever hearing you pitch. More from that report is in our answer on personal brand versus company brand.
Write for them. Put what you sell, for which job, and what you need from them in the first three lines. Name the attachment so it makes sense to a stranger, and assume it gets forwarded without you there to explain it. I'd assume they look you up, too, so what you've posted in public is part of the information they check, whether you sent it or not. For a deal with several of these readers in it, see how to sell to a whole buying committee at an operator.
What to Send Instead of a Brochure
Keep it short enough to read on a phone in a pickup.
- A short email that answers what he asked, for the job he named, in plain English.
- One document that fits that job. The data sheet for the size or service he mentioned, and leave the catalog at the office.
- Your vendor setup status, if procurement is in the loop: tax number, insurance proof, and where you stand in the operator's portal.
- Your pricing basis, if it's a pipe buy priced against an index.
- One link to something you've written that answers his next question, so he can see how you think.
- A date for the next conversation, written into the email.
If the hard part is explaining what you do at all, see how to explain a complex oilfield service so the buyer gets it the first time.
Stop Answering the Same Questions Over and Over
If the same request lands every week, write the answer once, in public, in your own voice, and let the link do the explaining. Expertise you wrote down once doesn't clock out. That's the job The Warm Walk-In™ does for a supply rep: the questions you answer a hundred times a year become posts in your voice on a fixed calendar, three to five a week, never more than one a day, each one approved by you before it goes out.
You already carry the material, and so did the Permian founder we work with: after his intake, he wrote that he was "impressed y'all came up with as many topics from my intake form." His best post reached 58,666 impressions. Read the full story.
More for your side of the business is on our page for equipment and supply reps and in OCTG and PVF sales in the Permian.
What He Finds When He Looks You Up
Your email lands, then he looks you up. See what he finds.
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.
Sources and As-Of Dates
- 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, chart 2: hidden buyers. Cross-industry B2B data, not oil and gas alone.
- Ovintiv, Prospective supplier, checked October 17, 2026. Supplier requirements, including tax number, insurance, and OpenInvoice registration.
- ConocoPhillips Supplier Relations, checked October 17, 2026. Purchase orders through the GEP portal only.
- Argus OCTG (Pipe Logix) product page, an undated page checked October 17, 2026. The published OCTG price index and how the index seller says buyers use it.
- LinkedIn analytics export for the founder's personal profile, Sep 15, 2025 to Oct 19, 2026, held by Unrth. His best post's impressions. Details in the full proof story.
- The founder's written note after his intake, held by Unrth.
The Warm Walk-In™ is an original method created by Amanda Leon and owned by The Valours Creative Innovation LLC.