Oilfield Sales vs Construction Sales

Let me put it simply: The oilfield makes men.

It takes boys, throws them into chaos, pressure, and extreme conditions and when you finally come out the other side, you can chew glass and fart light bulbs.

I’ve been sitting on this post for a week, watching the situation unfold.

Before I get into the gritty details, let me tell you a story that my oil & gas folks will appreciate:

Imagine this

You’re selling a downhole tool package to your customer, this is the deepest well he ever drilled, this is his elephant.

You close the deal but never once ask about the customer's pump system, power setup, or any operational constraints.

You just wanted the commission.

The customer picked up the tool, runs it in the hole.

It runs for about two hours.

Then it fails.

Even worse, It fries the rig generator and causes serious downtime.

The customer calls you, pissed.

And your response?

You try to upsell him more tools, battery tools and tell him he should have gotten a bigger drilling rig.

You never address the root cause,

and you don't act with a sense of urgency.

Oh, and to top it off… you hit him with a “LOL” in the text thread.

That’s not just tone-deaf, it’s disrespectful.

Q1 : So what would you do?

Well, here’s my reality.

That exact situation happened on my project, no drilling rigs, but an elephant of a project.

I was sold high-end equipment without a single question asked about my jobsite setup.

Turns out, the tool pulls more amps than most breaker panels can handle.

The tool need a dedicated 30amp breaker, and we don’t have that.

Now I’ve got a very expensive paperweight ( Hilti Group. )

But did I shut the job down?

Nope.

I went to The Home Depot , picked up a $110 Milwaukee Tool and kept moving.

Because I was trained in the crucible of O&G.

I cut my teeth in the GoM, ran ops. in Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Argentina...

I've worked in some of the harshest conditions out there, this setback, I shrugged it off.

The oilfield taught me to adapt, to solve problems, and to NEVER let the mission fail.

That’s why this hits different.

In oilfield sales, you know better.

You ask the hard questions.

You prepare for contingencies.

You deliver with precision, because failure isn’t just a missed commission, it’s shutting down million-dollar operations.

So here’s my challenge to my oilfield brothers and sisters:

If you’re looking for the next thing, come join me in construction.

Yeah, the money won’t match O&G out the gate.

But you’ll bring a level of grit, discipline, and excellence this industry sorely needs.

Let’s raise the bar out here.

Let’s show them how it's really done.