CRM for oil and gas equipment suppliers

An oil and gas equipment supplier sells valves, pumps, instrumentation, fittings, pipe, wellhead and process equipment to operators, EPC contractors and service companies. Nothing happens without a request for quotation. A buyer issues an RFQ, several vendors reply with a technical and a commercial offer, and the winner is chosen months later. A CRM for this trade has to keep RFQs, documents and deadlines in order, and remember which buyers have approved you.

In PromptLab, an RFQ becomes a deal, the offer is a quote built from your products and a price list, the documents live on the account's Files tab, and the award is a sales order on the account. The wider view is on the manufacturers page.

How does oil and gas equipment sales actually work?

Three routes bring in the work.

Operator procurement. The operator's buyer sends an RFQ to an approved vendor list. If you are not on the list, you do not get the RFQ. Getting on it is its own sale.

EPC contractors. A contractor building a facility issues RFQs for packages of equipment, to a deadline set by the project programme. The price is decided by the contractor's own margin pressure.

Maintenance and spares (MRO). An operator or service company needs a replacement part for an asset in service. These orders are smaller, faster and repeated, and they come from the same relationships.

The time from RFQ to order is long, and many RFQs end with no award at all. Your effort is a pipeline of live bids with different deadlines, not one hot lead.

What do buyers ask before they order?

• Vendor registration. Questionnaires on your company, quality system and safety record. Record the status per buyer on the account (applied, approved, renewal due) and attach the submitted forms to the Files tab.
• A technical offer. Datasheets, drawings, compliance statements against the specification, and a list of deviations. Prepare it with your engineers, and attach the version sent.
• A commercial offer. Price, delivery, payment terms and validity. In PromptLab a quote has statuses Draft, Pending and Approved but no expiry field, so write the validity in the quote's Notes field, which prints on the PDF.
• Material and test documents. Certificates for the material and test records. Keep the master copies in your quality system, and attach what you sent.
• Inspection and witnessing. Some orders require a third-party inspector or a buyer's witness at test. Note it on the order.
• Delivery. Long-lead items run to weeks or months. Quote lines have no notes of their own, so list the lead time of each long-lead item in the quote's Notes field. What is lead time covers the term.

How do you run RFQs in a CRM?

Treat every RFQ as a deal with a deadline. Add custom fields for the RFQ number, the closing date for tenders and the bid-or-no-bid decision. Deals have a built-in next follow-up date, and an expected close date is a custom date field.

When the buyer's date is near, a view sorted by deadline shows what has to go out this week. How to respond to an RFQ and how to manage tenders and bids cover the response itself, and what is an RFQ defines the term.

When a bid is lost, close the deal with a loss reason from the fixed list: Price, Competitor, Timing, No budget, Product fit or Other. After a year the pattern shows whether you lose on price or on fit, which tells you which RFQs to stop answering.

What pipeline stages fit an oil and gas supplier?

PromptLab has one deal pipeline per workspace, with stages you choose. Use a field for tender, MRO or framework call-off, and a saved view for each.

What must the CRM track?

• Vendor approval status per buyer.
• RFQ number, deadline and bid decision on the deal.
• Quotes with line discounts and named additional costs such as freight or packing.
• Documents on the Files tab for the technical offer, the vendor forms and the certificates sent.
• Contacts by role: buyer, engineer, inspector, project manager.
• Framework agreements with a buyer, noted on the account with dates.
• Every message. RFQs arrive on email, but field engineers and procurement contacts in many regions also use WhatsApp or Telegram.

How do you set this up in PromptLab?

1. 1

   Import accounts, contacts and products

   Bring in operators, EPC contractors and service companies from CSV or Excel, with products and their datasheet references as fields.

2. 2

   Add RFQ fields to the deal

   Create custom fields for RFQ number, closing date, bid decision and package type. Add an account field for vendor approval status and renewal date.

3. 3

   Build the offer as a quote

   Pick the products and a price list on the quote, add freight as a named additional cost, and write the delivery and validity in the Notes field. Attach technical documents to the account's Files tab.

4. 4

   Automate the follow-up

   A workflow can create a task for the owner when a deal changes stage or a quote changes status, so a Pending offer is followed up after submission.

5. 5

   Raise the order on award

   Create the sales order on the account with the Incoterm, payment terms and planned delivery date. Approving a quote does not create one automatically.

6. 6

   Review lost bids

   Ask AI which deals were lost on Price this year and at which buyers, and decide where to stop bidding. How to analyse lost deals has the review.

How does PromptLab compare for oil and gas suppliers?

Swipe the table sideways to see every CRM →

Salesforce is the most configurable CRM there is, with five editions from $25 to $550 a user a month, billed annually. Quotes, price lists and orders start at $100, and building the process usually takes an admin or a partner. Dynamics 365 Sales is natural for a Microsoft company, with quotes, price lists and orders from Professional at $65 a user, billed annually. Meeting recording starts on Enterprise at $105.

HubSpot is the most polished all-in-one suite, from $7 a seat a month billed annually, though quoting sits in Revenue Hub and Professional and Enterprise add a $1,500 to $3,500 onboarding fee. For a side-by-side look at one of them, see Salesforce vs PromptLab.

Frequently asked questions

What should a CRM for an oil and gas equipment supplier include?

It should track RFQs with deadlines, vendor approval status per buyer, quotes, sales orders and the documents you submitted. PromptLab has quotes, sales orders and a Files tab on every account, from $11.99 per user per month.

How do I track an RFQ deadline?

Add a closing date as a custom date field on the deal, and use the deal's built-in next follow-up date. A saved view sorted by closing date shows what is due.

Can the CRM store my vendor registration documents?

Each account has a Files tab, so attach the forms and certificates you submitted. Keep master copies in your quality system.

How do I record that a bid was lost?

Close the deal as lost and pick a reason from the fixed list: Price, Competitor, Timing, No budget, Product fit or Other. Add a note for the detail.

Is there a free trial?

Basic and Professional come with a 14-day free trial, with no card needed. There is no free plan.