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Holly Corp. expands into Tulsa with purchase of Sunoco refinery
Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs Program incentives will assist the Dallas-based company with $150 million in environmental upgrades and the retention of 366 employees following its purchase of the Sunoco refinery in west Tulsa.
Holly Corporation’s wholly owned subsidiary, Holly Refining & Marketing-Tulsa LLC, closed on its purchase of the Sunoco refinery in Tulsa earlier this month and plans to break ground later this year on projects to build a new diesel hydrotreater and sulfur recovery unit. The planned hydrotreater and sulfur recovery units will allow Holly to meet standards for ultra-low sulfur diesel by 2011.
“Holly Corp. acquired the 85,000-barrel-per-day Tulsa refinery for $65 million and, by retaining and adding some 400 jobs and making site improvements, is expected to have an economic impact of well more than $500 million in the Tulsa region,” said Mike Neal, the Chamber’s president and CEO. “This is wonderful news for Tulsa and the employees who work at the refinery.”
The Tulsa acquisition provides Holly Corp. with added assets, geographic and product diversity, talented employees and optimal ways to competitively transport fuels to a number of mid-continent markets.
“The Tulsa refinery will be a significant part of our entire operation,” Holly CEO Matt Clifton said at a press conference held last week in Tulsa.
Holly is an independent petroleum refiner and marketer that produces gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel. The company operates a 100,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Artesia, N.M., and a 31,000 bpd refinery in Woods Cross, Utah.
Lowered risk trumps logic for b2b buyers
Have you ever been absolutely sure that your product or service was the best solution for a particular prospect, only to find out they chose a competitor? It may be because the long-accepted, rational, step-by-step model for the business-to-business buying process is less effective with today’s buyers, according to a new study by Enquiro Research.
The traditional purchasing model, which includes identifying a need, building awareness, consideration and purchase, does not consider the emotional, non-linear aspects of purchasing.
“Ninety-nine percent of b2b buying is about covering your butt,” according to the authors of a study of more than 3,000 business buyers. In other words, b2b buying has become about minimizing personal and organizational risks. And today’s economy has magnified this risk avoiding behavior.
How can companies create a lower-risk environment for prospects? Match prospects with happy customers that had similar “risk factors.” Rather than provide a reference from a long-time customer, have prospects talk to customers who made their purchase within the past year. Go a step further by getting references from all the people that were involved in the referring customer’s decision to buy and give them to those in the same role at the prospect’s company.
Become an “approved vendor” in the mind of your prospect. Create a relationship with a teaser offer (e.g., a free trial, money-back guarantee, etc.). It lowers the risk of getting started. Small interactions like this build trust.
And, finally, direct buyers to positive word-of-mouth. If prospects have any doubts about buying, consider linking them to content (industry/customer reviews, blogs, etc.) that speaks well of your products or services.
For help finding a Tulsa-based service provider to fulfill your business needs, check out the Let’s Do Business Web site.
Source: The Marketing Report, June 2, 2009
Growing a small business during a recessionTurning lemons into lemonade isn’t a new concept, but USA Today’s Rhonda Abrams suggests a new simile for small business owners in the current economy: squeeze some oranges. In a recent article titled “Squeeze your way to business growth,” the author, columnist and small business consultant said entrepreneurs do best when they “squeeze” more from the assets they already have, including products, services, customers, distribution and employees.
It can be costly to undertake new product development or to market to new customers. Therefore, Abrams proposes small businesses go after the same or similar market they already have with existing products and services, but to market more aggressively. This may mean revising strategies or repricing products. The key, though, is to work harder, longer and smarter than ever before.
Click here to read Abrams' full column.
Mobile couponing goes mainstream
The mobile phone is quickly becoming a replacement for the 300 billion paper coupons issued every year in the United States. Industry forces are converging in today’s market to create the perfect storm for mobile coupons to take off: Consumers are increasingly price-sensitive, revenue is harder to come by and mobile phones are nearly ubiquitous.
Big retailers have recently gotten on board with mobile coupons in various forms, and according to Juniper Research analyst Howard Wilcox, where the big brands go, the rest of the industry will soon follow. Juniper expects coupons issued via mobile phones to increase by 30 percent during the next two years alone.
Mobile couponing is emerging in three ways: Most common is through text messages as an affinity program in which consumers text in a short code and receive a coupon in return. Second is through a less widely supported method in which a message is sent with a bar code to be redeemed when scanned in-store. The third and least widespread example is Web-based fulfillment where the coupons appear on mobile web sites.
Coupons on the mobile phone typically offer a much better redemption rate and are more cost-effective. One coupon vendor claims they consistently get redemption rates in the teens compared to paper coupons’ return average of less than 1 percent.
Check out the Tulsa Chamber’s membership directory to find a company that can assist your business in creative advertising efforts like mobile coupons.
Source: Telephonyonline.com, June 23, 2009
Finding new employees via social media
Employers already know one of the best sources of high quality hires is friends of existing employees. Now, new services are making it easier for your employees to match jobs to the hundreds of friends in their online social networks.
Companies that use services like Appirio and Jobvite ask their employees to add an application to their Facebook pages (Jobvite also works with LinkedIn and Twitter). The tool notifies the employees when new jobs open and which of their friends might be a good fit.
Both services use a matching engine that searches for keywords in their friends’ profile information. To address privacy concerns, the list of possible candidates is only available to the employee and not the hiring company or software provider. If a friend is hired, the services can tell the hiring company which employee found the match in order to offer a referral bonus.
Source: The New York Times, May 31, 2009
The Tulsa Metro Chamber is closed on Friday, July 3The Tulsa Metro Chamber is closed on Friday, July 3 in observance of Independence Day on July 4. Normal business hours will resume on Monday, July 6.
Chamber welcomes new businessesEach month the Tulsa Metro Chamber's Hospitality Club welcomes new businesses and new Chamber members to the community by assisting with ribbon cuttings and groundbreaking announcements.
AVB
Kelley Rash, Chairman of the Board
2201 N. Elm Place
Broken Arrow, OK 74012
Phone: 251.9611
www.Bankavb.com
Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar
James Allen, General Manager
7568 S. Olympia Avenue
Tulsa, OK 74132
Phone: 445.9953
www.buffalowildwings.com
Properties Plus Inc.
Greg Williams, Owner
7040 South Yale, Suite 100
Tulsa, OK 74136
Phone: 488.8880
www.propertiesplus.com
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