Women In Propane: When Change Feels Right, It’s a Breath of Fresh Air
Sometimes you just know when something feels right. When Amanda Bacon walked into Palmer Gas & Oil (PGO) in Atkinson, N.H., having just been through a divorce and having a baby, she was ready for a change. So when applying to PGO, her attitude was, “I’ll just see what happens.” Now, almost four years later, as the company’s director of sales and marketing, she has found it to be a “real breath of fresh air.” PGO is a family-owned and -operated propane and fuel-oil delivery and service company. “PGO is unlike any company I have ever worked with,” she said. “To this day, when the leadership team sits in the boardroom, you cannot tell who is an owner, which I love. It shows we can…
Sometimes you just know when something feels right. When Amanda Bacon walked into Palmer Gas & Oil (PGO) in Atkinson, N.H., having just been through a divorce and having a baby, she was ready for a change. So when applying to PGO, her attitude was, “I’ll just see what happens.” Now, almost four years later, as the company’s director of sales and marketing, she has found it to be a “real breath of fresh air.”
PGO is a family-owned and -operated propane and fuel-oil delivery and service company. “PGO is unlike any company I have ever worked with,” she said. “To this day, when the leadership team sits in the boardroom, you cannot tell who is an owner, which I love. It shows we can leave ego at the door.”
Bacon, a native of New Hampshire, began her career in the oil and propane industry more than a decade ago. She took a break from the industry for a few years to become the executive director of a local business association and run her own marketing firm before joining PGO.
Her first major project at her new job was to rebrand the 85-year-old company, which took nearly a year to complete. “Aside from the aesthetics, we focused on what we wanted our internal culture to be,” Bacon explained. “What it came down to was: if our employees are happy, our customers will be happy. So we continue to work on a culture that encourages collaboration, kindness, and belly laughs.”
Next came marketing to existing and potential customers. “What makes us stand out is how we approach everything. From the way we answer our phones, to the fact we host an annual customer appreciation day,” she said. “Our customer event has seen as many as 1200 customers walk through our doors. Our employees are able to cook for our customers, give prizes, and interact with people they speak to on the phone, clean their heating systems, or deliver their fuel — but who otherwise would never have a chance to engage with them.
“We get it. There is nothing super fun or exciting about propane. So how do we stand out from the crowd when our propane smells the same as our competitors’ and we offer the same products and services?”
Social media — Facebook, Insta-gram, YouTube, LinkedIn — is increasing the way the company is staying connected with customers, according to Bacon. Under her direction, the company is also Snapchatting, focusing on those who will be potential customers as a way to generate brand awareness.
Through her initiative, PGO received the 2017 Business of the Year from Business NH Magazine, the 2017 and 2018 Best of Business awards in the fuel provider category from New Hampshire Business Review, and has been a runner-up for the last two years for the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Awards for Marketplace Ethics.
Since graduating from Plymouth State University with a BA in communications, Bacon returns to her alma mater each year to speak with soon-to-be graduates in the communications field about how they can apply what they have learned in the classroom to the real world. She offers to review the graduates’ resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and has even hired interns from the university when she owned her own marketing company.
The last year has been a big one for Bacon. She was named one of the propane industry’s Rising Leaders by LP Gas magazine. Since then, she has been a speaker at the 2017 NPGA Southeastern Convention & International Propane Expo in Nashville, and in May at the Eastern Energy Expo she presented a session about social media and search engine optimization. Currently, she chairs the Propane Gas Association of New England’s Marketing Committee. She also had a chapter published in a new book, “Starting Over,” and is working on her first book.
But if there is one thing Bacon is most passionate about these days, it’s seeing other women and younger people enter the industry and succeed. As a member of the Women in Propane (WIP) Council, she participates in the mentoring program. “I believe in paying it forward, as there have been many people who have helped, and continue to help, me along the way.”
“Women need to empower each other, and men need to become our allies and our mentors. The more successful women are in this industry, the more successful this industry is going to be. Guaranteed. Women make 80% of all buying decisions in households, and it’s time we take this skill set and power into the boardroom to show our counterparts what we have to offer,” Bacon said. “But we need help getting there, and help needs to come from the people running this industry, which is predominantly men.”
Even with her busy schedule, Bacon said she believes her life is balanced. She enjoys her work, travels when she can, and soaks up time with her 5-year-old daughter, Ella Rain. Bacon’s big on family, and always makes time on the weekends for her twin sister and her family, her parents, and her boyfriend. —Karen Massman VanAsdale
(Published in Butane Propane News (BPN) July 2018. Please email
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