00:00
Hi, welcome to Power the Network. I'm your host, Tim Locker, Vice President of Broadband here at CBM. You know, I've said it before, but I'll say it again. You one of my favorite parts about being able to do this podcast is meeting more people, especially today we've got Mr. Dave Lucas. He's a regional VP for Siemens Energy. It'll be my first opportunity to get to know him. So we're going to talk about, you know, what's going on in the electric utility industry.
00:29
power generation, et cetera. There's a lot going on in the news. So we're going to have that discussion. Please join us.
00:39
Dave, thanks so much for joining us. I know you're a busy man and we appreciate you taking the time to come in and be with us. Absolutely. Looking forward to it. It's a pleasure for me to finally get to meet you. You're not aware of it, but I almost got to meet you last winter. We were tailgating at a Chiefs game, one-tent over and...
01:04
our buddy Tim Drake had went over and visited with you, but I didn't get an opportunity to come over and say hi. So we almost got to meet a few months ago. There we go. Would have been maybe with beer in hand. So do you go to the Chiefs games? I like to attend Chiefs games as many as possible, but you know, not every game, but as many as I can. It's yeah, grew up a Chiefs fan. So yeah, well, we were fortunate. Tim invited my wife and I to come down and tailgate with him in this.
01:32
his family and his brother is an excellent tailgater. You know, he's got the wood, got the fire, got the food, got the drinks. Well, I bring my tailgate pro as well. His name is Chris Dyer. He does T &D sales for the EPCs here locally. I always try to schedule a game with Chris because I don't have to do anything. I just show up. It's nice knowing that things are going to be taken care of. Absolutely.
02:00
Let's talk a little bit about, you know, I want to get into your background and your history and leadership and some of those things, but let's start off with, you know, what's going on in the, you know, in the power, electric, lots, industry, you know, there's a lot of things going on right now that, you know, the hot topic is the tariffs. Everybody's worried about that. What do you see, you know, how do you see the tariffs affecting Siemens?
02:29
Well, Tim, that's a great question. And if I had the answer, I probably wouldn't be sitting here right now. No, it's a challenge for us in figuring out, A, is the roller coaster going up, going down? The yo-yo, are they going to stick or are they not going to stick? Are we going to negotiate deals with countries and it's going to go away? But as of right now, we're not in position to absorb them.
02:57
Sure, yeah, is frankly. they're going to need to be passed through. It's just a matter of we need to get together with our real three main operating groups and come up with a consistent strategy. We haven't gotten there yet because again, it seems like every day there's a change. But we're to a point now where as we start to import product from whether it's Germany or Brazil or Mexico, then
03:26
that stuff's going to be happening ASAP. A lot of stuff is already in country before this stuff happens, so we haven't had to make a decision on that yet. At some point it's going to come together where you're going to feel I know there's meetings this week actually where we're getting the heads of our different businesses together. We want to have a consolidated position, whether it's a transformer, whether it's a generator, whether it's a turbine. But it's complicated and we understand our customers.
03:56
It's complicated for them too. there's no good answer right now. Well, and not knowing the timing, that's got to be one of the biggest frustrations, because somebody could change tomorrow, negotiate something different or whatever. it's like, for a company of your size, these are not small decisions that you're trying to make. And if it's for a week long,
04:25
Right. know, time frame, that's got to be a challenge. And, you know, like we said, right, if we, you again, we're not in position to absorb them, so they're going to have to be passed through, right, I mean, or passed on. But then if, you know, if they go away, right, then it's going to be a mess regardless, right, if you have to credit something that was charged that's now no longer valid. mean, anyway. Well, and too, yeah, I mean, you know, the lead time,
04:55
of your products. It's not a two weeks after order type of product. These are highly engineered, build, dispec type of products. so, yeah, that's got to be a challenge too, is if it's a year or a year and half from delivery and you're kind of guessing on these windows. And I'm not our tax tariff finance guy, but I'm in enough conversations to know that, again, it's not
05:23
There's not clarity really on, know, it a, or the tariff going to be on finished products as well as raw materials that go into finished products, how is all that done? So it's a big mess right now that people are trying to figure out how we're going to deal with it. it's, you know, I get questions on tariffs two or three times a day. I really don't, you know, it's one of those things I can say more or less what I've said here, but I don't have...
05:51
Kind of out of your control, you got to feel the effects and figure it out. You got it. So the tariffs obviously bring a lot of uncertainty. In terms of leadership, how do you manage leading a team in times of uncertainty like this? Well, tariff-wise, specific to that question, I don't think it necessarily impacts the team. There's uncertainty for our
06:21
our customers, as to things are getting more expensive. And I guess it could impact us for sure if people start slowing down their purchases because of the increased costs. But at the end of the day, I think everybody realizes it's just something that the administration's pushing and it's going to get passed down at the end of the day. It's just going to, you know, it's a trickle-down thing. So generally, though, in times of uncertainty and, you know, how do you deal with it?
06:51
You just communicate with the team and be as transparent as you can. I'll let you know what I know, right? And we're kind of in this together, so we're not going to hide things. We're going to let you know just as much as we can as far as where things are going and what we're doing, what our plan is. And there has been situations like that before where the market from 2012 to 2022 was just...
07:20
There wasn't, especially in generation, there wasn't much going on. So, yeah, we're out running around trying to build relationships and make sales when just not that many people buying things. that was a bit of a challenge, but hey, people realize that it's a longer-term play and our markets always move in cycles. So it's coming back and now it has. Here we are.
07:49
You just kind of settle the nerves. People have a tendency to worry about things out of their control. got to focus on what's important. What can you influence? And if you can't, then don't stress about it. I mean, that's easier said than done for a lot of people. Absolutely, but no, certainly that's very important. can affect, we talk about this a lot, but yeah, you just...
08:18
stay the course, do the right thing, keep calling on the customer, manage those relationships, and when they're ready to buy, we're there in the right place. I can remember years ago, it was probably maybe 2010, nine or 10, was shortly after I first started. And we were at our year-end party,
08:46
That was a down year. That was right after the housing crash and all that. some of our competitors were pulling back, keeping their salespeople, not traveling, not doing anything that wasn't required. our president at the time gave us a speech and he said, while these people are doing that, we're going to keep going. We're going to double down. So we want to be in front of those customers.
09:13
So we're first to mind when it does come back. Because it will. Yeah. That's one of my struggles. I'm one of the, know, sky is falling. I'll worry about things that are out of my control. that's one thing I'm learning after I finally got enough years here that, it sucks or whatever, could be better. But there's ebbs and flows and things come back. we've got enough history to show that things are working.
09:42
Right, absolutely. Now I agree 100%. Yeah. you mentioned generation. I was just watching a deal online the other day and the president was talking about data centers. And I think he said, you know, we're going to need double the power we have now just to handle data centers. I mean, to me that's mind blowing.
10:07
To you it's got you got to be thinking dollar signs, but how do we absolutely how do we how do we even begin to put that all together? Yeah, it's a challenge on many fronts right I mean These are by and large new customers. Yeah for us, right? mean you rewind the clock just you know a handful of years We didn't I mean we didn't call on you know the big
10:35
data center customers. And they weren't as prevalent as they are now. So, the market is just turned upside down and that is driving the growth not only in generation space, because they all want generation inside the fence to back up if they have a utility connection and they want it now. Because it's just the pace of
11:04
advancement in technology is such that they need more data centers and they need the power for the data centers. So it's just a snowball effect right now where generation is, you know, that they are stretching our factory load plan, not only utilities for native load, but these data centers that are saying, I need it here and I need it now, I need it yesterday.
11:34
Our lead times have pushed way out on gas turbines, but there's the pull through there too of transformers and breakers and everything that's needed for that substation. it encompasses not just generation but also the transmission space which it's just growing. can create it but you also got to get it somewhere. So personally I'm involved with the data center opportunity
12:03
It's really pretty cool from that perspective because growing up in the utility industry, now you have this whole other market who wants generation and who needs that transition, product. It's totally out of the normal, you know, because traditionally you'd be working with IOUs and maybe some municipals and co-ops or whatever. So I'm learning new customer names every day that are these data center customers that, so we've put together
12:33
a team to focus just on that data center I was going to ask that if you had a specific group targeting. That's it. Our existing Salesforce, they're pretty well stretched as it is. The amount of business that we've done over the last five years, you look at it, it's gone up. The slope of that curve is huge. We really haven't added that many direct salespeople. Now we've got all these new data center customers that are saying, I need generation, I need transmission, I need it now.
13:02
our sales force was getting just stretched. we've really focused on adding resources for this one particular group that's going to be focused, that has the lead for data centers. Now, I still support, because one of them happens to be here in Kansas City, and they're wanting to put facilities all throughout the Midwest, Texas, here all the way down.
13:30
a sales guy for a long time in the area. have relationships with people that have maybe gone here, gone there, and ended up there. Data centers can be somewhat of a challenge because it's big corporate structures, ownership, and I live in Iowa and we've got a ton of them up there, but the decisions aren't made there. It might be in California or who knows where. New York.
13:59
challenging, know, to find the right people to deal with the right groups. And so that's, you know, that's kind of maybe been one of our biggest challenges with data centers in particular. Where is the decision made? Yeah. Right. How can we influence that from a local level? No, and it's because you're right, you got some in California, you got some in New York. I mean, they're everywhere. So that's, we've tasked this group with
14:27
putting together an account plan and a tax strategy for how do we go after these guys? Because it's happening, right? They're buying equipment. And we want to make sure that we're right there doing it. obviously this is all for AI. Are you guys using AI internally for certain things or for your sales teams?
14:57
accepting that and using it? There are lot of people that are. We have a Siemens Energy version of ChatGPT, and then there's another one, Microsoft has a copilot, right? So we can actually, on Teams calls, enable this copilot, and it will take notes of us on a Teams call. that at the end of the call, you hit end and boom, it spits out.
15:24
kind what was discussed. It's crazy. haven't used share that to everybody. I haven't used it. And then the chat GPT feature, mean there are folks in our organization now that use chat GPT to write emails. I yeah. I mean, they say this, this, this, this, I I haven't done it yet. I'm a slow adopter. I'm kind of the same way, but I still write my own emails and I don't use, you know, I take my own notes on Teams calls.
15:51
I'm slow as well, I can't help but think there's got to be ways that we can use it that's going to save us time and effort so we can, you know, because time is everything. yeah. If we can focus our time where it needs to be in front of the customer and we can save some of the back end stuff, it's just a little bit mind boggling for an old guy to figure out where do we even start. Well, that's just it.
16:20
to enable an AI function to listen into a Teams call and take notes and transcribe all that and who said it, right? mean, it's pretty cool now. I got to get the time to figure out how to use it and how to best use it. Well, and then, too, I'm kind of skeptical. You know, if you ask it a question and it pops up and answer, you know, what percentage of it can you believe, too?
16:48
There's so many things on the internet that aren't It's on the internet, It's true, right? Oh, OK. Yeah, yeah. Isn't that what they say? That's what I used to think, but I'm not so sure anymore. No, it's, I mean, but you ask Siri a question, right? Hey, Siri, tell me that's not a version of AI. I guess it is. Yeah, I mean, something. Search engine, I don't know. But it's that technology, you know, that whole...
17:13
AI and the data center market to support it is driving us to new levels of business. It's crazy. How is the traditional market doing, your IOUs, et cetera, is that staying solid? Still strong. Still strong. mean, yeah. In the generation space, we're seeing a big uptick, especially through my kind of the Midwest, of gas turbine sales.
17:41
and they're coming in really to support some of this AI or data center growth, but also native, you know, just native load where, you know, again, they have a lot of renewables that have come on the system, you know, renewables are intermittent. So you do have to have dispatchable generation. Gas turbines are dispatchable. So that's huge growth. And then, you know, on the transmission distribution space,
18:08
The budgets really for most of our utilities are larger in that area than they are generation, just because of the age of the transmission system, the need for high reliability there, whether it's replacement, upgrades, and then new lines, right? I mean, we're seeing new lines going in in Colorado and Minneapolis and everywhere. So the market is very strong to answer your question. terms of distribution, forgive me because I'm not an expert, but you've got an old network out there.
18:38
and you go and you replace it, maybe you upgrade it, put bigger lines in or whatever. How does that then affect your generation or does it? No, mean, as long as it doesn't really affect generation. No, I mean, you have to have the generation there to meet the definite load. mean, distribution upgrades are more for just old equipment or you want to add some
19:07
some smart technology to help isolate outages. I wasn't sure if adding maybe a larger, I would assume you're adding load, I guess, is what... Yeah. As long as you have the capacity and the generation. For new distribution lines, yeah, you're trying to connect to new loads. And as long as they forecast, the utilities are going to forecast, hey, I need X number of megawatts to make sure I hit this new load. But yeah, mean, doing the distribution network is also getting a lot of...
19:36
investment right now. We've seen, you know, we've been in the wind generation for a long time now. In your opinion, I guess, has that worked? Has it helped? Is it, you know, there's so many things behind the scenes, you know, from the manufacturing and all the different things that come into that. But is it really helping our power of the grid? It does. I mean, it provides, you know,
20:07
It provides a lot of capacity to the market, especially throughout the wind belt of the Midwest and down through Texas. But the one thing that it doesn't do is it doesn't provide megawatts when the wind doesn't blow. So we're, as Siemens Energy, we're in the wind business as well. We have a Siemens wind power group that makes onshore and offshore turbines.
20:36
It's, you we are all about, you know, a balanced energy portfolio and a mix, but at the end of the day, you have to have megawatts when they're needed and that's what gas generation really provides. Now, batteries, we also have a battery energy storage division, but... Is that market climbing? It is. We hear a lot in the news about, you know, battery storage.
21:05
What are some of the challenges with that model? Well, mean, it's not from a dollar per megawatt hour. mean, it's on the cost side of things, it's a little expensive. But when you pair it with solar, for instance, then you can really, for a four hour period, because we don't have long duration storage yet. So we're talking mostly four hour systems.
21:34
So that's, you know, it's expensive for that and, you know, it's more of a protection, like having a generator at your central office. It's just more of a protection than it is. You know, you can use the excess solar capacity, for instance, to charge the batteries. So then when the sun goes down, you've got, you know, to maybe get through the evening peak, people coming home, you know, in that scenario. But again, it's not to a scale yet where it's going to be able to
22:03
negate the need for gas generation or dispatchable generation. Yeah. So you keep saying gas generation, I notice. Can you tell? I mean, are we done with coal plants or are we not building any coal plants anymore? No, we're not building coal plants. I think China just built like 200. China's going great guns. India's going great guns. But again, they have huge stockpiles of coal.
22:32
And they're generally not... They're not worried about environmental issues. Emissions controls are not something that's high on their list, right? So, yeah, I mean, they don't have air pollution control technology on them. So it's the cheapest form of generation for them. Now, they do still have gas, right? And then there's renewables, there's wind. China, one of the biggest wind manufacturers in the world is Chinese. But, yeah, gas for us, we're not going to be building...
23:02
you know, absent any changes in DC, there's not going to be any more coal built, right? And gas is very plentiful, as we all know, and it burns cleaner than coal. you there's, you can add some control technologies that help with NOx and CO. You know, it still has carbon, but it's at a much, much lower level than coal. And it's, you know, it's plentiful. It's a fuel that...
23:31
a standpoint, are the turbines still the same? mean, the basic equipment is... More or less. They've gotten bigger and more efficient. Gotten bigger and more efficient. I mean, now we've got a gas turbine, just a single turbine by itself that can produce more 440 megawatts, which is, I mean, that's size of what we had in a whole coal plant. You know, some of these, some of the mid-sized coal plants. yeah, there's...
24:00
And we have a range, I mean, we have small turbines down 10 megawatts and less all the way up to that 440. So, gas generation is a big play for us, again, on our gas services group because it's just that the market's just booming right now. if we had more factory capacity, we could sell more turbines, quite honestly. What, if I needed a gas turbine, when would I get it? If I ordered it today.
24:29
It depends on what size you want, but probably on average you're looking at, if you ordered today, what is today? Today is April of 2025. You're looking at earliest mid-2028. Wow. Yeah.
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What's different about CBM? First and foremost, it's our ESOP. Employee owners have more control and more ability to make decisions that are right for our customers and right for our company and right for our manufacturers. We've got the flexibility to put people where they need to be and use our experts wisely. If you need help with a project or need representation from an excellent sales force here in the Midwest, look no further than CBM. You can reach out to us here at CBM rep.
25:20
dot com.
25:25
And I don't know that, I wanted to bring that up because I don't think people necessarily understand that. that's an incredibly long sales cycle. A, just to receive the product, but if I'm ordering today in 2025 in April, when did you just start talking to me about this? We've talked about this for years already. What are some of the biggest challenges with that type of sales cycle?
25:54
Traditionally, you've got to be in with the planning department of a utility early on to know, and today, IRPs, integrated resource plans, are getting updated, it feels like, multiple times a year. Normally, a utility would only update those every three to five years, right? But now, with this boom in the cycle we're in, they're having to go back and tell the commission, guess what?
26:21
all of sudden I've got these new data centers coming in. I've got this new factory coming in and it's changing things. It's a dynamic situation. But yeah, you'd have to start early on and that typical planning cycle was one to two years. Then they come out with an RFP, and that RFP cycle, traditionally these days it's much shorter because of the real need for getting these engines in the slot.
26:52
unavailability, but yeah, the RFP cycle was, call it six months, six to nine months a year, and then you put something on order. So, you have to be involved in each step of that process, right? And not only that, they're going to hire an engineer, right? They're going to have an engineer to help them study their need, develop a spec, so you've got to be calling on the utility as well as whoever the engineer is.
27:21
So you're trying to influence the spec as best you can. It's long cycle sales for multi-million dollar, tens of million dollar products. It is long. Now I've got to believe though, I mean there's some good that comes with that sales cycle as well. You're involved for so long, you're building those relationships with the client, with the engineer. So that's got to be a value in the long run, as long as you're doing your job.
27:51
and doing right by everybody, but that's got to help build relationships and hopefully some more consistent business. yeah. Yeah, mean, if you've been in, you if you follow it through, and because you're dealing with varying numbers of people and levels of people, right, so you're, I mean, you're dealing with maybe a young engineer to a manager, to a director, to a VP, so you're really
28:19
you're really across the spectrum of management. yeah, as you go through that, right, that young engineer gets promoted, I mean, over time, not just through that one product cycle or that one negotiation cycle, but yeah, you're developing relationships that cascade over time, right? So that's one of the benefits to having a sales force that is consistent and, I mean,
28:47
These days you don't have necessarily guys by and large that have been in the same role for 20 to 30 years, but those that do, they know everybody. Because they started with that junior engineer and he's now a VP. So, it's pretty cool from that perspective. But these days there's probably a little bit more movement among, you don't see the same, the guys being in the same job for 30 years as much.
29:17
But it's still, the newer folks that we hire still understand relationships are the key to our business, right? mean, yeah, you got to have a product that is good and reliable and cost effective, but you also got to know the customers and you have to. I relationships are where business is done. That's how I feel. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, you talked about relationships.
29:45
I think most folks would think that working with a company so large that that's got to be challenging. we've had a relationship for years, we, CBM and Siemens, and we found that not to be the case. Siemens has always been really easy to work with, very rep-minded, very focused on the rep network as well. how do you, in a company so large,
30:15
still maintain that level of connection and kind of ownership on these relationships and actually make it easy for people to work for you? Boy, there's a lot packed into that question. Yeah, you know, it is a big company. It's a big company for sure. you know, I started at Westinghouse, which way back in the day was
30:43
Also a big company, not anywhere near the size of Siemens. I think over time, me personally, I've developed, having started in Orlando, which was our headquarters, I developed relationships, I got to know people that have helped me throughout the years get to where I'm at and I can lean on them. So I think the same thing maybe goes for us as Siemens, Siemens Energy now.
31:13
which is we're big, right, and our customers are spread all over the country, right? I mean, and they go from large IOUs to small munis and co-ops. So as far as the rep agents go, and CBM in particular, right? I mean, we lean on you guys to help us with that broad expanse of our customer base because...
31:39
I mean, if we didn't employ reps, you know how many extra sales guys I'd have to have? It'd be a bunch. no, from our perspective, we value obviously all of our relationships with all of our manufacturers, but we cherish a few, too. And when a manufacturer is easy to work with, values a rep, and doesn't see that commission as
32:09
know, expense. Oh gosh, know, but look at how much we're paying them. We could save a lot of money if we, you know, didn't pay our reps, you know. And I think those types of attitudes, I guess, if you will, when it's less supportive of a rep model, you know, I think it's just different. know, I think when you...
32:33
kind of accept it and you understand it and both sides come together, it just works so smooth. It works so smooth. And so we cherish that when it comes together. And we have to have good people on both sides, right? I know, you know, from you guys' perspective, whether, you know, Tim talks to me or Tim talks to my guy Joe Fox or Tim talks to Julie Fitzgerald, right? mean, you Julie is, you know, really an asset for you guys.
33:03
She takes so good care of us. Yeah, we've had her on. You have to have people that are personally invested as well. And that care. So, I mean, that goes to, I think, the culture of our organization. Julie is a part of what we call Power Systems Sales, which is our Siemens Energy sales organization. you know, we're not a huge group. We're 130-ish.
33:32
35 people spread across the country, know, headquarters in Orlando. But, you know, it's a good group, right? I mean, we kind of have this all for one and one for all mentality. know, we don't let who's going to book this order, is that in this region, my region or his region. It's going to book where it's going to book and let's just make sure we get the business. Yeah. Kind of leave the egos out of it. Yeah.
34:02
And, you know, I mean, not every company's perfect, right? Don't get me wrong. We have some challenges as well, but by and large, I think there's always a willingness to try to work through it, which is what you want. Yeah. And would you say that, you know, kind of going back to your leadership style a little bit, you leaving the egos out of it and let chips fall where they are, is that kind of the basis behind how you lead? Yeah, I mean, more or less. mean, of course.
34:30
everybody wants to make the big sale, right? But at end of the day, you just want the company to get the business. And as far as my leadership style, when I came into the job, gosh, a long time ago, I had people working for me that I used to be colleagues with. So that was a bit of challenge. at the end of the day, I'm just like lead by example. My thing is,
34:58
I'm going go out there and I'm going to do it and hopefully people see how I interact with them and with customers and lead by example and then get out of the way. That's kind of my mantra, right? mean, once you bring somebody on, you train them, you've been with them enough to see that they know how to handle themselves, how to represent the company, you don't have to micromanage them. Let them lead, show them how to do it. Once they know how to do it, get out of the way.
35:27
Right. And move on to the next. And I think a key to that, you know, I pay attention, believe it or not, you know, but I do. know, leadership is important to me. And I think one thing that sometimes leaders fail to do is just set that expectation. know, and so my one of my challenges is just not doing everything for everybody. Yeah. And, you know, I've got to learn more to teach them delegation and
35:56
I've got to teach more than do, and that's a challenge for me. Because nobody can do it better, right? No, yeah, right. No, I mean, I'm a perfectionist as well. that sometimes it does, I have to hold back where somebody sends an email or on a call where I just want to jump in and correct what they said or say it more clearly or whatever or why did they write that email that way?
36:26
You can't do everybody's job for them. And at end of the day, hopefully it's getting done and as long as they're not really stepping in it, let's see. If the customer responds positively, then we're okay. You know, I was looking into your history a little bit. see you got an engineering degree in North Carolina. Wolfpack.
36:51
You know, that's a wolf. Is that what that is? That's a wolf, sorry. Did you grow up in North Carolina? did, yeah. Okay. Yep. from, my dad was in the Air Force, so we moved around a lot when I was real little, but from elementary school on, all the way through high school, I was in North Carolina. What part? Outside of Charlotte, a small town called, named Monroe, and then up to Durham, North Carolina. Okay. Yeah. Nice. I noticed, so, an engineering degree, but...
37:20
according to your LinkedIn, your first job was in marketing. Yeah. Well, there's a story there. I don't know how far to go back. I was in Navy ROTC and I was going to be a pilot. Saw Top Gun. I was going to be a naval aviator. wanted to fly. Well, my eyes weren't going to allow that because back in the day, you had to have 20-20 vision.
37:44
I took a deferment of my scholarship and one of my buddies at the time had co-opped with Carolina Power and Light. So, hey, next thing know, I'm going to co-op. And I did that four or five rotations after I declined my Navy scholarship. And that was fun. I got an interest in the industry and, you know, kind of close, you know, got lot of good experiences there. But the other thing I learned is I don't know if I want to be a day-to-day engineer. So,
38:13
interviewing time comes senior year and I you know back when they used to have You know, had to sign a piece of paper on a on a on a board right to sign up for an interview and this company called Westinghouse is hiring for sales and marketing engineers, you know You had to have an engineering degree, but it was it's more of a commercial role. I'm like man. That's for me. So interviewing got the job Actually started in a projects role which I'm not sure if it's on my LinkedIn or not, but
38:43
And then I went into marketing, yes. So I rotated through steam turbine marketing, generator marketing. Then I went into the new unit side of the business, selling new gas turbines. Then I came to Kansas City, had an opportunity to come to Kansas City in the mid-90s and called on the engineering firms here in town from a from a gas turbine perspective generation. And then I went back to Orlando.
39:12
got into a service of turbines. We call it long-term service agreements or long-term programs. six and 12-year maintenance agreements for these. How long does one of those turbines last? 25, 30 years. But I mean, they get upgraded over time. Parts get replaced. Some of them have running even further than that. Yeah. OK. Longer than that. So anyway, yeah. And then in 2004, we formed this power system sales organization.
39:40
and I end up coming back out to Kansas City again in 2005 and rest is history. That's awesome. Yeah. So what would you say is the difference between sales and marketing? That's very good question. My definition, sales in our organization is field-based, local to the customer, right? And has day-to-day responsibility.
40:09
or relationships with the customers. stuff's going good, stuff's going bad, you get the call. Marketing is a headquarters function and they're the ones that control proposals, doing the cost buildups, getting the approvals for the requests. The RFPs that we receive get forwarded into the marketing groups. They develop proposals, develop the costs, run all the analysis.
40:38
And then it's a team effort, right? mean, sales working together hand-in-hand with marketing. Marketing comes out, presents products, does road shows, dog and ponies, lunch and learns. So it's a team effort. Sales and marketing always have to work hand-in-hand. How do you put a value on what the marketing team does? Well, I we couldn't do our job without them. I mean, think they're invaluable.
41:09
make this investment, we're going to spend this money on marketing, but it's hard to see that return. Is there a calculation? No, I don't think there is. does it matter on the product you're putting out in terms of marketing? That's got to have a play, guess. True. The size of the group depends on the size of the product and the expanse and the varying,
41:39
Marketing, I always thought of the term of, you're thinking about ad agencies in New York City and all that. That's not marketing to us. To me, it's a product line group that is a sales function, but just internally. Not that they don't come out to the customer because they do. We have them out, but they're the ones that are responsible for helping or leading the internal organization.
42:07
whether it's engineering, the purchasing group, whatever we need to be doing to pull together our offers. So they shepherd the groups inside. Providing all the information and everything that folks need to put the whole package together. Yeah, no, they're invaluable to us. Yeah. Well, that's great. That's a great answer. Anything else you want to get off your chest while we got you here? No, just...
42:35
enjoyed my first podcast. Well, thank you, And I'm between the two ferns, like Zach Galifianakis. Yeah. Which I didn't, hopefully I didn't act like Zach Galifianakis, or you didn't anyway, because you would be Zach. Well, I've never heard of the guy, so I'll have Oh my God. Yeah. The hangover? You never saw the hangover? Okay. Yeah, I did see the hangover. He's bearded guy. Oh, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, see, I'm just in my own little world here.
43:02
No, he's great. He's hilarious. No, it's been fun. Tim, appreciate it. No, thank you for joining us. And we appreciate our relationship with not only you, but Siemens as well. Thank you. Same for CBM. Thanks. Thanks.
43:22
Just wanted to say thanks again for Dave to join us today. I know he's a busy guy. He's got a lot on his schedule. So we appreciate the time that he spent with us here today. Hopefully you've enjoyed our conversation. Thanks again to Siemens Energy for all you do for us. Happy to highlight such a great manufacturer and a good partner for CBM. So thank you. Remember, if you need help on a project or if you're looking for representation from a great sales force here in the Midwest, look no further than CBM.
43:49
you can find us right here at cbmrep.com. Take a minute to like, comment, subscribe, give us a little feedback. Let us know what you'd like to see on the show coming up in the next few episodes. Thanks again for joining us on Power the Network. And until next time, we'll see you next time.
