Page 54 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

CORE VALUE: FUN
CHALLENGING YOUR SKILL SET: GENE HAMILTON, PETERSON POWER/TURBINES
In 2007, Gene Hamilton flew to Dubai for a sales meeting, and had the time of his life in the process. “It was a real mind-stretching experience,” recalls Hamilton, now Peterson Power’s general sales manager. “You stepped off the plane into 100°F heat with 90 percent humidity. The sky over the city had a dirty brown cast from the blowing sand but the airport, the ports, and the streets were new and gorgeous. A lot of people were in Middle Eastern dress. And everywhere—everywhere—there was money. I was with Joe Figueiredo from Cat Rental Power. We visited the Cat dealer—Al-bahar—in Dubai. It’s the largest Cat dealer in the Middle East, dollar-volume wise. Then we drove up to Abba Dubai in the middle of an industrial area to meet our custom- er—a sheik. He was a chain-smoker dressed in a gorgeous, long, white robe. His partner—whom I’d dealt with before—was in western dress and spoke excellent English. The sheik wanted to do a joint venture in Yemen, he explained. He kept talking about how we were going to structure the deal. And every time he’d bring up the joint venture, I’d think: Sure . . . joint venture, no problem. But when I asked how much money he was going to put into it, he’d say that he would handle this-and-that, but that we would provide the ten turbines.
‘No no,’ I said. ‘How much money are you going to put into this deal? A joint venture means you have to bring something to the table.’
“So we went around and around like that until it became clear that this guy was like a Texas good-ol’-boy, wheeler-dealer. I’ve never had so much fun negotiating before in my life because we were getting absolutely nowhere. And we both knew it. He was dead serious though. He wanted to be the broker, but I just couldn’t see it because he wouldn’t put any money in.
“Finally, he excused himself to go to another meeting while his assistant took us out to lunch at a huge, lavish hotel. It looked more like the capitol building of a wealthy country than a hotel. It took us fifteen minutes just to walk to the restaurant. The cuisine was amazing. All through the meal our host kept pushing the Yemen joint venture. After lunch, he took us back for another meeting with the sheik, who worked me over for three more hours.
“Before I left town the next day, I went to see the commercial attaché at the US Embassy. He explained that my meeting with the sheik was quite typical. ‘They bring in ten guys just like you and one will bite. They’ll get you to do a joint venture where you put in all the money so you’re carrying all the risk. That way if it fails, they just walk away. They figure it’s their country, and if you’re dumb enough to bite, that’s on you.’ But I loved that guy. He was a very good negotiator. Even though we didn’t get a deal, it was still a lot of fun. And I ended up selling two 10 MW units to a Chevron compound in the oil fields of Cabinda, Angola at my next stop.”
OUT-MARKETING THE REST: JOHN KRUMMEN, PETERSON POWER
Back in 2000, then CCE manager Eric Martin came up with a creative marketing idea to promote Cat’s line of mini machines.3 It involved posting signs on buses and inside sports arenas all over the San Francisco Bay Area. But when he moved on to head Peterson’s Heavy Rents, he forgot to tell his successor. “One day, I went to a Raiders game with my family,” says John Krummen, now executive VP and GM of Peterson Power Systems.
3 CCE stands for Compact Construction Equipment
52 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG