This transcript was generated with the help of AI and may contain some errors.

Kelly Kiger: If I look back over the past year, I would say we went from a having very little Until we have accomplished a lot And at the grand scheme of things like it’s still we still have so far to go But it’s you know Never in my career have I ever been able to say I did as many things in the past year that I have in this past year. 

John Gough: Whether you’re going to market through dealers, distributors, or some other partner channel, the mediated sale is complex.

We call it B2B2X. But the leaders in the industry are the ones who are making it look simple. I’m John Goff. And I’m Kyler Mason. And this is Why You Win, presented by Element Three. 

John Gough: Today’s guest is Kelly Kiger, the VP of Commercial Sales at Workhorse Truck. In our conversation, we talked about maintaining a startup mentality, the different geographic readiness for electric vehicles across the United States, and how they’re helping their customers and their dealers move effectively from internal combustion to electrification. We hope you enjoy. All right, Kelly, welcome to the show today. We’re so glad that you’re here with us. We’re looking forward to this conversation.

Kelly Kiger: Thank you. I’m happy to be here.

John Gough: So we’re just going to jump right into it. You’re the vice president of commercial vehicle sales at Workhorse. You’ve been there for a little bit now. Tell us what’s your role and what does that mean inside of your organization now? 

Kelly Kiger: So, I took the role thinking this is going to be a lot of sales driven activity. and it is somewhat, but it’s a lot more of when you work for a startup, you are all things to all people. So I’m also doing a lot of sales operations. I’m helping the finance team. Invoice dealers, we’re setting up a dealer network.

We’re setting up programs to purchase. so I’ve got a field team that’s doing all the selling and I’m more of acting like a support bear and focus on all the kind of internal activities we’re doing at Workhorse to go from mature startup to a full on OEM.

John Gough: What’s the difference between the two in your mind? You listed a couple of areas that you’re helping, but what’s the distinction you see?

Kelly Kiger: so we call ourselves a mature startup because we’ve actually been in business for a couple of decades 

Um, we used to do ice chassis back in the day and now, um, probably 2015 ish, we sold a bunch of hybrid units and now we’re full EV. So we’ve done a kind of a full circle. So that’s why I call it a mature startup instead of just like a startup that just started. 

I think the difference between us and like a full fledged OEM is, uh, the processes.

I think when you work for a large corporation, you have processes that define processes and you’ve got people to rely on. And when you’re at a startup, you have to wear multiple hats because we don’t have the folks working for us to do. You can’t call up somebody and say, Hey, go do this because there’s a process for it.

Because has to invent the process. so there’s that, lots of lessons to learn as a startup. So you have all these people coming from other companies that have tons of experience. and so you’re taking all of those ideas and those experiences and you’re trying to formulate what works best for this company.

Um, and then you have to put those ideas into practice and a lot of it, a lot of it is kind of trial and error because. Again, you don’t have people to go out and figure things out and work on one thing all the time. when I worked at Gilbarco Vida Root, they’re very focused on lean manufacturing.

And I thought what they did was lean. Startup business is lean. It is bare bones and lots of people doing lots of things. So I guess that’s kind of the difference between a startup and a business. In a traditional OEM, 

Kyler Mason: Was that a hard transition for you from a more, let’s say, For sure. the process of starting the initial sale to when we delivered the vehicle was established. um, you have to establish floor plan lines, establishing a dealer network. when I worked for Mac, you know, it’s a hundred year old company that’s had a dealer network for almost as long and they’re selling trucks through the dealers and they’ve got national account processes and, having coming here.

Kelly Kiger: And, you know, when I started, we only had two dealers. I think we’re up to about 16 now. that’s a whole another sales process than selling a truck is to tell a dealer who majority of our dealers are traditional ice dealers. So is the goal to sell an ice dealer on becoming an E. V. Dealer or is the goal to take someone who wants to be an EV dealer and sell them on why Workhorse is the company they want to work with. So lots of, you know, navigating those types of sales techniques along the way. i

Kyler Mason: If you were to distill down the one thing that you’d say the business counts on you for? I know there’s a lot, because you just went through a ton of stuff. But what would you, what would you say that one thing is?

Kelly Kiger: There’s myself, a couple of their members of the sales team and our upfit sales manager, all come from the trucking industry.

So looking to me for leadership and When you were at this company, how did you do this? And can we implement that here or what do we need to change from that process to make it work for us? you know, vehicles are vehicles, but there’s so much difference in the automotive space than there is in the trucking space.

Um, and even like down to how you transact with your dealers and how the dealers, uh, work with the customer. Cause like when you go to a Toyota dealership, for example. The Toyota rep isn’t there trying to help you buy your Camry. In the trucking industry, a lot of times the factory rep is the one who sometimes makes that first introduction with the customer and then they bring the dealer in.

So it’s just the whole process is different and you know some of our folks that are from the automotive side having to change that dynamic on what the difference between the two different types of dealers are, and then just the terminology you use. So, You know, you’ve got MSRP in the car world. A lot of times the trucks go by list price, just little things like that, to try to, to influence us to become a trucking, a trucking OEM.

John Gough: It just surprises people coming out of other industry and into this one specifically.

Kelly Kiger: So people don’t realize that there are laws around how you sell vehicles that protect the dealers. Mostly in a good way. and it keeps OEMs from selling direct to customers. So a lot of times we get, well, let’s go, let’s go quote that customer. Well, we can’t quote the customer. We can lead them down the path.

We can show and tell the vehicles. We can sell them on why Workhorse is a winning vehicle, but we have to have the dealer involved in some part of the process because they’re the ones who ultimately quote the customer and, do the fun transactions with them. that sometimes comes as maybe not a surprise, but people forget that part of the process.

John Gough: I think that, that your insight about that influence sale and where the OEM sits sort of sometimes frustratingly on the outside of that transaction moment is like, People get frustrated, especially in like a direct consumer world, where we’re very used to being able to swipe our credit cards and have things show up like, that’s not how this industry works. And it doesn’t matter how much you want it to. There are reasons that it can’t behave that way. And so we have to, we have to play in the rules.

Kelly Kiger: Yes, and it also very quickly will show you who you’re. high performing dealers are versus who your, our sit back and wait and let’s see what happens dealers. I mean, that’s a make it or break it for a startup company. That’s going to market through a nationwide dealer network is they have to be aggressive.

They have to be on, you know, knocking on doors. This is like old school selling, cold calling, showing up in the morning, bringing donuts. So they have to be the boots on the ground. Cause there’s only, I have an east coast sales manager, I have a west coast sales director, I have a California salesman, and I have a national account salesperson.

And as much as we would like to touch every single transaction, it’s just not physically possible. So having really strong dealers makes a huge difference.

Kyler Mason: So given your stage of where you’re at, moving from maturing startup to, did you say mature? Where do you feel like you guys are crushing it right now?

Kelly Kiger: So we have some really good contacts from all of our previous lives, so we’re doing a really great job of pulling in those past relationships and talking about why it’s important to at least, you know, review an EV, demo an EV, test Especially in California because you’re working with all the compliance regulations and they’re gonna have to start making that transition So a lot of its class 8 customers that also have some medium duty fleet There’s quite a few members of our team that are Certified Transportation Professionals, which is through a group called NPTC.

If you’re not familiar, that’s the National Private Truck Council. So a lot of fleets that manage their own transportation go and participate in that. So we participate in that and that’s how you meet people. So anyway, we take all these relationships from this history of being in the industry and these various groups, and we, Give them a demo.

We give them a 30-day demo and just, try it out, put it on a route. We’ll send an engineer out there to ride along with your drivers so they can be there to answer questions and remind them to use the parking brake and, you know, that you have an HVAC and the HVAC is not going to kill your battery just because you sit in traffic for 20 minutes.

And a lot of, um, kind of what we do and as part of the sales process It’s consultative, so they don’t know a lot about EVs, so it’s more about why Workhorse wins, but it’s, this is how, so this is how the battery works, and, and overcoming those stigma about, you if I don’t leave my house at 100 charge, my battery’s going to die in three hours, or if I get stuck in traffic and have the AC on, my battery’s gonna die, or, I can only go, even though they said I can go 150 miles, I can really only go 80.

So, here, have it and try it and overcome those things that scare you, so you feel comfortable sending your drivers out in an electric vehicle.

Kyler Mason: You just made an awesome connection that was like in line with the premise of the show that how you’re winning is by way of your consultative approach, the depth of experience and, relationships in the industry to educate on the, like the kind of the end of the line buyer, the fleets, and that that is a part of your equation right now, what you’re doing there and how is why you guys are, are winning or on your way to winning.

Something I’m also trying to sort through you’re like carrying two big priorities. It appears and expand the dealer network and also like go direct to fleets from a relationship building and an education standpoint, like How do you balance those two things when they both take, I’m imagining, tons of time and resources to pull off? Like, what are you, what are you doing?

Kelly Kiger: We definitely work a lot. This is not, being at a startup is not an 8 to 5 kind of job, and I’m sure you guys know that. So initially it was throw a couple of regional folks in there, have them establish a dealership network and then we’ll go after accounts. And then we kind of quickly realized that by the time we make it through the sales process with the dealer, we’re six months behind where we should be.

So we need to do these things simultaneously. And that’s when it kind of opened the eyes to the executive team that we really needed a national account person. even if that’s not the person that had the relationship to start with the fact that somebody else can do kind of that warm transfer to him and then he can run with it.

Um, and then that way our regional folks can really focus on the dealers number one and then those, very important but sometimes smaller regional fleet. That maybe just run the west coast. So our national account guy focuses on all these major fleets that are running coast to coast or have delivery routes in all the states.

And then our regional guys are really the ones there with the dealers day to day helping them quote, helping them do demos, helping them with get in with the smaller fleets. So, we’re trying to balance it out. It’s not a balance yet. I mean, one day we’ll have a salesman on every corner is my goal, whether that’s a dealer salesman or an expanded field sales team.

And we’ll be able to hit, you know, everybody under the sun and not have to be as, you know, we could call on every one truck fleet. Sure. But it’s more, it makes more sense from a business perspective to call on someone that’s got a couple hundred trucks or a couple thousand trucks. And then we get those guys on board and then we can kind of get a larger sales team and have a smaller focus.

Kyler Mason: How do you get them to take your calls?

Kelly Kiger: So back to sales 101. it’s a lot of follow up without using the words follow up because that’s not 

Kyler Mason: Just following up here. 

Kelly Kiger: Yeah, you can’t say that anymore. so lots of emails, lots of phone calls, lots of uh, linkedin. So friends that are linked in with friends. Certainly trade shows. I mean, that is, it’s the double edged sword.

It’s a ton of money and time and effort and sending people in a booth and trucks. But at the same time, where else can you hit, you know, 50 or 75 percent of the fleet managers in one week and they’re coming to you for a large part of it. So, yes, it’s a huge investment and, but yes, we get a lot out of it at the same time.

So Um, I’d say we use a lot of, uh, resources. like when you get the list of the attendees, we try to offer more of a white glove situation because, you know, these are new trucks to people. It’s not like calling up somebody and telling them, Hey, it’s your, your buying cycle is up for this year and it’s time to do some replacement trucks.

And what are you going to take? It’s, you know, this is what being battery electric means. And this is your impact on the environment. And sometimes it’s learning what the people care about, you know, like there’s some people that don’t care about the environment, but they’re being told to buy IEVs. And there’s some people who are extremely passionate about the environment and making that transition to zero emission.

And then there’s people in the middle that are like, I think I care about this, but I don’t know why. And I probably should be investing in alternate fuels, but I’m still not real sure. And so, you know, you gotta, work, with what you’re presented by changing the conversation to meet the needs of the person you’re meeting with.

When you get that connection, um, and you’ve really found out what are the things that are, that are driving, I don’t know, pain or decision making with your potential customers is getting the, the demo truck in their hands, one of the keys to your success.

Kyler Mason: Like, what is that? Is that a thing that really helps to improve your conversion rate?

Kelly Kiger: so it’s new technology. So, just like, when apple came out with their 1st cell phone, I think a lot of us stuck with our flip phones for a generation or 2 before we were like, okay, let’s go in with the smart thing. Smartphone thing it’s the same way with these trucks. regardless of how much great experience our team has and our factory has.

People are still a little weary of the technology and there’s lots of myths. Some of them are accurate, some of them are not. And so providing a demo is where they can really like touch it and it’s real and we can drive it down the road and you know, the battery didn’t explode or whatever crazy thing these people have been told or they’ve heard.

And you know, and then passenger car led the way. So. You know, Prius and Tesla and some of those other guys got rid of some of those myths before we came on board, but now our truck is larger and it’s got more payload. And, and how does that affect having four battery packs instead of just the one battery that we have with passenger cars?

So, demo really allows them to get over whatever their hesitations are. it’s funny because at the end of the demos, some of the drivers are like, gosh, I’m I don’t want to give it back because I’d rather drive this than my ice chassis that I’ve been driving for 15 years because there’s a lot of things that make driving evs easier on the driver.

I mean, the one pedal driving that you get with those types of vehicles that you don’t have to slam on the brakes to stop. You just kind of let off the accelerator and you obviously you have the break if you need it, but it’s one pedal driving and that’s easier on drivers and you know, lots of little nuances like that, that they don’t understand until they really get in the driver’s seat and take off.

a lot of companies can’t hold on to drivers. It’s a difficult position to fill. So if you can give the drivers a truck that they enjoy driving, that really helps your retention rates with your employees. So 

John Gough: I was just gonna, reinforce that point when I got, uh, in the, in the truck and was driving it around the convention center and that ride and drive test, I was surprised at how easy it was to drive. I am not a truck driver. It’s not anywhere close to my, like, talents or capabilities, but it was easy and it was like, I, I think I could do that if I had to do that 

Kelly Kiger: hmm. Mm 

John Gough: Thank you.

Kyler Mason: What are you guys doing to position yourself to win? In addition to a lot of what we’ve been talking about, like really hard work, relationships, we haven’t talked a ton about the dealer expansion strategy, but what are, what are you doing to break through the, the competitive nature of the market right now? 

Kelly Kiger: Well, dealer network strategy is probably at the top of our list. I think there’s kind of two different, ideals around having dealers and Some of the EV startups have also chosen to go with a dealer network and some have chosen to do more of an in house dealer situation. And, so for us, that makes a huge difference because like I said earlier, that’s how we get to the fleets that we wouldn’t know because they’ve had longstanding relationships with them and sold them trucks in the past.

I think the second piece is, we really took an opposite approach of some of the other EV startups where They hired a sales team and they, created the technology and presented it before they were ready to manufacture. We took the opposite. We hired all the engineers, we designed the truck, we built the truck, we got manufacturing, readiness, and then we hired the sales team at the end.

So we wanted to show that, we have the capability to make whatever amount of trucks that you want to order. and our engineers work for us and our factory works for us. And so we offer this whole package. We’re not selling you on a PowerPoint We’re selling you by dropping off this truck and you know it’s real and it drives down the road.

last year when we first launched our W 56, that was kind of our sales pitch was we drove this truck from the factory to the show. We didn’t create it with 3d parts and put it together in the garage and then pull it in here telling that story for us is how we we accomplish all those pieces Of being a truck oem was a big deal Um, and I think people can appreciate that because of their relationships with traditional oems So that’s what they know and what they’re familiar with and it takes that kind of scary technology piece out of it You and then also our truck was designed from the ground up.

So we didn’t take a, um, chassis that was meant for a traditional ice vehicle and try to convert it into an EV. We built the entire thing around safety and quality to where customers could feel secure in the car and not, or in the truck and not be worried about, you know, whatever could possibly happen because, um, The chassis in the the drive trainer kind of two different things being forced together not being built from the ground up together

Kyler Mason: So it sounds like. You were describing a chapter where, it’s like sell it and then build it, with fancy PowerPoints and that, through talking with you before and, you know, other discussions has left a bad taste and the, the mouths of the industry, um, and trust issues. It sounds like you guys are coming into the season of, you know, we drove, we drove it here and engineering first and really proving you have a quality product.

How long do you think? That that message, uh, how long do you think the shelf life is for that message until the industry matures and catches up and there are really quality companies and products that, can say the same thing as, as what you guys have been doing? 

Kelly Kiger: We’re probably in that transition now I think the majority of those who started out with the technology but didn’t have the trucker In the process of getting the manufacturing side of the house going I think we’re all in the same spot where we all have factories and we all have working lines.

Then we just win on how the truck runs. We set a standard that we sell by and we meet those standards in the field. So we’ve always been focused on safety. We’ve always been focused on, you know, driver comfort and making it the best experience that they can have. We’ve been focused on performance. So it’s a purpose-built vehicle.

We knew what we wanted for payload and range and cargo capacity. And we’ve met those. And a lot of that was based on feedback from the field. So, we tried to build, or excuse me, we built a truck that customers wanted instead of building the truck and telling people what they needed. So, I think that’s our, our position going forward now that other people are in the manufacturing space and not just in the technology space.

John Gough: You mentioned a few minutes ago the difference between transitioning an ice dealer to EV versus trying to sort of grow up an EV dealer. Somebody wants to be that from the very beginning. Is there one that’s easier than the other? Is there a preference that Workhorse has or that you have? 

Kelly Kiger: Yes, a dealer who is interested in being in the space is much easier. To transition than 1, who’s who we just approach blindly and say, hey, we need a dealer in this market and we know you’re high performing. Are you interested in having an EV line? because you know, that sales process twice as process is twice as long.

We have to first sell them on why they need to be an EV dealer. And then we have to start talking about the trucks. The other flip side of it is they’re already ready to be an EV dealer. And all we’re having to do is talk about trucks. So, that would be our preference. Our preference is a dealer in every major market calls us up and goes, Hey, I am so interested in being an EV dealer and I love your lineup of trucks.

And come, let me sign the deal agreement. That does not happen very often, unfortunately. Um, so we do try to go after markets. We identified 17 markets, probably 18 ish months ago and set down with our executive team and the field sales team. And we’re like, this is where we want. And the reason is, these are markets with charging capabilities, they have incentives, or they are following some of what CARB is doing in California.

There was a multitude of reasons why we chose those markets. So that’s what the goal has been for the sales team is to hit those markets and get dealers signed up there. mean, honestly, California is the easiest sell. They have mandates in place. Uh, some of the new England states have incentives, so that’s a little bit easier.

So I think the Midwest and South is probably more of an uphill battle. And I started with workhorse as the Southeast, And I remember, the woman who hired me was like, this is not going to be an easy job, just so you’re aware in advance. And I was like, Oh, it’s fine. You know, I know all these dealers. I know all these customers.

And then you’re calling and you’re like, no, thanks. No, thanks. No, thanks. And you’re like, okay, she was right. 

Kyler Mason: even with your relationships, you were getting quick, no, like no thank yous. 

Kelly Kiger: Oh, yeah. There are very strong feelings about making that transition. 

Um, and so that’s why having the West kind of balances out the Southeast and the Midwest because we have six dealers in California and we have one dealer with two locations from the Atlantic Ocean through Texas. So that’s kind of the difference in, the dealer network makeup.

 So the staff will come around. Um, but majority of those 17 markets are in New England and on the West coast.

John Gough: So I just heard the call to action for the podcast is dealers who are interested in introducing electric line. Call Kelly, please.

Kelly Kiger: yes, especially in the Florida markets and in the Carolinas. 

John Gough: Florida and Carolinas. 

Kyler Mason: That must be a business priority. 

Kelly Kiger: Uh, Florida has a major, um, Port in Miami amongst other ports, but our truck is pretty perfect for that Pick up from the port and go out to the you know, the major areas We get about 150 200 mile range.

So something like that outside of Miami is kind of perfect for our medium duties

Kyler Mason: I was just thinking about the, you know, the, the South and the East. Has a couple of, like, really good reasons to care about electrification. Um, like, the, the battery manufacturing in the United States is primarily in the South. Uh, I think Volvo Cars, right, has a, has a huge plant.

John Gough: Or is it Volkswagen? Which one? 

Kelly Kiger: So Toyota has a plant. BMW has a plant. Uh, Volvo Trucks is in Virginia. So there, there’s lots of manufacturing facilities in the southeast. Freightliner has a manufacturing facility. Kenworth is in Texas, so. 

John Gough: lot of the economy that is, like, already built to support that system. And now we just have to move hearts and minds a little bit. 

Kelly Kiger: You’re doing my job for me. Look at you.

John Gough: not nodding off. You’re like, yeah, man. Tell me about it.

Kyler Mason: You need another salesperson. 

Kelly Kiger: Yeah. can you start?

Kyler Mason: Yeah. Oh man. Um, okay. Question for you. So, You’ve, uh, you’ve been in the industry a while. You’ve made this transition to, to workhorse and, um, are wearing a lot of hats. You’ve brought a lot of leadership. What is something that you would say, is advice you’d give someone that’s making similar transition to you?

Kelly Kiger: That’s a good question. so first I would probably tell them that you need to stay open minded and don’t listen to what some of your former colleagues are going to tell you in a negative sense, because there’s nothing easy about working at a startup. Yeah. It is rewarding by far, but it is not easy. So don’t let people who have been working for these traditional OEMs for 20 years, Oh, don’t, you shouldn’t do that.

You should stay here. This is a steady job. You know, you’ve got benefits and you’ve got good salary. I did, and it was great, but There’s no days where I’m like gosh I have just been bored all day today And I cannot find one more thing to do like that’s never the case when I sign off at the end of the day There’s 37 other things I could have stayed online to do But I know I have to go be a mom and and be that person to other people in the evenings But yeah, I would just say it’s hard work.

It’s rewarding for sure. So if I look back over the past year, I would say we went from a having very little Until we have accomplished a lot And at the grand scheme of things like it’s still we still have so far to go But it’s you know Never in my career have I ever been able to say I did as many things in the past year that I have in this past year.

Um, and then also you have to, the second part of that is you can’t let your feelings get hurt because you’re going to be told no more times than you’re going to be told yes, both by the company and by your customers and your dealers. And I mean, I guess it’s like a thick skin kind of thing.

Like you got to look at no as a challenge, not as like a negative thing. Like when I present an idea and they’re like, I don’t think that’ll work. Well, how can I manipulate this idea to make it better or change or show them that it will be important to have that as part of our business? And the same thing goes with the customers and the dealers, not everybody’s going to buy from you. I think if that was the case, our jobs would be very easy. And we wouldn’t have to promote our trucks. it’s all, yeah, just learning how to get through the nos. When I worked for, um, enterprise, they have a three no policy. You know, I sell you this and you say no, and then I sell it a different way.

And you say no. And then I get to sell it a third way and you say no. And that’s when I can go, okay, I give up. You’re not going to take it. And I don’t know what it is about that. That has just burned in my brain. And like when people told me, no, I’m like, give me a minute, I’ll be right back and I’m going to have something else for you.

Um, so yeah, being thick skinned and, uh, Overcoming your objections, even if it’s not sales related objections.

John Gough: That’s great. I mean, I think that’s just incredible advice. Just the confidence that builds in a person to be willing to make bets and take shots and just see what sticks. And it’s not always just throwing spaghetti at the wall, right? It doesn’t have to be random. It can be thoughtful and calculated.

Kelly Kiger: yeah, and we learned that because, uh, you know, a lot of it was You know, seeing what sticks and now we can go, okay, well, this is what I did here and this is what we tried here and it didn’t work. So how can I combine these 2 things and find something that does ultimately work for us? And, as much as my experience, a lot of our experiences, these traditional, um, not all of that translates to Evie.

So we can take our experience, but we’re going to have to change it and make it to where it works in this environment. Okay. where some of it does translate very easily, but EV is just kind of a different ballgame. You got, you know, I know you guys have already heard this, but all the less parts means less service.

So that’s a whole different, that’s part of your, we were talking about dealers earlier. That’s where they make their money on parts and service. Well, when you’re giving them a truck that doesn’t need service and it’s got 40 to 60 percent less parts. How do we retrain them on how to sell an EV and make enough margin up front to cover what they would have gotten in parts and service on an ICE truck.

So little things like that, like that’s not something I ever thought about when I sold diesel, you know, we were like, who cares? Sell it at cost. Doesn’t matter. You guys are going to make all this money on parts and service. And the truck’s going to be on the road for 12 years. And now it’s like, you can’t make your margins that slim, Mr. Dealer, because. That might be, you’re not going to see this truck for a while because it’s going to be on the road and it doesn’t need an oil change. 

Kyler Mason: that for the dealer?

Kelly Kiger: so you have to work with them on, you know, we set MSRP or list price and then we have our DNET or dealer pricing. so we have to work with them on what makes sense to, to keep them in business, but also sell the truck.

So our pricing strategy has certainly changed over the past year. because they were looking at us to help them and we were looking at them to go, Oh, you guys are the dealers. You know what you’re doing? They do know what they’re doing, but they’re all mostly new to EV. So we had to kind of find a common ground where we said, you know, it’s great to price it at that, but make sure you’re covering your own costs and expenses and marketing.

So where’s that sweet spot in the middle, that keeps you in business and then also, it keeps the customers coming back for more. So there’s another It’s a challenge. process we had to learn there. 

John Gough: and an industry that is like in the middle of a disruption that you really have to help, right? I think there’s some, there’s some places in, in the world where, uh, a new entrant can come and disrupt the thing and they’re just delighted that they don’t have to worry about all the old rules.

And that’s just not at all true for reasons that we’ve talked about. You have to still play by those rules and live in the ecosystem and help everyone in the process win along the way as you are actively disrupting the system that existed.

Kelly Kiger: Yeah, it’s funny because a lot of people will talk about, transition zero emissions. We’re doing the right things. And then you’ll see online where they’re like, E. V. Is never gonna work. You know, it’s gonna come crashing down. there’s a lot of influencing, you know, by people.

So I try to align myself with not people that are like, everyone should drive an EV all day long, every day. And it’s the only option, but people that are like, why would we not accept this new technology and, and put it in? And it doesn’t have to replace every truck all at once. And what’s wrong with having multiple options?

Is CNG a better option for you? Maybe. But battery electric is also a great option. And when hydrogen cell comes out, that’s probably also an option. So there’s nothing wrong with having all these options, but we don’t need to like put the hard brakes on diesel. You know, we have to be diesel for life. No more, no other options.

and I think aligning workhorse, aligning ourselves with influencers that feel like that, and then like our sales team on social media, aligning ourselves with people like that and kind of resharing those thoughts and sentiments. that we’re not like we are disrupting and I could totally get that, but it’s disrupting in a positive manner. Because everyone is building, not everyone, but all the major OEMs are building a battery electric and they’re headed down the hydrogen path and whatever, what other alternate fuels. So why should we not like grab onto their coattails kinda and go with them? And let’s make this transition together. I don’t understand, I guess, why people are so opposed to it.

so we’re disrupting the industry by allowing for new types of fuels to come in. And then, so aligning ourselves with people that promote that and support that at the end of the day. We’re not trying to put ice manufacturers out of business.

We know that’s not going anywhere anytime soon. And really, honestly, not trying to put my competition out of business either because we have to have an EV industry. So some of these startups have to make it for all, for any of us to make it. so we are not opposed to calling out our competition on what a good job they’re doing.

I don’t want to lose sales to them, but you know, they got to sell something to make it and I got to sell something to make it. 

Kyler Mason: you got to drive industry forward and infrastructure forward and adopt them and education. It’s a, it’s a massive job that, you know, one startup isn’t going to pull that off. 

Kelly Kiger: Exactly. 

Kyler Mason: Yeah, totally get it. Yeah. John, what else do you got to know? 

John Gough: I got to know if you are taking that sales training of getting three no’s and teaching that to your children.

Kelly Kiger: My children don’t need to be taught that no is not an answer. 

They are very fair that they can argue with me on anything. I looked at one of my sons one day and I was like, Why do you argue with me about everything?

And my mom was like, Hello! He learned it from you! He didn’t just wake up one day and start arguing. You’ve argued with him since he was little. It’s very true. We have very different views on life. And so, our, uh, We have lots of passionate conversations. But yeah, they’ll all be good attorneys or salespeople or something one day.

John Gough: There you go. Kelly, thanks so much for being on. This has been an awesome conversation. I’ve learned a lot from you. Anything else that you want to share with, uh, with the listeners? 

Kelly Kiger: I would say being open to new experiences and doing something that you’re not comfortable with the majority of the time is fully worth the experience.

Kyler Mason: That’s perfect. Love that. Great punctuation. Yeah. On the spot. That was, that was it. 

Why You Win is presented by Element Three, a marketing firm focused on modernizing go-to-market strategies for manufacturers that sell through complex distribution channels.

We help leaders solve problems across demand generation, sales channel support, and brand development. If you’d like more from myself or John connect with us on LinkedIn and for more from Element Three, visit elementthree.com.