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

Christ Peterman (00:00):
I cannot stand to lose. And when I’m with a company and it feels like they’re not allowing us to win, I have a really hard time with that. And I know it’s funny because that’s why you guys, the name of this show is why you win, but I hate losing. I hate when somebody won’t let us win. That really bothers me. I want to be number one. I if you’re my competitor, I just want to smother you,

John Gough (00:22):
Whether you’re going to market through dealers, distributors, or some other partner channel. The

(00:26):
Mediated sale is complex. We call it B2B two X, but the leaders in the industry are the ones who are making it look simple. I’m John Gough. And I’m Kyler Mason. And this is YUN presented by Element three. Today’s episode is with Chris

(00:42):
Peterman. He’s an industry sales veteran who thought that he was going to be an elementary school educator, ended up selling motorcycles at a dealership and has spent the last 30 years of his career in domestic and international oes. And Chris is a competitor and his take is that you want to be in a competitive environment and that you want a product that’s good enough that your customers are coming in and asking for it by name. It’s a great conversation. I hope you enjoy it. Chris, we’re so happy to have you on today. Thanks for coming.

Christ Peterman (01:14):
Yeah, I really appreciate it. Thank you guys for having me. It’s quite the privilege. Thank you guys.

John Gough (01:18):
So one of the things that we have been really excited to talk to you about is in this B2B two X environment. You’ve been on the dealership side as a general manager. You’ve wrapped a couple of different oes in the power sports area. Talk to us about your world right now. What are you thinking about? What is your responsibility? How do you see what the landscape’s looking like?

Christ Peterman (01:39):
Yeah, I mean for the PowerPort industry and the business overall right now it’s in a weird position. Obviously the geopolitical climate right now with tariff, not just on China, but there’s also Japan, there’s also the eu, things like that. So it’s in a weird position where there’s been a lot of growth in the past 15 years in the motor power sports business, especially on the four wheel side, which has been the driver of things. Motorcycle business has been pretty steady as well. Covid was also a big situation for us that helped our business, but currently right now it’s just in a wait and see. A lot of people ask me about what the business looks like moving forward for this year. I don’t think anybody would tell you that there’s some big rosy picture for this year, but I don’t think it’s going to be nearly as bad as a lot of people think it was going to be towards the end of last year. Q4 was a little bit dicey, but I think moving forward there’s a little bit of a price correction that’s going to be coming in and I think that’s going to be healthy for the business. So it’s strong. It’s a little bit of headwind.

John Gough (02:36):
Sometimes we get the temptation to go zoom in directly on the business and talk about that. But one of the things I like talking to Powersports guys about is you’re in this business because you just got to be some sort of love for a motorcycle in there somewhere. Right. You were telling me about a picture you have in front of you of a racer at Laguna Seca. Tell us what’s the motorcycle angle on you?

Christ Peterman (02:59):
It’s kind of man, for me, funny, I fell into this gig. It’s been crazy ride for me. I went to school to be a teacher, an elementary school teacher, and it just happened at the same time for me that I was working part-time in a motorcycle dealership when I was in college. I’ve always been a huge motorcycle power sports person. I just grew up around it. And so one thing led to another with the dealership and I got opportunities to take career leaps at the dealership and I chose to do that instead of becoming a teacher and things like that. And it’s crazy. When I was a kid, when I was just starting to ride, I’d be like, man, it’d be cool to work in this business. And I can’t explain how the past 30 years, how it’s panned out that actually I was able to make a career and be successful with it.

(03:44):
Like I told you before, I went to the Salt Lake Supercross. I have lots of friends in the business. I’m a big moto GP guy. You have to have some sort of, to me, you have to have some sort of passion for this. You don’t get in this business, it’s not working, selling metal or something like that. You have to have this passion for it, and I think this business kind of lends itself to that. It’s what people like to do and we always joke in this business, you’re never going to get rich doing it, but you sure can enjoy your job a lot more than digging ditches and things like that. It’s been a crazy ride for me and I just can’t believe that it’s raised my family. It’s given me the opportunity. I’ve lived in lots of places. I’ve met so many good people. I just can’t really express to you guys how much it’s meant to me to be a fan of something that I’ve worked in. There’s always those times when you don’t ever make your favorite hobby or job because it turns into your job. There’s always been those times in this business. But in general though, it’s just been an amazing thing for me and my family and just to be able to do what you really enjoy doing for the majority of your career.

Kyler Mason (04:45):
Has it caused any blemishes for you? Like you said, make your favorite thing, your job

Christ Peterman (04:50):
Back in the dealership days, you work 12 hour days, six days a week, and there was a couple times where I didn’t even want to look at a motorcycle or a four wheeler or side by side for months. I’m just like, I don’t even want to ride. I don’t want to do anything with it. And then getting into the OE EM side, it lends itself back to you getting back into that. You’re not breathing it all the time like you do at a dealership. But yeah, there’s definitely been a few times when you go in and out of it and your career is the diehard guys never lose it. I would say I’m a diehard guy, but I definitely have lost it a few times just from I’m so sick. And the

Kyler Mason (05:22):
Seasons. Yeah, I had a few, I’m a huge Pacers and Colts fan and have a few friends that have done work for them and it’s been different for them now with their fan experience after that, just being in it every single day, the grind of it. Not that the environment was bad, but it’s just too close to the thing that they liked a lot, so I’m sure that happens a lot.

John Gough (05:45):
What was the thing that got you out of, was it elementary education? Were you in school when you started working for the dealership?

Christ Peterman (05:52):
Yeah, I started at the dealership when I was 19, so I went to Ohio State. So I was in school working there, and I actually did my student teaching and stuff and I really enjoyed it. It was very rewarding. I’m not sure if I could be a teacher nowadays with the way society and teachings changed, but I really did enjoy it. It wasn’t like I saw an opportunity with something that I really, even though the hours were really long and things like that, it was just, hey, from a financial opportunity. A lot of teachers, they’re not paid as much as they should be, but for me it was, okay, I can do this and be a lot further ahead of the game. Plus it was doing something that I really enjoyed. So

Kyler Mason (06:30):
Do you feel like that background though, going to school for it showed up in your management style or the way you approach leadership, anything like that you think back on?

Christ Peterman (06:38):
I think for me, a lot of us are passionate about things and for me, I feel like I’m very patient. I’m a patient person. I’m sure somebody would say that I’m not. I just enjoy the now, just the thought process of going through this business and okay, how can I impact the people that work for me or the people that I’m working with or the people that I touch in this situation and just how does that look for me moving forward? I feel right now that I definitely have a mentoring feel to this. So as you lead people makes you realize, you stop and check and think yourself too. Because at the end of the day for me, I have this super drive to win. I cannot stand to lose. And when I’m with a company and it feels like they’re not allowing us to win, I have a really hard time with that. And I know it’s funny because that’s why you guys, the name of this show is why you win, but I hate losing. I hate when somebody won’t let us win. That really bothers me. I want to be number one. If you’re my competitor, I just want to smother you

Kyler Mason (07:39):
Love that

Christ Peterman (07:40):
Energy. That sounds a little harsh, but no man, I always feel like I have something to prove and I don’t know why I feel that way. I don’t, probably don’t. But

John Gough (07:48):
When you think back on your career from where you are right now, is there a moment that stands out that falls that to mind? Somebody who is keeping you from winning?

Christ Peterman (07:59):
This isn’t on them directly. I worked for Yamaha for a long time and I chose to leave Yamaha. It’s not that they don’t want to win or anything. It was just me and the way that I wanted to handle my career moving forward. The great company, great people that work there, tons of friends that work there. It was just the way that I foresaw myself moving forward as, okay, I need a new challenge. I need a new environment. So that to me was a very critical point for me in my career. I’d been there almost 17 years and held a lot of positions with them. I learned a lot, have some great mentors and some great people over there. But from that position in my life, it was just something that I needed to do. Where’d you go from there? I went to a Mahindra, which is they have, at that time they had a four wheel off-road vehicle that was in a similar situation to side by side. They still offer it, but they ended up moving that under the tractor division. So did a brief stint there and ran their commercial side and dealer operations side for a while.

John Gough (08:57):
I’m curious about what you were looking for when you were hitting that ceiling and saying to yourself, I can’t win here. I don’t have what I need. What did you look for? What was the equation that was going to look or smell more like a winning operation to you?

Christ Peterman (09:12):
Something that was a challenge where another company is trying to make a name for itself and they’re aggressive. I like that aggressive approach to a business. Okay, we’re new and we’re trying to come up. We’re trying to make a name for ourself, so we’re going to be aggressive. I like aggressive, I like that balanced risk taking obviously. But at the same time, it’s just kind of a, okay, are we going to be on the gas or not? That’s me, God, we have the break and the gas on at the same time,

John Gough (09:41):
Probably too heavy handed to make a racing metaphor here. But Chris, why you win says that you got to be on the gas. If you’re not competing, if you’re already at the front of the pack, you already won. Right?

Christ Peterman (09:53):
In our business, there’s a lot of complacency sometimes where it’s just like status quo is okay, and that’s not okay with me. I want to push the envelope a little bit. I want to make things happen. Like I said, I like challenges. I, I’m not a button pusher, I can’t do that. So that’s when you have to figure out what you need for yourself.

Kyler Mason (10:12):
Okay. So you’re a competitive guy. You’ve had the advantage of interesting perspective and experience. So you’ve been on the dealer side, you’ve been on the OE side now for a few stops, and I’d love to hear your kind of hovering above your career experience synthesis about what are the things from your experiences that say or that are the ingredients to winning in the channel? Thinking of things like strategies or communication or the way in which you’re working with the channel, what are the things you’ve seen over the years that are the winning ingredients?

Christ Peterman (10:43):
Yeah, I think when you’re parked in the middle between what would be a home office in another country, which I’ve been a part of several times now, and then a domestic dealer base. So there’s a big gap between what the dealer base thinks should be happening and what the home office thinks should be happening. And this is obviously not exclusive. The motorsports, this is tons of businesses all over. I’m sure everybody has the same issues as you come up through. In my career at a dealer, I’m looking at an OEM, okay, what are they doing? Why are they doing this? This doesn’t make sense. You know what I mean? You don’t have that view that you do whenever you move up the OEM chain a little bit. And then as a district or in sales, you still don’t have that vision of what’s happening. You get the dealer’s opinion, but you’re not really getting much input from the higher up in the offices and things like that.

(11:31):
So then as you move up, then you start to get perspective. So in my career now looking at that 30,000 foot view, you realize how much you don’t know until you get into those positions. So to me, when I’m talking with guys, especially sales guys, because sales guys have zero patience, and I’m partially a sales guy, I wouldn’t call myself a hundred percent sales guy, but sometimes that’s one area where I don’t have patience either is okay, let’s just make this happen. But allowing them to telling them like, listen, there is a plan here. And it’s like I try and be as transparent as I possibly can with the dealer network. I don’t like to hide stuff. Obviously there’s certain things that just don’t make sense. And then sales staff and things like that. I’ve always been under the opinion of why do you hire somebody or why does somebody work for you if you don’t trust them with information?

(12:19):
I’m not telling you that you have to have the whole picture. That doesn’t make sense sometimes because there’s nothing that you can do with that information except cause problems. But if you’ve hired that person and they work for you, you have to give them a certain amount of trust to maintain information within that chain. Because if they’re good at their job, they can delineate that information down to the dealer network. And as you become more familiar with your dealer network and a big dealer network, a thousand dealers or whatever it is, then you can understand, Hey, I know what I can tell them and what I can’t tell them what’s going to come through. But to me it’s just I’ve grown to understand that there is a lot of information and you have to make sure you delineate it down. But for me, I tell people this all the time, just because I’ve been doing this a long time doesn’t mean that I’m doing it a hundred percent the right way. That just means that I can make some, really can make mistakes that should have been fixed a long time ago. I’m a student of the industry and I might’ve just been making the same mistake that I’ve been making for 30 years. You know what I mean? It’s just, okay, somebody taught me this way and you have to adapt. But I think it’s just being able to delineate information and provide that look back and look down on things. And that’s important I think.

Kyler Mason (13:29):
Do you have any distinct memories as you were climbing the OE Ladder where you were like, oh shit, now I get it.

Christ Peterman (13:38):
Yeah, I got lots of distinct memories in this business. Yeah, I think I was in the Salesforce at Yamaha and you move up and you’d see how that big picture operates. I had a lot of, like I said, opportunities at Yamaha and mentors and things like that. So it was kind of when I moved out of sales, I was in sales, but I wasn’t directly in sales at that point. It was just kind of one of those situations where I moved up and was able to get a big picture of what was going on. And then you start to develop some relationships with people that communicate with overseas offices and things like that. Then you start to really understand what’s going on. So I’ve had lots of aha moments, but just in the OEM world, that’s one of them. And then I’ve worked for Japan, I’ve worked for India for a brief stint, and now I’ve worked for China for the last four or five years. So there’s definitely a difference, but a similar pattern for sure.

John Gough (14:27):
What are the differences? What stands out?

Christ Peterman (14:29):
Japanese are conservative. They’re conservative. That’s kept them in business for however many years it’s been, especially in the US for a long time, 70 years, whatever it is now. They’re definitely conservative. The Chinese are way more aggressive. They have a different view on things that it’s almost, I don’t want to say like world domination because that’s a geopolitical thing, but you know what I mean. But just in general, they want to win. They have a desire to win and push forward and make sure that they’re just that mentality that they have.

John Gough (15:00):
One of the things that we see a lot, you said students of the industry, and that resonates a lot with us. One of the things that we observe on a regular basis here is the importance of the fresh new thing. If you’re not putting something new into the market, you’re not doing anything worth talking about. So I’m interested in your dealer and your OE perspective on launching new products. You think back on your career, what was the coolest product that you saw come to market or the one that you thought was like, yeah, this is it. I’m so glad I get to be on top of this one.

Christ Peterman (15:35):
I’m a product guy. That’s why we’re in this business is because this stuff’s cool. You know what I mean? We’re in the business that people are like, oh man, that is really cool. So what, I was young, and this is going to throw me way back here. I remember Ducati having a bike. It was the nine 16 and it had been out for a while, and it was the most amazing looking motorcycle. It was the best thing ever. I’m like, oh my gosh, I would love to have that bike. So then I ended up working at one of our dealerships was Ducati, so then I got to experience it more. Ducati makes very, very cool stuff. They’re very good at that. So on my side, there was a couple times for me, I worked at Yamaha when the Rhino came out, which is a four wheel side-by-side vehicle, and it revolutionized the business.

(16:22):
It totally changed everything. And I remember being at an event in Texas, and it was the first time that we had really had that unit out and we were out riding and it was mud conditions and rough and nobody had ever seen it before. And just like people were stopping and talking to us about it because seen mules and stuff from the past, but nothing like this. So that was very cool being part of that and being able to pivot in the industry. It’s never been the same since the side-by-side industry just exploded after that. That’s been 20 years ago. That came out a little over 20 years ago and it’s revolutionized the business. And that led to all kinds of new products for that. And then more recently for me, I was in charge of motorcycle division at CF Moto and the four 50 Ss that came out, the Kawasaki had ninjas and there was other three hundreds and things like that. But for us, there was a run there of a couple bikes to the four 50 Ss, the IBEX four 50 and things like that. That really being in charge of that and seeing the consumer intrigue, how much they were ready for those bikes and how quickly the lit on consumer consumption of those and how many we sold and things like that, that was great for me to be part of that just revolutionized that stuff. Really put CF Moto on the map and running motorcycle. That was amazing for me.

John Gough (17:43):
When you think about that moment, put yourself back in those shoes and you’re talking about the consumer and their interest, their entry, the energy that you got from that. How did you drive the dealer environment? How did you drive the channel environment? What were you doing teaching training you have to do to make that work?

Christ Peterman (18:06):
The dealers, it’s amazing. When you have good product and people come in, start coming in asking for it, they’re instantly experts. You know what I mean? That four 50 Ss was kind of like, okay, we had some dealers on board. It was like we were in year two and then that hit and then everybody wanted to be a dealer. After that. It was just like, okay, I know we can sell a ton of these. Let’s sign up to be a dealer. We went from zero to a hundred or let’s say 25 to a hundred, just like miles per hour and just fed everything up very quickly From that, we were always big into training our dealers with demo rides. We take our truck in there and get everybody to ride bikes, all the staff. We do big demo events. So to me, you have to get consumers and dealers on your product. You know what I mean? That’s the only way you’re going to be able to sell it, especially with a new brand, is to let consumers ride it.

John Gough (18:54):
Is it consumers riding it or is it the dealer reps riding sales staff?

Christ Peterman (18:59):
It’s everybody. Yeah. The dealer guys are good because they touch more people than, okay, we’re just doing one consumer, one ride per guy, but the dealers are touching a lot of people, so it’s imperative to get them trained on that. And you always have a training program, and in this business you usually, for salesperson incentives and things like that from the OEM, they have to take a level of training to check that box, which is, that’s industry standard, but to get them to ride it, especially skeptical guys. There’s still a lot of skeptical people out there that are Honda Yamaha diehards. You’re like, I don’t want to ride that thing. So once you kind of get ’em going on that direction, it’s positive to me. You have to ride it, you have to get ’em on it.

Kyler Mason (19:35):
You were a director, I think motorcycle strategy at CF Motor, is that right?

Christ Peterman (19:40):
Director motorcycle product. Yeah,

Kyler Mason (19:41):
Motorcycle product. Okay. What did that entail? What were your key responsibilities there?

Christ Peterman (19:47):
So basically all the channel flow, wholesale ordering with the factory, anything involved in helping out with marketing, just building the whole foundation for what the motorcycle branch at CF Moto would look like. That’s why they brought me in because my experience at Yamaha and just, okay, hey, even though they’re two competing countries, they do have similar business models and they have admiration for each other. We put that in and just, okay, what’s this take from zero? You know what I mean? So we built all that stuff in place and then just, okay, marketing parts, accessories, sales channel, dealer channel. We set, I put expectations with them, with our sales guys and with the factory. This is what’s reasonable year one, year two, year three, year four. So basically setting targets. And then along with that, on the product side, there was another gentleman that I worked with.

(20:32):
So we would figure out, okay, does this product make sense and if it makes sense for the US market, what should the pricing look like? What’s the long-term strategy of this product? You don’t want to bring a product in and get rid of it in a year parts and things like that. So it’s just, here’s what we need and here’s what that looks like for the next three to five years with this certain product. And then we would work with them just because this is what we want, doesn’t mean that’s what Europe needs or Australia or China, what they need. So we would take a combination of that. We would work with them and they were very good about working with us. They’re good on product development, and they would say, yes, we know that you guys need this, but we need this somewhere else right now. So it’s a give and take with the factory and r and d and what they can and what they can’t do. They try to build product that’s global and scale. There’s product that we just don’t need that other countries do and things like that. So it’s a lot of just that job was just basically try to bring everything together, product dealers, what’s the dealer channel look like? What’s the expectations of sales? Things like that. So it was just a combination of all that.

Kyler Mason (21:35):
So you’re talking to a couple marketing guys. You mentioned you overseeing marketing too, or had inputs in it, and you were talking about a pretty key insight that you need to get dealers and customers touching, feeling, experience the product. When you’re giving marketing direction and you can’t necessarily say scale that to every consumer. What do you tell marketing that they need to do to create that experience or create that draw?

Christ Peterman (22:00):
To me, I think especially with motorcycles, motorcycles are sexy. Four wheels not sexy. It’s cool. And I’m a big four wheel guy too, but it’s not sexy like motorcycles are. You have to bring out that sexiness in a motorcycle. And I think to me, if you couldn’t do everything else, then you would say, okay, marketing guys, wait, make this product look sexy to everybody. You know what I mean? And we know this thing looks great. I mean, that’s the key to marketing all the time, is you want to make your product attractive to people, but especially with motorcycles, because such a sensory type thing where, so I would always push on that. I think social push is out there and that’s a big deal. I think it’s become watered down a little bit. I see stuff from just like people are just regurgitating stuff and I have a hard time with that. I like new content and to look at new things in a different way. Back to what we talked about before, I would rather, and a new product line with a newer brand, I would rather don’t spend a dollar over here and put it all in, getting butts in seats. That’s to me is where it’s all at

Kyler Mason (23:04):
Events, consumer events, dealer events. Is there a ton of noise in that? Are you just competing with every other brand that knows the same thing?

Christ Peterman (23:12):
Oh, for sure. But being a new brand and people get tired of yellow, red, blue, green, not that those brands don’t do great things, but as soon as a new option comes in with this, because like I said, it’s such an emotional thing. When a new option comes in, people are like, oh, what is that? You know what I mean? How much, oh, that looks cool. How much is it? I want to hear it. I want to ride it. So you’re using their effort to get yourself out there because if they’re there and people are coming to ride their stuff or they know that bike and then you’re there too, you get all the collateral from those guys doing what they’re doing too. So not use it against them, but that’s why you go to an event and there’s every OEMs there. There’s strength in numbers for sure, but as a new OEM, that totally works to your advantage. People are lined up to ride something that’s new because they, oh, yeah, I rode that bike three years ago type thing. You know what I mean? For other,

Kyler Mason (24:06):
Their presence is bringing a lot of foot traffic to you.

Christ Peterman (24:10):
Yep. Yeah. It’s like the inside of the dealership is the same way too. You want to be aligned with those guys that are multi-line and there’s people, okay, everybody knows to go to that dealership down there. Well, if my bike’s sitting in there too and it’s got an attractive price and looks great, hey, we’re in the ball game at that point,

John Gough (24:25):
What does that mean for you in terms of that competitive environment? Though some OEMs are very, very squirrely about, I’m not going to spend a single dollar if it might possibly help my competitor in any way. But what you’re saying is I actually kind of want to be in a competitive environment. I want to be where these other people are, because consumers already there thinking about riding motorcycles. How do you as the OE invest to get into those competitive environment?

Christ Peterman (24:53):
I welcome it. I love that competitive. If we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, let me flashback. When I was a dealer, dealers have this thing they hate. When you set up a competitive dealer, when I was a dealer, the guys that worked from Honda, whatever, we were, Honda dealers, they would come in and ask us, Hey, we’re looking to set up a dealer over here. And I never took it as, oh, don’t do that. I’m terrified of competition. I’d be like, where are you thinking? Can I help them guide it? You know what I mean? Maybe sometimes they would be better, but I welcome that competition. I’m fine with that. You know what I mean? Let’s do what we need to do. So in this environment, I feel like it’s the same way. If I’m doing what I’m doing, if my product’s good, my pricing’s good, everything’s good, I’m happy with being next to you because then we’re at least at the same space now, being a new brand, you can get shoved in the corner because it’s easy to get shoved in the corner because the guys that have been working in there, if they’ve been working there a long time, they’re Honda diehard, they’re Kawasaki diehard, they’re triumph, diehard, whatever the situation is, they don’t want to sell your product.

(25:50):
So it’s just you run that risk. So that’s where the product has to sell itself. Okay? People start coming in and ask for it. You don’t have any choice but to sell it. So that’s how I’m not afraid of that situation. And to me, that competitive environment is a great thing. It helps the brand. I’m not saying you need to have 50 dealers in a 10 mile radius. The dealers, sometimes they lose sight that if there’s another dealer 50 miles away advertising, it’s going to help you too.

John Gough (26:16):
And if I’m playing that back to you, what I’m hearing you say is, if there are two things I’m going to do, it’s I’m going to be where people are thinking about motorcycles and I’m not afraid of the competition and I’m going to do something that’s so interesting, better, different, new, whatever it is that people are coming into the dealership asking for my product. And if I can do those two things, then I’m off to the races.

Christ Peterman (26:39):
And product again is the key. You fill holes where other OEMs or the business has taken a step back, okay, there’s a big hole over here. Why haven’t they filled that yet? Fill that hole. When people come out of the woodwork, like for example at CF Moto, we had a IEX four 50, which is a four 50 rally bike, and really nobody had any rally bikes in that four 50. Everything was either huge or non-existent. So they filled this niche and instantly it was sold out pre-orders before we could Fred ever even got here. It’s amazing when you fill that little niche, how fast people want that when pricing’s good and things like that. So just little things like that where if you can recognize the market and quickly react, I think that’s where some of that is the key, along the lines of being with a competitive nature inside of a dealership where you want your product positioned.

(27:30):
I think we’re seeing the effects of Harley and what they’ve not done in the past 25 years as far as their struggles. And that single line for a long time, they were able to manage that single line grip on that stuff, which made sense. They were making tons of money and it was a great deal, but now it’s okay, what’s our strategy going forward with those guys? And then when they have dealers that are reaching out to other brands, trying to get some complimentary brands to try and fill in those gaps. So you’re seeing a lot of that with Harley right now, where a lot of Harley guys, dealers are approaching other OEMs, maybe not putting ’em right next to a Harley, but Hey, we have this showroom over here type of thing. They just have to have options at this point. Yeah.

Kyler Mason (28:11):
You talked about filling a gap. So from a product development standpoint, how do you find that insight to develop a product that fits that niche or that gap?

Christ Peterman (28:20):
Tons of research. You spend a lot of time, if you’re at events, you can do questionnaires, a lot of iPad work like, Hey, would you mind taking a quick survey for us? I’m a firm believer in, the answer is in the market. So we would spend a ton of time, me and the other guy on motorcycle going to dealers. Here’s what we’re seeing, what are you seeing? And a lot of times, and then, okay, what do you feel like the pricing would, how many do you think you could sell? Because you ask 10 people and you get 10 different answers, but at the same time, what’s the viability of selling mask quantities of something? Because everybody says, oh, I want this, I want that, but they won’t buy one themselves. You know what I mean? So you have to understand what it looks like for the market.

(29:01):
So is there a movement for this? And you look at tons of data, but if there’s not data reflecting that because it doesn’t exist, it’s hard to extrapolate, what would that look like moving forward? So then you have to go out and talk to people and spend a lot of time. There’s a lot of companies that won’t share any product development with their dealers. They just don’t do it. They’ll do focus groups and things like that. But for me, we were at C Fomoto especially. We were big and okay, here, sign this agreement that you’re not going to say anything. Here’s what we think. You know what I mean? Here’s what the next couple of products look like. Thumbs up, thumbs down. How much do you think you could sell? How much is it the pricing should be? We were always big into that. I think that feedback, it is just imperative to get that kind of information from the people on the ground that are fighting that fight every day.

Kyler Mason (29:43):
How do you suss out, you mentioned something along the lines of people will tell you things and give you advice, but they won’t part ways with their money. How do you distinguish?

Christ Peterman (29:53):
Yeah. Well, those guys are a little bit easier. They’re usually these guys that, the quirky guys that they’re like, oh, if you made this, you’d sell a million of them. I’m like,

(30:03):
I’m not sure. Okay, you might buy one, but I’m just not sure if that makes sense from setting up a production line running 10,000 units off or whatever it is. So it’s just you got to do your due diligence and you can extrapolate some of that from data that you have and a lot of feedback, but sometimes you got to just roll the dice on some stuff. The one thing that has just blown me away, Honda has done such a good job the past few years, let’s call it 20 years of finding a product that didn’t have a market at all and just it explodes. Like the Honda Grom thing, I don’t know if you know what that is. It’s a little motorcycle. I’m such a huge fan of the grom.

John Gough (30:39):
Tell Kyler where the grom is.

Christ Peterman (30:40):
They just conjured that buyer out of thin air. I have so much admiration for the forethought just to what we should do. We should make this mini bike and make it streak legal, and we’re going to sell a billion of these things, and they just hit a home run. And they’ve been able to do that with some other throwback stuff too, and I’m not sure if they make a ton of money on it or whatever, but man, just the cool stuff like that. A lot of Honda, they do some weird things sometimes, but man, they hit some home runs too that just, I really enjoy it when that happens with companies and they’re able to do that, just make this weird conjuring out of nowhere and sell a bunch of stuff. Plus I just like groms and I don’t know, I just think it’s awesome.

John Gough (31:20):
I talk to so few motorcycle guys, like people who are self-described motorcycle guys that are fans of the grom. Most people are like, oh gosh, seriously? That’s embarrassing. Oh dude, I like those things.

Christ Peterman (31:31):
Seriously. I lived in Huntington Beach for five years in Southern California, man, there’d be packs of 50 of those things running around the beach area down there, and it’s so much fun riding around. I mean, I always tell everybody, I’m like, you can’t not have a smile on your face when you ride that thing. It’s just so much fun. And oh, my buddies would make fun of me. I’m like, who cares, man? It’s a blast. Yeah, I have a scooter and I have the same reaction to it. I have a Zoom and every time I ride and I just smile the whole time.

Kyler Mason (31:58):
As we’re starting to wrap up, question for you, what do you think or what’s your hypothesis of what would bring more people into the market to grow the pie?

Christ Peterman (32:07):
I think going back, let me flash back a little bit here. Covid Covid brought a wave of people into our business. It was like times I’ve never seen ever, and we were kind of thinking that there was going to be some fallout, like, okay, they buy it when Covid hits and then they get rid of it. And we hadn’t seen the trade-ins or the big used sales or anything like that. So I think weird situations like that. Obviously, I don’t want another covid, don’t get me wrong, but it’s okay now. It’s like now people are starting to see everything’s expensive, especially young people, and that’s kind of your target is that younger 25 to 35, and they’re having a hard time buying houses and paying bills and student loans and everything else that’s going on in the world right now. I think as some other companies, they’re trying to bring the prices down and trying to make things more friendly.

(32:55):
And I think you see that there’s been a new, like with, I’m not sure which gen we’re on right now, Z or whatever it is, but there’s been an uptick in Gen Z, having interest in motorsports, motorcycles, power, sports, maybe not so much on the four wheel side because it’s more expensive. It takes a little bit more to do that. But on the two wheel side, you’re seeing people come in that you wouldn’t expect to come in. So younger people are coming in and I think they’re buying those five to $7,000 products, and they’re able to afford the insurance so that they’re using it as a means for transportation. Maybe buying a house is just too far out of the route. Okay, well, I want to buy this in the short term and do that instead. So transportation’s become popular, and I think as you said, as the prices come down, because prices went skyrocketing back in the two thousands, all the cool bikes, sport bikes and stuff went way too high.

(33:48):
So now everything’s starting to come back down again and insurance shot up, and now everything’s a little less performance, so there’s not as much high premiums and things. I just think as companies get creative, which a lot of them are right now, they get creative and they understand that you don’t need to light somebody’s hair on fire. You just need to get ’em in something that’s affordable. You know what I mean? But I think that’s seeing that kind happen again in the US market is everything’s just coming back to, it all cycles itself through, and I think you’re seeing that happen right now and everybody’s catering to that person and the market’s in a pretty unique place right now.

John Gough (34:22):
Chris, imagine you woke up tomorrow and you were managing a dealership again. What are you going to do immediately to take advantage of everything that you’ve learned?

Christ Peterman (34:32):
That’s a great question. I think that you always, to me, number one, your people, okay, what’s your people? What’s your situation there? Look, are they happy? Are they unhappy? How can you make them happy? How can you want to have them come into work every day, make it? When I worked at a dealership, it was always a fun environment, and not that I personally made it fun, but the people that worked there, we had fun. You know what I mean? And we were productive and we kicked a lot of butt doing that selling stuff. I think you have to make that fun. I think you have to understand what is the driver of the business in your area, and I think that moving forward after that, I think that you have to understand just the nuts and bolts of what, okay, hey, I know this dealer.

(35:11):
He’s selling this. You want to take a lot of information from other sources and try to understand exactly what that layers into in your own success, profitability and things like that. But also too, me, now looking back, this life balance is important for people, not just myself, but for people that are, the world’s changed a lot, and so it’s okay, you’re 25 years old. I know you want a job here. Okay, you’re a really good employee. What else also makes you, what can we do to try and make our place inviting to work for? We want you to have a good time here. I don’t want you to take advantage of me. Obviously, that’s not going to happen. But at the same time, I want to cater to the world. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that. The world that I live in right there in that environment to make things successful and everything, there’s always a bottom line, and there’s a business aspect to this, but two, what’s your people? Are they happy? You know what I mean? I think people lose sight of that sometimes and everybody says, oh, young people don’t want to work, and all that stuff. Okay, let’s talk through that a little bit and see exactly what’s happening. I’ve calmed down. We all want to make money, and don’t get me wrong, that would be, but I think it’s making sure that you have a really good environment. It’s a grind. It is a grind, and sometimes it’ll burn you down in the nub if you’re not careful about that.

John Gough (36:22):
Good advice.

Christ Peterman (36:22):
Yeah. We’re in the business of fun, and that can get snuffed out pretty quick. You have to be careful with that.

John Gough (36:27):
Don’t forget to get on the bike.

Christ Peterman (36:29):
Yeah. The most successful guys I know, they’re the ones that are very engaged in, Hey, we’re going out for a ride. We’re closing hour early. Let’s go for a ride. You got to remember why you do it. Every time I get to ride something, I get reenergized in this business. It doesn’t matter what it is, I always get reenergized. So little things like that just makes it, that’s why we do it.

Kyler Mason (36:47):
Let’s go shut down early and launch some ads.

Christ Peterman (36:50):
I know the GoPro every Thursday, speak my language. So the GoPro guys in Southern California every Thursday, they would close at lunch and they said, you go do whatever you want to do. Just take your GoPro with you and film some GoPro stuff. So I was like, that’s a cool, great idea. You don’t have to sit here and rotten your cubicle for the rest of the day.

John Gough (37:10):
Chris, this has been awesome. Thanks for sharing your experiences and your background. Learned a lot here today.

Christ Peterman (37:16):
Yeah, I really appreciate it. I really appreciate you guys getting me, me on here and just letting me talk a little bit about my past. It’s been a great ride, man. I’ve been very lucky, very, very fortunate in my career to be able that it’s played out the way that it has, so I’m grateful for that.

John Gough (37:31):
Fantastic. All right. Appreciate you. 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.

Kyler Mason (37:44):
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

Kyler Mason (37:52):
LinkedIn and for more from element three, visit elementthree.com. That’s elementthree.com.