Mastering Propane Industry Challenges: Strategies for Success with David Lowe

Steve Gasser (00:05.422)
All right, here we go. Hello, welcome to the Remarkable Podcast. This month, we’re doing a special series leading up to the NPGA Expo in Nashville, talking with people who are helping shape the propane industry and where it’s heading. And as we’ve been having these conversations, one thing keeps coming up. A lot of companies are working hard, but don’t always have a clear picture of what good actually looks like compared to others in the industry.

David Lowe (00:06.778)
Okay.

Steve Gasser (00:34.476)
And with NPGA right around the corner, that matters. Because companies that grow, they’re not guessing. They have clarity. And that’s why I’m excited to talk with David Lowe today. David, welcome to the podcast.

David Lowe (00:50.394)
Thanks, Stephen. Appreciate it.

Steve Gasser (00:52.748)
So for people who may not know you, can you share a little bit about maybe your role and why you’re focused, what you’re focused on in the propane industry right now?

David Lowe (01:00.742)
Sure. I work for Pro Image Communications. I’ve been involved with Pro Image for 17 years and we are a sales, marketing, training, advisory company. We have clients in 45 states and Canada and we work with mostly small family, local propane retailers in a variety of different suites of things that we do.

We provide customer service training, advisory work, we produce newsletters, we do competitive price surveys for our clients all over the country and Canada.

Steve Gasser (01:41.058)
Wow. So what has you most excited heading into Nashville this year?

David Lowe (01:47.503)
I would say for my role and our role, it’s about friendships and relationships.

For me, it’s not a, while you wanna make sales, I’ve found that sales come from relationships and from friendships, people that you’ve worked with in the industry in the past and your credibility. So I look forward to seeing many of our clients and quite often that’s mostly, that’s where we get our additional clients is people talk positively about the results that we’ve helped them with. So I’m looking forward to seeing people in the networking and obviously the

Steve Gasser (01:59.022)
Mm-hmm.

David Lowe (02:24.272)
education sessions.

Steve Gasser (02:27.534)
That’s what I found with this industry. I think it’s very unique, the relationships that you build. know all the board meetings that I’ve been to, all the events. It’s like family. Family and friends.

David Lowe (02:36.87)
Yeah, one big large family. That’s right.

Steve Gasser (02:43.242)
So because you’re working with so many companies, what are some of the biggest patterns you’re seeing across the propane industry right now, especially heading into this year?

David Lowe (02:46.735)
Okay.

David Lowe (02:52.742)
I would say they’re challenged with personnel issues. It’s always an issue. Pricing.

they hedge, how they purchase fuel, protect their customers. Those things are always paramount along with obviously safety which is an everyday issue that they deal with. It’s a highly regulated industry from the aspect of complying with local as well as federal jurisdictions and folks are always challenged with that kind of thing and particularly because they’re essentially small businesses with anywhere from five

to maybe 30, 35 employees, it gets pretty dicey at times for them.

Steve Gasser (03:39.97)
Yeah. Yeah, so much that they have going on. Where do you see propane companies getting stuck right now?

David Lowe (03:50.533)
I think in a word, execution, whether it’s trying to purchase fuel, whether it’s trying to grow a market, personnel retention as well as recruiting personnel.

Steve Gasser (03:54.19)
Bleh.

David Lowe (04:10.042)
I think by and large folks know what to do or what their end is, but it’s trying to get there. And I’ve found many folks in leadership positions are really too close to the action. It’s sort of they can’t see the forest because the trees are in the way. But I would say those kinds of issues.

just the day-to-day, getting through the day kinds of things. You see a group of marketers that are what I would call better planners and probably have a higher degree of execution success. And those are the ones that are more successful. But it’s the execution. It’s very difficult to do all the things that a small business has to do or a family has to do and make it work.

That’s a big role of Pro Image that when we are engaged with companies is to assist in the execution, making these things, making people major and making sure that they’re holding folks in situations accountable.

Steve Gasser (05:17.289)
And leadership role, we need people to hold us accountable. Yeah. And that was, you actually led right into my next question. Is it knowing what to do or is it actually executing? And it sounds like execution is the biggest challenge that you help them with.

David Lowe (05:20.164)
Right.

David Lowe (05:26.758)
What I’ve found is it’s execution.

I’ve found that people have a good idea what they want to do, but there’s too many things for them to do and whatever they’re trying to accomplish specifically gets pushed to the wayside because they’ve got to get a delivery made or they have to hire a person or they have to do some compliance work or something and it just takes away from them and it doesn’t mean they’re poor operators, it means that there’s just too many things to do and get where they want to go.

Steve Gasser (06:02.519)
So what do you see the best run for opening companies doing differently?

David Lowe (06:04.143)
Okay.

David Lowe (06:09.42)
I would say collection of data and then the utilization of data.

Over the years, generations, data was not such a… I don’t want say it wasn’t a big thing because it’s important obviously, but people now have software that can gather data, collect the results, they are able to read and strategize based on the data that they have, and the people that do that…

are looking back to the future, they’re using it to see the future and to be able to see around the corner, so to speak, and do things that a generation or 25, 30 years ago, it was kind of day to day and you kind of rolled with the punches and now these people are being, these marketers are being proactive. They’re seeing things and planning for what they believe is going to be the future.

Steve Gasser (07:14.571)
Yeah, that data is important. And I bet it’s hard to get people to look at that data.

David Lowe (07:20.378)
Yes, as a small business person or a family, there’s a lot of components to making the business run successfully. From marketing to personnel to compliance to buying to selling, marketing, all those kinds of things. And everyone has something they like to do a little better than other things or they’re more higher quality.

in certain areas than they are others and they have a natural attraction, I want to do this or I want to be involved in that kind of thing, which leaves other things open for somebody to take control of. And that’s a portion of where pro-image comes into part to assist with some of those areas that they’re not really comfortable with or they have a lack of knowledge of. And it makes a big difference to them when they can bring somebody in on a…

weekly basis or a day or whatever it happens to be to kind of move them in the direction they want to get to.

Steve Gasser (08:22.177)
that outside perspective is really good. You had said, you know, people can’t see the forest through the trees. And when you’re in it every day, boy, there’s things that you really miss.

David Lowe (08:28.268)
Yeah. Yeah. One of the things that we talk about is

You find yourself, particularly like this last winter for anybody east of the Rockies, you just want to make it to the end of the week. Then it’s the end of the month. And it doesn’t mean you don’t know what you’re doing or that you need help or that you’re a poor operator. By any means, it’s just you have to do what you have to do as quickly as you can and do it under very adverse conditions. And being safety is paramount. You’ve got some guardrails that you have to adhere to.

Steve Gasser (08:43.948)
Yeah.

Steve Gasser (09:06.606)
So you do lot of one-on-one coaching, but there’s also some peer groups you have too, correct?

David Lowe (09:11.59)
Yes, I work with the National Propane Gas Association as a facilitator. I’ve been involved in the benchmarking council since inception in 1996. And I have two groups that I facilitate. I have one for a little over 17 years.

You see it’s a collection of folks, 10 to 12, 14, that are not competitors. And they gather two, three, four times a year. And they are sort of an unpaid board of directors. The members have like issues, good and bad. And they exchange knowledge and some of the things that they do or have done to take care of a particular issue and they share that.

information very freely and it’s a great networking opportunity for folks. They see and hear things. We are involved in off-site visits, whether it’s at another person’s location or whether it’s at a completely different area. Sometimes we visit suppliers around the country that they do business with and

They get a different perspective from them as well as the host providing details of their particular business. And it’s a great exchange of information. And they don’t just do it two, three, four times a year. These folks are in contact with one another whenever they have an issue. They’ll get a hold of one of the other members to discuss their situation.

Steve Gasser (10:55.575)
Having that support network, that’s amazing.

David Lowe (10:58.616)
It is. It’s been very, very successful. NPGA has over 100 members currently and we’re going to have a…

an educational session at the expo that I’d highly encourage marketers to attend to if they have any interest in trying to improve their business with other like-minded folks. It’s a great opportunity to sit in and see kind of a mini session of what goes on. It’s only like an hour or so, but we spend a day and a half or two days several times a year together.

Steve Gasser (11:35.085)
Do know what day that session’s on?

David Lowe (11:38.299)
I believe it’s Sunday. I think it’s a nine o’clock Sunday event. And I think it’s an hour and 15 minutes. And it’s well worth your time to… I’ve been part of it several years. we’ve had, NPGAs had great success at people attending and learning and then following up and doing a trial run to see whether it’s something they’d be interested in doing and then actually become members.

Steve Gasser (11:39.948)
Sunday.

Steve Gasser (12:05.517)
Very good. So if someone’s heading to Nashville and they want to get more clarity on where they stand or what to focus on, what should they do or who should they connect with while they’re there in Nashville?

David Lowe (12:17.83)
I would plan it out personally and find out what your interests are. And I dedicate the time once I was there to be on the…

tradeshow floor, I would make sure of the numerous over 20 different educational sessions, what would be of interest to me. And particularly if you have multiple people that are attending from a firm, where you can spread them out rather than everybody through a forum being the same sessions, split it up and go into different sessions.

Ask all the questions you can. Introduce yourself. Exchange emails, business cards, contacts, that kind of thing. Visit the booths. Talk to the people. Introduce yourself. Explain your situation to folks. NPGA will have a booth there where you can gather information. will have a booth there where the information that can be gotten for PERC projects. And I would spend my time networking, talking with people, and I’d use the full time.

I wouldn’t leave early, I would get there ahead of time. But I think the most successful ones plan out what they want to do and dedicate the time to do it. It’s business and that they’re there to learn and to improve their business.

Steve Gasser (13:32.909)
Take the time to plan.

Steve Gasser (13:37.581)
I’m really excited to be there. This is my first year at this expo.

David Lowe (13:40.327)
Great. I think you’ll find that it’s well worth it. You’ll learn an awful lot and if you can spread people around to go to different…

educational sessions and the educational sessions are separate from when the trade shows open. So they’re not in conflict with one another and then up, go up and down the aisles of the vast area. It’s all these booths are at and some things made it. You have no interest in or they’re not part of your business, but there’s others that are very, very important to your business that would be very beneficial for you to visit with these folks and make contact so that you know who you’re talking to and

can ask a question and get an answer without having to go through email and waiting for somebody to react to you can personally pick up the phone talk to them.

Steve Gasser (14:31.885)
So from everything you’re seeing, what makes a propane company easy to do business with today? There’s been a lot that’s changing. What makes it easy to do business with?

David Lowe (14:46.072)
I think when you set particular standards of excellence.

in terms of terms of personnel, culture, and I guess one of the simple things is under promise and over deliver. Be involved in the community, particularly the folks that involved in that are family business in an area. There’s some community connection automatically there. And if you can set particular standards of what is

tolerable and exceptional and hold people, measure it and hold them accountable, I think a propane company would be very, very successful. But to have that roadmap first, I think is critical rather than just starting out and trying to feel your way through and hope that this works out.

I guess hope is not a strategy kind of a thing that we hear every now and then. But I think if you do some planning and dedicate to do particular things really, really well and hold people accountable, you’ll be very, very successful.

Steve Gasser (15:52.92)
There’s a lot of gems right there in what you just said. So if someone wants to connect with you at the show, what’s the best way to find you?

David Lowe (16:01.766)
Probably the best thing would be to me personally, would be get ahold of me at our booth. It’s booth 343. It’s Pro Image Communications. And we look forward to seeing a lot of people we’ve done business with in the past that may not be clients currently. We look forward to seeing people that are current customers, clients at this time, and always open to meeting new people. You never know when they may have a need or we may have a need going forward. And spend some time at

Steve Gasser (16:08.493)
343.

David Lowe (16:31.72)
at the booth asking questions and you don’t sign contracts and have to do all kinds of things. It’s just an informational kind of thing. If you have a challenge, one of the things we do is, what gives you pain? If we could do something to help you or that you’d like help with, what is it? Obviously we can’t make compliance issues, government regulations and so forth changes to them, but there’s a lot of things that we can do to help people.

Steve Gasser (16:47.138)
Hmm.

David Lowe (17:01.69)
with pricing, with marketing, with growing the business, with doing some things with personnel, with training in different areas with their company, and working with them on a strategic plan kinds of efforts and so forth. But we’d love to see any and all. We see everybody every year, and we’re looking forward to a very large crowd and a lot of communication this week.

Steve Gasser (17:25.025)
Yeah. David, anything else you want to share?

David Lowe (17:29.263)
No, I don’t.

I don’t think so. appreciate the opportunity and I hope everyone that is in the propane business can find themselves to make the investment to attend the NPGA Expo 26. It’s not an expense. It’s a lively town obviously, but there’s an awful lot of work that goes on at the convention trade show floor and the education sessions and it behooves people to participate and you can’t help but learn something and prove yourself in some way by attending and participating.

Steve Gasser (18:01.741)
All right, David, thank you so much for joining me. I look forward to seeing you in Nashville.

David Lowe (18:04.56)
Thank you. I do as you too. Thank you.