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The Power Broker Model: What It Is, and How It Works For You
May 31, 2021
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If you ask Sameer Ahmed to explain Trinity’s Power Broker Model, the Ontario-based Temporary Power Specialist will tell you that it allows us to support our customers no matter what their situation.
“Whatever the scope, we’ll try to ensure that we can deliver,” he explains. It’s a lofty sentiment, but what does it mean for customers, in practical terms?
Ahmed spoke with us recently to deliver the details about our Power Broker Model – how it benefits his customers and what sets it apart from the approach that other vendors take.
The Power Broker Model: A Project First Approach
“The way I explain the power broker model to my customers is that it’s like a flowchart,” explains Ahmed. “The customer comes to us with a request and we design the right solution, not one that is influenced by fleet availability. After that, we go out and procure the equipment, whether it’s in our inventory or not.”
The key to this approach is that the solution comes first, and the equipment is procured to fit the solution, not the other way around.
“If it’s not in our inventory, then we go out to our partners,” explains Ahmed.
These partners are a network of vendors that stretches across North America, all but ensuring that if the equipment exists, the Trinity Power team will be able to find it.
“It’s been an eye-opener, just the vast array of industry partners that Trinity has throughout North America,” explains Ahmed of his tenure at Trinity so far. “We’re able to utilize those partnerships to deliver across North America whether it’s a transformer, a load bank, or another piece of equipment.”
While other vendors offer re-rent options, Ahmed explains that it’s the scale of Trinity’s offerings that sets our Power Broker Model apart. “The way Trinity does it is on a different level,” he explains. “Other companies offer re-rent options when necessary, but their main focus is to rent their own gear. Because a significant percentage of the requests we have coming in involve generators, which Trinity doesn’t own, we procure equipment from our partner vendors on a much larger scale than other companies.”
This scale of the business that Trinity does with re-rent partners creates a fertile soil for growing strong business relationships that benefit not only Trinity’s partners but our clients as well.
We Do the Digging For You
Ahmed recalls the surprise a client once expressed about the way the Power Broker Model works: “He said, ‘You’re doing the job for me!’ Because we’re reaching out to the vendors that they would normally reach out to themselves and we’re pulling 3 or 4 different quotes, looking for a solution that weighs equipment, location and cost. We’re doing that work for them.”
By Trinity chasing down quotes, it allows our customers valuable time to focus on other aspects of the project, thus increasing their chance of winning the job.
In addition to getting competitive prices, Trinity team members are able to find the required equipment even when most other leads have come up dry. “When a customer isn’t able to locate the equipment they need, that’s where our vendor partnerships come in,” explains Ahmed. “We do this daily, we have up-to-date inventory lists, including specialized equipment and availability.”
Unparalleled Equipment Access
When it comes to square footage, Trinity isn’t the largest player in the power rental game, but our size does not impact our ability to provide service nationwide.
“From our three branch locations in Canada, we can reach you no matter where you are and deliver the equipment as well as any site services you may need,” says Ahmed.
“Because we’re not limited to our own inventory, and because we have such a large network of vendor partners, we’re able to procure the correct solution. If one of our partners doesn’t have a particular piece of equipment, we’ll move to a second one and so on and so forth.”
In practical terms, this large and geographically diverse vendor network means that not only can we procure the equipment our customer requires when they can’t, but we will be able to deliver it no matter where that customer is located in North America. Ahmed explains, “If someone is working in a remote Northern Ontario location and is looking for a temporary power solution, we can partner with a vendor that has the right equipment located nearest the job site.
We can also do the reverse: if a customer requires a piece of equipment that’s unusual or difficult to find in their region, we can bring it in. Ahmed recalls a project that required a specific transformer with an uncommon primary voltage: “Our customer wasn’t able to find it, but we did.”
Another area where the unparalleled access to equipment afforded by our Power Broker Model shines is in emergency response situations. “In emergency situations, finding the right generator on short notice can be difficult,” explains Ahmed. “First off, our team is available 24/7, if a customer calls at 2:00 AM, regardless of the time zone, we will answer, assess the situation and start waking partners up. Our goal, no matter the time, is to have a solution on-site in a matter of a few hours.”
In the end, the Power Broker Model, like everything else Trinity does, is about one thing: delivering the right solution — in terms of equipment and service — for our customers. As Ahmed puts it, “Whether it’s a very large rental request or a smaller one, I don’t think I’ve encountered any team that dives in the way Trinity Power does.”
