SEO Success for Illinois Manufacturer AmeriChem
Is your website helping you grow your manufacturing business, or holding it back? In this episode of Stop Being the Best Kept Secret, we shine the spotlight on Michael Perry, National Sales Manager at AmeriChem Systems, Inc, a trusted name in custom chemical feed systems and turnkey process skid fabrication. We will discuss SEO success for Illinois manufacturer AmeriChem.
With a career rooted in industrial automation and control solutions, Michael leads a consultative, educational approach. His work at AmeriChem combines deep technical expertise with practical solutions that help manufacturers boost efficiency, reduce costs, and scale operations, especially in harsh environments where reliability matters most.
We will explore how AmeriChem partnered with IMEC and B2Btail to revamp their SEO strategy, enhance online visibility, and attract the right-fit customers through smart, value-driven content.
Don’t miss this chance to learn how SEO can help you attract higher-quality leads and grow your business online.
Key Highlights of SEO Success for Illinois Manufacturer
• SEO Success Stories and Personal Introductions 0:00
• AmeriChem Systems Overview and Growth 3:09
• Michael Perry’s Career Journey 6:00
• Customer Collaboration and Innovation 8:28
• Digital Marketing and Educational Content 13:43
• Blue Ocean Strategy and Market Differentiation 36:41
• AI and Advanced Technology Projects 44:50
• Customer Trust and Quality Standards 48:13
• Future Plans and Exciting Projects 48:26
• Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts 48:51
Resources
Lastly, thank you for taking the time to read this post.
If you found this information valuable, check out some of our other blogs.
You might want to read these blog posts:
Creating a Robust Referral Network with Your Soulmate 100
SEO Strategies for Manufacturers: Out-teach the Competition
How Manufacturers Can Use Subject Matter Interviews to Dominate SEO
To learn more about SEO for Manufacturers, check out SEO for Manufacturers: Foundations, Strategy & Implementation.
B2Btail – Helping Awesome Companies with Digital Sales Growth Solutions
Get Your FREE SEO Report
You Have Only One Chance to Make An Outstanding First Webpression https://b2btail.com/webpression/
Stop Being the Best Kept Secret: Manufacturing eCommerce Strategies
Follow B2Btail on YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn.
Curt on LinkedIn
Exit Your Way– Helping owners create businesses that make more money today and they can sell or succeed when they want.
Damon on LinkedIn
Check out the Stop Being the Best Kept Secret Show live on Mondays and Fridays at 12:32 PM EST // 9:32 AM PST.
Transcription for SEO Success for Illinois Manufacturer
Curt Anderson 00:00
Alright, here we go. So hey, welcome to stop being the best kept secret. Damon Pistolka, how
Damon Pistulka 00:06
are you, brother? I am great Curt and I am excited today to talk with
Curt Anderson 00:12
Michael Perry. Oh, my goodness gracious, dude. I even did my hair today. I’m like, so excited. I was wondering
Michael Perry 00:21
you got that those tips I sent you? Curt, yeah, yeah.
Curt Anderson 00:26
Thank you, Michael. So hey, let’s dive in, guys. We’re we’re going to dive into SEO success stories here in wonderful state of Illinois, even though Michael’s only one in Illinois, but we’re going to dive into this wonderful company called AmeriChem. We’ve got our dear friend Paola. Santana. Paola, Happy Wednesday. How are
Paola Santana 00:42
you happy? Wednesday? Uh, good. Yeah, doing really good. Well, thank you for joining us.
Curt Anderson 00:48
Well, thank you for joining us. We’ve got a really exciting program here today. So Michael Perry, my dear friend, how are you dude?
Michael Perry 00:54
I’m doing great. You know, sun is shining, beautiful day here, and just loving life. So thank you, Curt. I appreciate being here,
Curt Anderson 01:02
our privilege and the sun’s always shiny in Chicago. That’s what they say. Isn’t there? Is there a song like that? I don’t know. I’m just if not, maybe we should make one, right? It’s Always Sunny in Chicago. So Michael, let’s dive in. So first and foremost, we have so we had questions that came in. A bunch of people were firing off questions, like, you’re having the Michael Perry on the show, but we have questions for Michael Perry, because we don’t get that too often. Michael, when you’re a little boy growing up, did you grow up in Chicagoland when you were a little boy growing up? My friend Michael Perry, who was your hero? Who did you look up to? Who did you admire? Who was your hero when you’re a little boy growing
Michael Perry 01:41
Well, I mean, I was blessed to just, you know, have a hard working dad that, you know, showed me a lot of the ropes. Had a couple of best friends and their dads. And, you know, when I was growing up, just learning about sports, you know, how to play baseball, things like that, you know, is super exciting and and then, you know, as I got older, you know, of course, you’re, you’re looking up to the guys that are, that are out there making it big time in sports, you know. So I was actually huge Barry Bonds fan, so I was a little disappointed. I was a little disappointed, you know, with all the controversies that he went through. But yeah, I had all of his cards. You know, I was just a huge collector of baseball cards back in the day, and just loving the sport. Never played it, you know, on a high school team myself, but just around the sandlot growing up. So all those guys that taught me how to play and the professional athletes that I admired, you know, those are the guys I looked up to.
Curt Anderson 02:34
Well, absolutely love it. And what’s, what’s dad’s name, he’s
Michael Perry 02:38
also Michael Perry, so I’m a second, you know, he’s senior. And then I got a little guy, Michael Perry, at home too. He’s he’s carrying on the third. So, yeah, we’re little family trend there, hey.
Curt Anderson 02:49
Well, keep it simple, Brother, keep it simple. Absolutely love it. So lot of, lot of fierce advocates in your life, helping you from sports, discipline, teamwork, all the above. And I, Damon, have to say, Man, I saw Barry Bonds live many times. And I know it kind of sinks of the, you know, the whole controversy that guy was a heck of a hitter, was he not? It’s incredible. The 73 home runs I actually caught him the year that he broke that record in San Francisco, and he put one out in a bay the place, just like David, like, last night, your son was going crazy. It was just like they won the World Series. So Okay, walk us down memory lane. Thank you for sharing that. Let’s dive into AmeriChem Systems. I want to get into your background, but first AmeriChem for curious minds out there, please share. How are you and the amazing team at AmeriChem systems? How are you guys making the world a better place?
Michael Perry 03:39
Well, AmeriChem Systems is a 35 year old business that is this kind of quiet giant in the industry, making custom equipment for chemical companies, OEMs, you know, anyone that needs any sort of custom equipment, especially around harsh environments. So we’re doing a lot with some really nasty chemicals, also some flavorful, you know, scents, you know, lots of different things, whether it’s gas or liquids. You know, we’re moving things around and really making some really inventive systems, which is cool to see, and I love it, you know, I say we’re kind of like this 30 year old startup business, because the last, you know, three years, we’ve been on a tear. And actually, we’ve got this, Inc, 5000 award, you know, for fastest growing companies in America. And it’s just been really cool to be a part of with all these world class engineers and these super loyal customers that love us and use us and recommend us to other people. So that’s a little bit about what we do.
Curt Anderson 04:38
Curt, well, I know, like the first day that you and I met, man, I’m an Ink Magazine junkie, and I, like my eyes went immediately to that little word, hey, can we see that award back there? Inc, 5000 so my first call with, with Michael Damon and I see that little I’m like, dude. I’m like, You’re, as a matter of fact, I think it was on the floor behind you, wasn’t it, or back there. I’m like, it was just this big thing. And. I’m like, Yeah, you’re on the Inc 5000 So Michael, curious minds also want to know, how’d you do it? What’s the secret? So for entrepreneurs out there, our friends out there listening, they’re like, Hey, man, I want to be on the Inc 5000 What do you have to say?
Michael Perry 05:14
What advice would you give? Yeah, I think the beauty of what we’re doing here is really just being collaborative with our existing clients, you know, and just listening to what their needs are, asking the questions about how this is going to help them, you know. How can we make them more productive and not so much focus on hey, let’s sell you something. Let’s build something for you. But really getting into that long term planning and listening mindset has been a huge, you know, benefit to us, in our growth really just shows that we’re an advocate for our clients. We’re not just here to be a vendor, but we want to be a partner, and we’re looking for other partners that value that kind of long term mindset, and we’ve been blessed to have clients that have been with us for three decades, and we want to continue to build on that, and we’re bringing on a couple new partners every year, and it’s, it’s been fun just to kind of show them our mission values and our vision for that partnership between us.
Curt Anderson 06:10
Now, you’ve had an interesting background career in the past. Talk a little bit like when coming out of college, or like, you know, what was, what was Michael? What early 20s? What was Michael going to do, like, aspirations, dreams. What direction were you going when you’re a little, little younger? Guy, yeah,
Michael Perry 06:26
well, without when I was a little kid, I people used to laugh because I either wanted to be a scientist or a lawyer, you know. So they were like, little left brain, right brain going on there. And, you know, I ended up getting into electrical sales, one of my friends from a Bible study, of all things, he came to me and he said, Hey, I need someone to help me sell more electrical wire and conduit and light bulbs and and I was, I was like, I know what a light bulb is. I could figure this out, right? So we, we, we got to work in and huge company, you know, Fortune 500 Company, and just got gravitated more and more towards the more technical electrical component. So started off selling the basics, and then kind of got more into robotics and conveyors and motors and things like that. And was really blessed. It was a great season of life. And eventually I came to meet at a at a social event, the owners of the AmeriChem Systems, and they were like, Hey, do you know anything about automation? So we got to talking, and lo and behold, you know, jumped out of this 9000 person, you know, Fortune 500 Company, and joined this tight knit group of 19 employees with some world class engineers, and now we’re leading 42 here. Some impressive growth, nice. Yeah, it’s really, really cool. So it’s been cool to look back and see that trajectory of my career and where I started.
Curt Anderson 07:51
Man, it’s just, you know, it’s so inspiring, and it’s so funny how, like, you know, you just kind of, you know, God leads you in a path, and you just end up at this amazing company, and Paola and I’ve had the privilege of meeting some of your teammates, and you guys are just so, you know, just absolutely crushing it, and just your dedication to like that customer success, Paola, let’s get you on stage here. We’re going to, we’re going to be ping ping ponging back and forth. What was your experience working with Michael and AmeriChem? What was your takeaway? Well, I
Paola Santana 08:20
think just everything that he was saying about the collaboration and, you know, yeah, you ultimately, as a business, you’re trying to make money, but you’re also trying to make a place of, you know, the world a better place. And I think what AmeriChem does is like, it touches all of our lives in the most unexpected ways, like just, you gotta just focus, like, realize that what you guys do really affects everything that we do, day in and day out, whether it is aero mix, you know, perfumes, or just the things that you don’t think about like that has those aroma, aromatic contents to it, you know, gas, you know, so everything that you are doing in energy too, right? Like, I think you guys do nuclear systems or powers or something that helps along the lines, if I remember correctly. And so I think like that, that collaboration is so key. And I love that you said that, because even working with you, it’s a collaboration. You would come to our meetings like, ready to take notes, like, just to give us your expertise, your amazing knowledge of what you’re doing, and just the fact that you really care and are looking to work with your clients, right? We’re trying to solve problems together, not looking you as just $1 sign. You know, your success really is going to be your own success, because together, we’re working to get an end result that’s going to be productive to the entire, you know, country, the world. So same. It was the same with him, working with, you know, working with Michael
Curt Anderson 09:45
and drop the mic Paola. That was fantastic. So, alright, hey Damien. We got a couple friends here. We got a little happy face. Yeah, how about this one here?
Damon Pistulka 09:54
Greetings from India. Greetings
Curt Anderson 09:56
from India. Otherwise. So happy. What is today? By. The way, it’s Wednesday. We’re at the hump right? So, yes, it is. So you know what? Somebody sent me a note first thing this morning, and they put a little camo camel emoji. And I’ve never thought of that like
10:15
hump day, yeah.
Curt Anderson 10:16
So that came from Paola, then Damon. That came from Roger of Falconer Electronics, so I gotta kick out of that one. I like, yeah,
Paola Santana 10:25
so that’s our staple commercials, right? Mike is our generation, yeah, right, yeah,
Curt Anderson 10:31
that’s right. So hey, hey guys, uh, drop us a note. Let us know you’re out there. Yeah, yourself a favor. Connect with Michael Perry on LinkedIn. We’re going to check out his website. Damon is I pull his website. Comments, thoughts, what do you got?
Damon Pistulka 10:43
Oh, I think that’s, it’s super cool when you get to look at the companies, like AmeriChem Systems, Michael, because we don’t understand all the pieces that go into, you know, the things around us. You know that just the things that are around us all day long. Like, it could be a lotion, it could be something industrial. It could be, you know, a food product. There’s so many different things that we have that have these components or this specialized automation to make things that we don’t even think about that. First of all, we don’t know about it, and we don’t even think about it because we buy the end product and love it, yeah? And that’s all we get to exposed to, right? Yeah. So cool.
Curt Anderson 11:28
Exactly. Michael, I’m going to pull up your website, put you on the spot. What’s the best use you mentioned some good what’s the best smelling product that you guys have created a system for?
Michael Perry 11:39
Well, you know, I like to tell about the candy stories, you know, anything that involves sweets, you know, I got my sweet tooth, you know. So I like to tell about, you know, anything that’s sweet, you know, we’ve done some really cool stuff with some of the energy drinks. We’ve done some stuff that doesn’t smell so great, you know that, you know, we’ll leave the viewers wondering about that, you know, yeah. But you know, the, you know, anything that involves candy, you know, I’m all about it. So, you know, working with the guys you know, at some of the biggest, you know, chocolate manufacturers and candy manufacturers, whether it’s, you know, your favorite rainbow colored little circles that you make, that you eat, or if it’s the things that you know, you need to take a take a break every once in a while and get that snap and that crunch with the chocolate. I mean, they’re some great companies to work with. And I just love how we’ve been able to save some of them some money by, you know, analyzing some of the different ingredients that go into them. And one of the ones I love talking about is, you know, there’s some of these companies have been making chocolate the same way for over 100 years. And, you know, we’ve been able to come in there and say, hey, well, you know, what are your expenses on the raw materials, you know, where are your overages? And even a few things like a few gallons of this, that could be a little bit light on one batch, a little bit over on one batch, you know, that it could be a pretty big expense, especially at the volume of chocolate that they’re making. And so we were able to do a little bit analysis, add a couple of instruments for them on one of their systems. And at the end of the year, they came back and said, hey, you know that $200,000 we spent on that project, you know, we end up saving almost $2 million at the end of the year in raw materials. And it was just amazing to them that a small change and a couple of batches, you know, over the course of the year, what it added up to. So I love telling those projects, because it really speaks to, you know, how we’re not just trying to sell something, but we’re trying to help them and help them for the long term, yeah, and
Curt Anderson 13:41
that’s, you know, and I want to, I want to dive into that for a sec, because, like, big takeaway for me working with you is, you know, not only you’re selling a product, but we talked a lot about, you know, out teaching the competition. You know, how you guys are fierce educators, how you align with your customers, how you play the role as consultant. And, like you said, like, Hey, this is how we’ve done it for 100 years, and you’re coming in saying, hey, you know, totally respecting your legacy. However, have you thought of this? Or could we tackle this? Or is there, is there a better way, right? Is that what you’re saying?
Michael Perry 14:12
Oh, yeah. And a lot of times you know that you’re doing the same thing, you’re teaching the next generation do the same thing, you know, without that fresh set of eyes, you know, to come in and kind of ask those questions, you know, sometimes challenge them a little bit. You know that those are the things that you know, we’re not afraid to do. You know, where we see specifications, or we see a drawing come in and they’re like, hey, we want you to build this. We take all of our engineers, we take a review of it, we talk to them, we ask the questions, why is it like this. What have you thought about that and and those simple things just, and they’re like, well, we that’s just how it’s been done, you know. And they don’t know why it was doing like that, you know. So, so I love just being able to be that question asker and help them, you know, provoke that thought. And then, you know, they get together. With their subject subject matter experts, and then together, we can come together on some different options and make them an even better system as a result.
Paola Santana 15:09
And I would also add that you guys do that for yourself. So even in our whole entire process, there were moments where you had your own aha moments about your own your own processes and systems internally so and I think that speaks volumes to a company who can turn the mirror around right and put it on yourself and be like, hey, we need to improve our own systems or our own processes, or we need to look at this, maybe Avenue or area of our business a little differently. So I think that’s also, you know, my also take away from that is that you’re also willing to turn that on yourselves as well.
Michael Perry 15:38
Thank you for saying that. Yeah, and it’s even more important with the growth that we’ve had recently, because you are starting to realize, hey, something that was a little problem before is now ballooning into something that’s really impacting your operations. And so yeah, we’ve had to do exactly that little process and evaluation of our own processes.
Curt Anderson 15:57
Yeah, yeah. When you double your company in size, you know, you’re inviting a whole different, you know, different company culture, you know, folks, Team processes all the above, and it takes a lot to keep everybody rolling in that same direction. All right, can you guys see my screen? Okay, of course, there it is. So, here it is. Michael. So again, for folks out there, you know, some people might be catching this on audio later. For our friends here, we’re showing Michael’s website. It’s American Systems Inc, and we strongly encourage you, invite you, welcome you. Connect with Michael on LinkedIn. Michael, you shared with the solution, how you guys making more better place. Kind of give us a description. Share with folks like, what exactly do you guys do? Where do our friends out there where they see your solutions?
Michael Perry 16:43
Yeah, so American systems starts from America and chemical put together in one word. So American systems.com you know, we’ve been blessed to build systems all across the world. And you know, you think chemical, you immediately think, you know, bleach, you know things that you don’t want to smell, things that you don’t want to smell. Want to touch, right? But what I’ve come to realize, you know, through working with American systems for the last three years is that chemicals are in everything. You know, whether it’s flavors and fragrances, raw ingredients, you know, we’ve been working with even flour mills and sugar processors that are taking raw beets and turning them into the pure white sugar that we love and enjoy. You know, all of those are chemical processes. And so what we do as a company is we build custom engineered, modular equipment. And so what that means is that we’re not afraid to tackle any problem that the customer may have. You know, whether they’re trying to improve production, improve quality, trying to reduce downtime. You know, whatever their specific problem may be, you know, we’re happy to help design a system that fits their needs. And the modular part just speaks to the fact that, you know, we’re building stuff that goes on trucks so, you know, something that can fit onto a semi truck. You know, sometimes we’re building systems that are 100 feet by 80 feet footprint, three stories tall, and you’re like, well, that’s not going to fit on a semi truck. Well, we can make that modular into different components that then can be tested here, make sure it’s functional, and then broken down into smaller modules for shipment. So we design and we fabricate. So at the core of our business. That’s what we are. We’re a design house and a fabrication house. So anything that you need for your market, whether it’s equipment that’s pumping liquids or analyzing gasses or sometimes even laser marking parts that are going into an automotive vehicle. So I we’ve, we’ve been blessed to kind of be a part of a whole bunch of different things. I know Paulo, you mentioned energy earlier. We’ve been doing a lot with nuclear plants recently, coal fire plants and a little bit of everything in between. So it’s fun. We actually just received a Innovator of the Year Award from ima for our one of our automation projects. Thank you. Yeah, we’re really proud of it, thankful and blessed to be a part of that, and that and that was really for the bottom line, people that are, you know, making the carbonated soft drinks you know that we love and enjoy, whether you’re on the blue team or the red team, you know, we don’t. We just want to help you make more more soft drinks. So it’s been fun to be recognized by the IMA for that.
19:18
Yeah, that’s that that
Damon Pistulka 19:20
is, you’re the red team. I love
Curt Anderson 19:22
Well, hey, one thing I want to comment here, so I’m going to come back you guys. You mentioned global so. And when you look here, this is incredible. Yeah. Now, next time you guys have a project in Australia, if you guys need, like, a bald guy on your team, you know, could, I’m just saying, I’m just asking for a friend.
Michael Perry 19:39
There’s a, there’s a big line of people waiting to go to the Hawaiian project.
Curt Anderson 19:43
Damon and Paola might want to go the Hawaii project. I want to go the Australia. So keep us three. Keep us in mind. Will you? Don’t be greedy. I’m just teasing. All right, let’s go here. So one thing you know, Paola you mentioned you mentioned energy, you mentioned nuclear. Just now. Out, Michael, and you know, your fortune 500 companies. I mean, it takes a lot for a company to trust, you know. And again, you guys are in high growth mode, 19 employees, up to 40. What would you say? What’s one of the key ingredients for you guys to earn somebody’s trust they’ve never heard of AmeriChem before? What’s one of those first factors for building that trusting relationship. You know, it’s not like I’m buying $1.99 pen from you guys. I’m buying a major piece of equipment. My jobs on the line. What do you have to say there, as far as building trust?
Michael Perry 20:31
Yeah, for us. I mean, we really lean on, you know, standards and referrals for that trust building. You know, we have submitted ourselves to the ISO 9001 standard for our quality management system. And so that just means we’re audited annually by an independent third party to make sure that our quality management system is going through the rigorous international standards of the ISO 9001 we also carry ourself with certified welders, certified fabricators, certified electricians. So we’re submitting ourselves to those international standards as well, whether they’re from AWS, ASME, Ul, or any other applicable standard. I think that goes a long way to speaking to the quality in the workmanship. And then beyond that. You know, we always welcome people to come to our shop and witness it for themselves. And we’ve, we’ve had third party inspectors. We’ve had qualification teams that are sent, you know, before we get invited to a bid or before we get awarded a project. And you know, every single one of them takes two steps into our our fabrication shop, and they’re immediately wowed. They say, you know, you guys are doing welding and grinding and you know these dirty processes, but you walk into our shop and it’s clean, it’s well lit, you could tell that we have a pride in our work and what we do, and that shows through our facility and through our people. So I’d start there when I’m building trust, and I hope that someone would take that extra time it takes to come do a walkthrough at our facility, and we’d love to have anyone that wants to come
Curt Anderson 22:01
see it. Absolutely, we got to take you up on that. Damon, what are your thoughts?
Damon Pistulka 22:08
Well, I mean, I just looking at the complexity and of the things that you build, right if people have not worked in these processing industries where things run 24/7 365 days a year, maybe shut down a day or two just for scheduled maintenance. I mean, just the kind of durability you need to build into your systems, the kind of redundant systems, whatever it is because of the critical nature in some of these things that you’re going to make it, it the the level of detail that you have to take to build those is, is like a step above what we’re normally used to in the in the outside world, that’s for sure. It’s so cool to see you guys doing this.
Paola Santana 22:50
Yeah, thank you. And then I would just add, like, you guys are award winning, and I know that can be a lofty or maybe like, Oh, great. You win awards. But the innovative award that you’re just mentioned like your team is going out there, and they’re not just winning awards, just because you guys are amazing and great, your team is actually creating systems that are an improvement to a client’s workflow, you know, an entire system that can maybe be placed in another customer, because You guys are really, actually revolutionizing that process, or that, you know, piece of equipment to help the world, or, you know, help your customers. So I think that that’s also really key, that helps build that trust.
Michael Perry 23:31
Absolutely, you’re exactly right.
Curt Anderson 23:34
Michael, let’s go here. So you’ve come What year did you come on board?
Michael Perry 23:38
So I came on board in 2022, so it’s been three years as of September
Damon Pistulka 23:43
1, nice.
Curt Anderson 23:44
Well, three years. What do you feel has been one of the key ingredients our little we call ourselves, you know, stopping the best kept secret. What do you’ve done an amazing job helping America any what would you say or share that has really helped you guys stop being the best kept secret?
Michael Perry 24:00
Yeah, I think, you know, up until, you know, I came on board, really, we relied on word of mouth, and we had some great growth, you know, through just our customers that, you know, sometimes would leave a company and started a new company and want to work with us again. Or, you know, even within certain industries, like the nuclear field, for example, they’re tight knit group of people that are running nuclear generation facilities. And so when you do something well for one of them, you know, the word tends to spread. But you know, one thing that we’ve done differently recently is doing more of these. You know, teaching the competition, teaching our customers, getting out there, and being an educator, simple things that you know are really nerdy. You know, design topics like, how do you design suction piping for centrifugal pumps, right? That’s a mouthful, right? Can you? Yeah, you know, for someone that’s not in the industry, you know, they’re immediately that that topic. Just gone right over their head. But for some people that are out there designing pumping systems, you know, it’s a big topic. And so as we started do some of these more technical blog posts and put them out there on the LinkedIn and the website, you know, we started to get a whole lot of interest. So from around the world, even just people that were asking us questions, commenting, sending us messages, and we realized we were onto something, and that’s really how we got introduced to Curt and your team. I mean, you’re looking to do more of that and adding more of a structure to, you know, our blog posts and frequency and how that’s been, it’s been amazing. We’ve we’ve seen new customers coming to us. We’ve seen new engineers that want to come work for us. So it’s been, it’s been a lot of fun. And I think that’s one of the biggest things that we’ve done in 2025 to really make sure we’re not the best kept secret anymore.
Curt Anderson 25:56
Yeah, I absolutely love that. And so, you know, when you educate, I’ve got chemical feed systems. I always get a kick out of this, because, you know Paula, I don’t I had never, I never knew what a chemical feed system was until we met Michael. But diving in, you know, you’re, you’re focusing on educating those folks beyond blog posts, like, what are other ways you know, this is perfect. Let me back up a second. Did you ever think that you’d be like attacking digital strategies before? Like, what were your thoughts before, you know, joining AmeriChem Did you see yourself jumping on doing this whole digital
Michael Perry 26:27
marketing thing? Oh, yeah, no. Before this, you know, I was, you know, really focused about just meeting new customers, you know, going to networking events, you know, things that you know, kind of more sales person, one on one, type stuff, right, making those cold calls. And I think what I’ve learned now is, you know, thanks to Curt and Paolo, I learned how to spell SEO. And, you know, was able to figure out what a blog is. And, you know, thankfully, you know, we’ve been able to do more of this digital marketing and really turn this, this sales guy over here, into, you know, more of an expert marketer, and also help my team here internally, understand the value in it, understand the process, and kind of demystify some of it, because it’s, it can be a little intimidating, you know, for someone that it doesn’t have that digital marketing background. And I think that’s really where B to B TAIL came in and helped me, helped our organization. I mean, I think now I know how to spell SEO. Thanks to you guys. And you know, we’ve been able to see a couple of new projects come in, and it’s been, it’s been really cool, just to even get an inquiry based off of our website, which before was more of the front door for new customers. Once I’ve met them, I send them to them. But now our websites more working for us in the background, which is really cool.
Paola Santana 27:44
I think I want to just highlight the word that you said fun. Like, it should be fun. It shouldn’t be this. Like, oh my gosh. I know it’s important. I need to do it, but you should also have fun, because this is the topic that you are the expert in, and it’s okay to shine a little bit in that and and geek out. To use Curt, one of his catchphrases. I love geeking out, right? And I think that that’s okay. It should give you permission to geek out on what you know and what you can share and hope and you can you know what, even, no matter how small your little audience might be, there’s someone out who’s going to geek out right with you, because they’re like, Yeah, you touched on something that I love talking about, because it needs to be more. And there’s a place for, quote, unquote boring, right? Like this is something like, maybe not someone like me who would be into it if I’m not working with you, you know, if I’m just, like a, you know, social media person, or I’m doing movies and and things like that. But this, when you see to you start to see it out there in the world, it’s like, gosh, like I now I know who to come to for chemical feed systems. You know, these guys know exactly what they’re talking about. I don’t understand it, you know. And maybe if I drop down the road, I’m like, I know who I’m going to go to first. That’s great. I love it.
Michael Perry 28:50
Thank you. Yeah, we love it. It is fun.
Curt Anderson 28:53
Yeah, absolutely. So I want to say, I want to, I want to hit back that. Inc, 5000 you know, for so again, for folks, what time? Hey, we’re at the top of the hour. So if you’re just joining us, we have, hey Damon, here’s a comment right here. Michael is truly inspiring. Go pull i i totally agree with you 100% and guys, if you’re just joining us, drop us a note. Let us know that you’re out there. Give a hello. Let us know where you’re out, where you’re coming from. Do yourself a favor. Please connect with Michael on LinkedIn. We are here checking out AmeriChem Systems. So Michael, I want to dive into that Inc 5000 was the Inc 5000 Was it intentional? Like, was like, Hey guys, like, we have very structured growth that we’re going to attack. This is how we’re going to get there. Like, walk us through a little bit. Like, what was the mindset I’m going to dive into, the mindset of a small company that achieves such a great accomplishment.
Michael Perry 29:41
Yeah, yeah, we just decided, hey, we’re going to go out there and we’re going to go kind of reintroduce ourselves to our existing customers. We’re going to say, hey, you know us and love us for you know one of these products or one of these solution sets, you know, whether it’s filter systems or feed systems, and tell them, hey. Listen. We can do this other stuff for you. We can build a containerized system. We can build a full production plan of 13 different systems coordinated together, you know, and start to get out there and network even within our internal customers, right so. And then, once we did that, then going out to the marketplace, you know, being more intentional about having more just introduction conversations, and it’s been inspiring to hear the feedback on that, to say, hey, we know you. We love you. We’ve we’ve used you on 50 projects over the last 10 years, but we never knew you could do this. And we our other suppliers, are having issues with quality and timeliness, but we’ve always trusted AmeriChem Systems to deliver exactly what you say will. And so that’s been really fun. Just the kind of, the basic nature of it is, you know, we’ve grown as a company, but some customers, you know, have met us 10 years ago and don’t know what we can do now for them. And so that’s really the biggest thing, and we want to continue just to be that sticky supplier, that that vendor that turns into a partner if they use us once. Let’s figure out a way to continue to build on that success. And really, you know, at the end of the year we look back, we said, Wow, we blew that, you know, 30% growth target out out of the, you know, out of the barrel. And now we’ve doubled, now we’ve tripled. Now we’ve quadrupled. And, you know, we said, hey, let’s try and see if we can get one of those, Inc, 5000 awards, and submitted our growth and pass numbers to them. And they said, Yeah, you guys are, in fact, number 72 in manufacturing in the nation. You know, we we hit number 137, for growth in all of Illinois, you know, so pretty impressive. I mean, especially when you’re thinking of, you know, the 10s of 1000s, even hundreds of 1000s, of companies that are represented by that list. Really cool to be a part of that.
Curt Anderson 32:00
What an honor, right? Damon,
Damon Pistulka 32:02
what are your thoughts? Well, and I think that it’s super cool that you’re able to, you know, proving your his history of working with customers and really doing a good job by being able to go back to them with more products and services that they need, that are valuable to them and continue that growth, right? Because it’s if you’re good at one, at this part and these other things that are complimentary to that they just it helps them so much, because they have one source, rather than going to multiple to do what they need to do, and drives your growth, helps them do things better.
Michael Perry 32:39
Oh, yeah, exactly right. And I think for us too, we just, we love to figure out, you know, ways that we can network within our customers. And you know, one of our customers makes a lot of chemicals. They make chemicals for the food industry, but there’s another group that makes chemicals for the power generation industry. And so, you know, as we know and love them on the food side, they said, Hey, we’ve got some colleagues over there. On the power side, we’d love to introduce you to and and things like that, just to, you know, make things so much easier when you have that warm introduction, yeah, inside the family kind of feel, and just speed things up quite a bit for our growth too.
Curt Anderson 33:18
Yeah, and I, and, you know, and you made a phenomenal point that I want to emphasize for folks, is a lot of times you make the assumption that people know what’s going on, or what you do. You know what I mean. And I love that you said that. And I want to emphasize that for folks listening is like, I caught a podcast, or I heard something like, you know you should, oh, you should almost never, almost that almost you should typically never assume that people know what you do, or just, you know, constantly remind them, yeah, I love what you described. So again, like, here’s a formula. This is coming from, like a company that’s on Inc 5000 all the everything you know, top 130 what seven in Illinois, you know, top 75 manufacturers, number 72 I think you said, you know, like, you guys are walking the walk talking, not talking to talk. You’re walking the walk and you’re you methodically went and said, like, hey, our customers need to understand exactly what we’re doing, right?
Michael Perry 34:12
Yeah, absolutely Curt. You got it right on the head. I like,
Curt Anderson 34:16
if there’s any takeaway today, like, I don’t think you can overstate how important that is? Paola, what are your thoughts?
Paola Santana 34:22
Well, I’m just thinking from a marketing like, just kind of put this from a marketing perspective, like you’re, you know, you’re as a company or a brand, or, you know, just as someone, if you yourself are a brand, you know you’re a culture. Like, you need a niche down. You need to, like, only work on that little niche, but you miss other people who might need your services or might need your expertise, and so you have to leave, leave the door open a little bit so that people who are like, wondering, oh my gosh, like, I don’t quite fit in what you do. But, and it comes down to like, if you don’t ask, you’re never going to know, and you may not get the right help that you need. Knowing that that person has, or that company has the right solution for you. And so I think it’s, it’s almost a little bit humbling, like, Okay, you do kind of leave a little bit, you know, the door cracked open so that you allow past clients or maybe some potential new clients that you don’t know could use you to be able to come back to you and be like, Hey, we work together. Or I saw you work with this person, this is what I do. This is what we need. A solution we’re trying to resolve. Do you think you guys can help us? And it’s better to get like, you know, hey, great. You know, we can’t do that for you. And then know that, Okay, I gotta continue looking or and and you know, you continue to search or miss that opportunity to find the answer that you’re looking for. So that’s really a great outlook to have, yeah?
Michael Perry 35:47
And I think all of us do that naturally, right? I mean, we you go to a good new steak joint, you know, you’re going to come into the office, you’re going to tell everyone about it. Hey, you know, we want this, yeah, this spot, you know. And now, you know, we’re just being a little bit more aggressive with, you know, Hey, how did you like our service? How is that project? Are there anybody? Is there anybody else that your customer, that at your existing company, that you know, you can introduce us to, and just having those conversations just like you would about, hey, we’re looking for a new restaurant. You know, let’s, let’s do the same thing with, we’re looking for a new supplier. Well, what about your existing suppliers? Is there anybody there that could work? And we’ve, we’ve found a lot of success with that. Of course, there’s always new customers coming in. That’s the lifeblood of the growth of the business too. But don’t discount, you know, what you already have, and continue to build on that water, those seeds, right?
Curt Anderson 36:38
Yeah, absolutely. So I want to slide in. I want to slide in here. So, Michael, if you recall, we had a we were talking baseball before we came on. So Damon, Seattle Mariners have made the playoffs. Your Chicago Cubs are in the playoffs. And so we had a little round in the bases exercise. Remember, we had totally rolled up our sleeves, geeked out, and we bought, put our customers in buckets. Unite. Was it you, I feel I’m putting you on the spot your Blue Ocean Strategy. Did you like geek out about Blue Ocean Strategy?
Michael Perry 37:06
Was that? Yes, we did. Yes we did. Yeah, actually, boom, got it right here. There you go.
Curt Anderson 37:14
You know what? We didn’t plan that either. I think when we first met, we I’m a huge blue ocean guy, and I felt, if I recall, and I’m not, I’m not a young guy anymore. Michael, I didn’t know if you knew that. I know I figured out once a while, but I thought you and I had geeked out about Blue Ocean. And we’re talking about Blue Ocean kind of bucketing customers. And one thing, another thing that I really admire, that you guys, you took some really bold steps, lean into your customers, your processes. Hey, we’re going to aggressively grow. I mean, that’s a mindset shift. Like Damon, we just had DiAnn Beyer on the show two weeks ago, and we were talking about the book mindset, yeah. And so with the blue ocean strategy, I what I admire, what you guys, what I felt, that I learned from you, Michael, is that you learn to be disciplined and kind of get out of the red ocean, right? Does that ring a bell to you? Like, can you share a little bit on, like, how, how blue ocean has had an impact on you personally, and as you guys have grown the company to an inc, 5000 company, what has blue ocean strategy meant for you?
Michael Perry 38:11
Yeah, I mean, for us. You know, there’s a lot of guys that are out there that are making chemical feed systems, and there’s a lot of, you know, wastewater, municipal water plants that need chemical feed systems. And you know, what we’ve done is we’ve just said, Hey, you know, we don’t want to be in that red ocean, right? We want to separate ourselves and get into, you know, harsh environments, the harsher chemicals, we want to do things that are, you know, kind of little harder to do, right? And you know, whether it’s something like an automatic filler machine, or, if it’s something that’s helping, you know, people that are doing 1000 cans a minute of carbonated soft drinks, you know, these are things that are higher speed, higher spec, that isn’t something that you can just do, you know, on day one, you know, for a chemical feed company, but Because of our, you know, Hall of Fame, you know, engineers that we have here, you know, on the electrical side, mechanical side, you know, we’ve got guys that, you know, you throw, you know, a curveball at them. They’re, they’re going to not just hit it out of the park, but they’re going to, they’re going to take it and they’re going to hit it three times out of the park. You know, they’re, I mean, they’re amazing, and I’m just blessed to work with them. And I think that’s really for us. We look for those hard problems. And there’s times where customers come to us and say, Hey, we want, you know, a bread and butter machine. And we say, Hey, listen, if you want one of those machines, go to those guys down the street, you know, we we’d prefer to refer you out than to take on something that really isn’t kind of differentiate ourselves. And that’s really, I mean, that’s who we are as a company. We’ve got all the electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, structural engineers, automation engineers, here in house. You know, there are a lot of guys that, hey, we’ll just slap a, you know, a pump and a couple pipes together at two guys in a garage, if you’re looking for that sort of project and that sort of solution. And there’s 1000 people over this country that can help you, but when you’re looking for something that’s a little unique, a little more special, a little bit higher speed, higher pressure, more caustic chemicals, things like that, you know, that’s where we shine, and we love to work on those projects, because it really helps separate us and put us into that blue ocean you’re talking
Paola Santana 40:21
about. Curt, those people, to outshine that too. So give yourselves also credit, right? Your team. If I was one of those companies, I would, I would be looking for someone that I actually want to work with, who’s going to help me through the entire process. Isn’t going to just be give us your what you need, and here we’ll put together. And then that’s it. Sayonara, nobody talks about it after that. And so I think you guys gotta give yourself credit as people too, because you guys collaborate throughout the entire process, not just at the beginning. Oh yeah, what do
Curt Anderson 40:50
you have, Damon?
Damon Pistulka 40:52
I think I just gotta pull it out of the box again. We’re dropping the mic.
Curt Anderson 40:59
You know, I’d love when Damon drops the mic right there. So that was phenomenal. So kudos of both you guys and I, I apologize. I gotta take we gotta go one step further. Michael, the discipline that it takes for a company, Did I did I mention guys made the ink fight? Did I tell everybody out there that they made the Inc 5000 Did I mention that one? I haven’t heard that yet. Paola, did you know that Andy won the Innovator of the Year award? So, Michael, what’s that thing over your shoulder? I can’t see that
Michael Perry 41:26
link. 5000 award over there. Yeah,
Curt Anderson 41:27
was that intention? Like, how long did it take? So again, like, for entrepreneurs out there that, you know, Damon, we had, we had a guest on one time. She said, like, you know, what’s that? I can’t remember the phrase. Like, the, you know, the, I don’t want this project. I can’t remember the phrase that, what? What was it a collective effort? Was it, you know, the executive team said, like, we’re not doing this anymore, like we lose money on this project, or it’s not a good fit for us. Like, what did it take for you guys to make that’s a tough decision, because, like, it’s not like you’re selling a couple $1,000 unit. Like this is, you know, big dollars, hundreds
Damon Pistulka 42:03
of 1000s of dollars you’re turning down,
Michael Perry 42:05
yeah, oh yeah. We’re turning on big projects. I think, you know, we’ve got, you know, roughly 10x you know, of our revenue is in quote activity. And so, you know, we’ve got a lot of quotes that we do, and these aren’t things that you know you’re quoting, you know, an apple or an orange, right? I mean, this is something you’re putting together, you know, a lot of engineering time to even quote something, yeah. So I think what we’ve learned is that, hey, there’s just some people we just won’t even quote, you know, we just say, Hey, listen, you know, we appreciate the opportunity, but you know, this isn’t the right project for us. And, you know, we found that people are surprised by that. People are like, hey, that takes, you know, guts. That takes confidence in who you are, right? And, you know, to turn away from something, you know, that’s not something that’s usual for a sales guy, right? Sales guys like to say yes to everything, everything, right? Yeah. So we’ve been able to kind of teach our team, you know, to say, hey, raise your hand. Say this isn’t the right project for us. And let’s go back to the drawing board with the customer and say, Hey, this isn’t the right project for us, but this is who we are. This is what we do. When you find the right project to work with us on, we’d love to work with you and wish you the best. And I think that’s really the biggest thing about the Inc 5000 and the growth is you know. You have to know who you are. You have to have that confidence and what you offer and what you do well and be okay, saying no,
Paola Santana 43:29
and going back to that when you when you are questioning it, go back to that, like, put that on the door. That’s what I love, our whole process of digital game plan. Like, if you feel yourself stuck, you got to go back to find out. Okay, who am I? Who do we serve? What problem are we serving? Are we solving for them? And then that should be like, your permission to be like, Okay, this isn’t fit for that for me this time. So that’s great. That’s great advice for any industry, any business type that you out there,
Curt Anderson 43:58
every entrepreneur, Damon, your What are your thoughts? Blue Ocean
Damon Pistulka 44:01
tragedy here that we’re no I love how you’ve done that right because you you begin to separate yourself into the the projects that are right for you, the right level of challenge, and really distance yourself from others, because now you have multiple projects in those difficult industries, or, like you said, caustic, high pressure, whatever the situation. Rather than that could be mixed in with a bunch of other ones, and you really don’t stand out in that situation. Like, if somebody comes to you with that, that situation that is around one of those specialties that you’ve got in that blue ocean, you’re a natural choice, right? And that’s what’s so cool about that, I think,
Curt Anderson 44:43
right, man, all right, this is phenomenal. I know Michael, we could keep you here all day. We’re gonna get winding down. Yeah, because, man, you’ve got systems to build, you’ve got customers to take care. You got to get it on the ink 5000 again. So he’s like, you’re dude, you got four wonderful kids. So Michael’s a busy guy. Michael, a couple of questions. For you, AI, how is, as a manufacturer, how, if you want to share, like, how are you guys instituting AI? Is AI helping you advancing anything that you want to share there?
Michael Perry 45:10
Oh, yeah. I mean, we’re, we’re using the the AI tools, you know, for proposal development. We’re also looking at it for some of our marketing needs, you know, and we’re also investigating some some AI projects where it’s going to take us a little further into some of the 3d modeling and concept building. You know, right now, our processes, you know, we are quoting something based on, you know, very basic information, right? So, not really enough to really fully design a system on. But you know, with AI, we’re able to help, you know, kind of flesh out some of those details, you know, put that together into a proposal, and then also deliver something very clear to the customer that they know what they’re going to buy, right? So I think that’s really what’s helped us, separate us from the competition, is, you know, our detailed nature of even how we approach the quote and a proposal. And AI helps with that. You know, it shortens the time needed to quote something, and it also helps us kind of transfer that knowledge from the quote stage over to the engineering stage when we do get the project. Yeah.
Curt Anderson 46:15
Well, absolutely love it. And as a matter of fact, you’re, you know what I’m gonna, I’m gonna grab your website real quick before we before we close out. So hey, look at this picture, right there, guys. Hey, there you go. Look at that handsome devil. So you know. So, like you mentioned, you guys are have all sorts of information, tons of content here out teaching the competition, elevating your customers. So again, guys, strongly encourage you stop by the American Systems website. Connect with Michael on LinkedIn. Michael, moving forward. What are you super excited about at AmeriChem What are you looking into the future? What are you super excited about,
Michael Perry 46:52
you know, we’re doing some really cool projects right now. Curt with, you know, some of these advanced national laboratories, which is really cool. These guys are shooting lasers at incredible speeds and temperatures, and I kid you not, one of these projects we’re working on, they’re shooting a laser through the Earth from Chicago all the way to the Dakotas, and hitting a target that’s about the size of a football field, you know, from that distance, you know, so really cool stuff that we’re helping them to keep their lasers super cold, super accurate, super efficient. And we’re also doing some other really cool stuff on the cutting edge of technology, with carbon capture equipment, trying to help keep the environment clean, you know, from some of these plants that are burning a lot of coal, and it’s really cool, because, you know, not only are we doing the right thing, you know, making the environment more clean, but we’re also helping these plants, you know, keep running for another 2030, years, because if they can’t meet the EPA standards, they have to shut down. And that costs, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars to try and build something else or shut it down, and we can build a system for them that will help them keep running, which is really neat, too. So I like, I nerd out on that, you know, cutting edge technology stuff, yeah, and just anything we can do to help those guys to push the frontiers, right?
Curt Anderson 48:16
Gosh, I tell you, you use the word bless quite often. You are blessed, my friend, on many levels, and just absolutely love coming to work
Michael Perry 48:24
or what. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, like Paolo said, you know, we got to have fun here, right? You’re having fun, you know, it’s not, it’s not really work, right? You’re just coming here to have a good time. And it’s, it’s, it shows by our passion, you know, and that rubs off on our clients and our partners, and it’s just great when you can get together and have a good group of people that you just love to be around. And of course, you know, we all do it, you know, for our families, right? That’s the end goal, is to go home with our families safe. And we love just doing anything that’s high quality, that’s going to keep people safe, and at the end of the day, let’s have fun doing it.
Paola Santana 48:59
Well, I think I would actually change that word to joy, because you can things. Can sometimes when you’re going through things it’s not fun to do, but you can still have joy in what you’re doing when it’s not fun. So I would switch it from fun to joy now that yes, our conversation, yeah, yeah,
Curt Anderson 49:18
I agree. It’s a joy making thing 5000 isn’t it? So, so we’ll start. We’re going to wind down. Michael, I’m telling you, dude, you would make the world a better place. It is such an honor and privilege for us. You been a talk about joy. It’s been an absolute joy working with you through our friends at IMEC. Paola, closing thoughts, what are your what do you what do you have to say as we close
Paola Santana 49:39
off? No, that was my closing thoughts,
Curt Anderson 49:41
your closing thoughts. What are your takeaways today?
Damon Pistulka 49:46
I just thanks Michael for being here today, talking about AmeriChem, because it is so cool to see a manufacturer like you guys designing and developing these solutions that helps so many things around us.
Curt Anderson 49:59
Yeah. Wow. Absolutely love it. Mike, I do have one last question though. Michael, you did catch our show last week, so you might know this question’s coming at you. It’s a baseball question. You ready? Okay, let’s hear it. You sitting down?
Michael Perry 50:10
I’m sitting up. Okay,
Curt Anderson 50:14
alright. Michael, it is the bottom of the ninth. We’re at Wrigley. They’re playing cubs are playing the dreaded Cardinals bottom of the ninth, two outs. It’s a tie score. There’s a guy on second base. Okay, you with me? Yeah, Cardinals, bottom of ninth, two outs, Guy on second base. We’ve gotta get that run and win the game. Manager looks on the bench. Says, Hey, Perry, grab your helmet, grab your bat, get up there, put in the hit in the winning run. Okay, you with me? I’m with you. I’m here with you. Grab your helmet. You grab your bat. You’re walking up to the plate on your waiter plate to hit in the winning run. What’s your walk up song?
Michael Perry 50:54
Oh, we will rock. You
Curt Anderson 50:58
didn’t even he didn’t even bat an eye. Didn’t even write it. Michael, good answer. We Will Rock You, man. He had that one coming.
Michael Perry 51:06
Didn’t doesn’t get any better.
Curt Anderson 51:10
Michael, thank you guys. Thank you everybody out there. Thank you for the comments. We appreciate you guys so much. Michael, hey, you know what? We’ve gone for 51 minutes. If you’ve been sitting for 51 minutes, it’s a great time to stand on. Time to stand up, stretch and give a big round of applause for Michael Perry at AmeriChem. Michael, thank you for joining us today. I know you’re a busy guy. Guys, we’re going to close out. Thank you for joining us. Connect with Michael. If you missed any of those demon what do we like to say?
Damon Pistulka 51:36
Go back to the beginning, because Michael dropped a lot of great information, and don’t forget to check out the AmeriChem Systems website and look at the awesome stuff they’re doing to help people and educate their customers on that. Yes, great, great examples.
Curt Anderson 51:50
And I don’t know if anybody knows this or not, they made the Inc 5000 and so this is like a master class on how to get your company on Inc 5000 So Michael, hang out with us for one second, guys, God bless you. We wish you an amazing rest of your day. We’re back here Friday with another wonderful guest, and we will see you soon.
Damon Pistulka 52:08
See ya. Everyone. Bye.