Hi everyone and welcome to MacRAE’S Growth Challenge Podcast, Insight with B2B manufacturing leaders where we uncover their stories, strategies and solutions to overcoming growth challenges in their industry. I’m your host Maria, and in each episode, we will dive deep into founders, CEOs and industry experts to explore how they scale, innovate and lead today’s competitive landscape.
So let’s get started. Today we have Adam from A.C.T. Nice to meet you, Adam. How are you today?
Good, how are you doing?
I’m good. So Adam, why don’t you introduce yourself and A.C.T?
Yeah, I’m Adam Andrews with A.C.T Dust Collectors. We design, engineer, and sell solutions for the dust collection industry for all types of manufacturing facilities that generate dust, fume, smoke, particulate. I like to say it’s the closest I will be to being a superhero because we can improve people’s lives every day. like some situations we’re saving lives with what we’re able to implement and protect people from combustible dust and fires.
That’s amazing. You mentioned about saving people’s lives from dust and fires. Can you tell me a little bit about the type of technologies and products that you guys use in order to achieve that?
Yeah, for sure.
So one thing most people don’t know is a large amount of dust or fine particulate is combustible or flammable. Any organic dust and lot of metal dust are, which are present in a lot of manufacturing facilities. So we use calculations, engineering design, computer, CFD, obviously all your CAD type stuff to do designs and systems to design equipment and solutions that capture and
remove that dust and capture it to a safe environment and provide explosion protection to prevent it from propagating throughout a facility or around employees to protect not only the employees but also the businesses facilities and create a safe working environment.
How long have you guys been around?
A.C.T started in the 80s, 1980s.
Okay, so over since the 80s, obviously a lot of health and safety regulations and workers’ rights have been changed quite drastically. What do you think is really helped the company stay on track and continue growing and staying competitive in this industry?
Mm-hmm.
I would say probably the biggest thing is staying on top of what NFPA and OSHA requires for safety compliance, whether it deals with particulate levels or combustible dust, those types of situations, being able to understand that as well as the manufacturing processes. What is important to businesses, obviously their employees, but also a safe working environment and then not impeding their operation or their processes. So we work with them to make sure our system does
not interrupt their manufacturing or their business in any way while still providing a safe working environment.
If we think about a company like yours and, you know, expanding your opportunities over time, what do you think is one thing that is in your company’s culture that is helping you stay on track with how people find you and growing opportunities and maybe changing things around to stay competitive and relevant?
I would say one of the big things we’ve been doing
is putting ourselves out there online via our website, LinkedIn, YouTube, being able to reach out and not only show our equipment, but also providing a solution of what that entails. So showing people, Hey, the problem you’re having is something we can solve. You are having a problem with weld fume particulate, or you’re having a problem with grinding dust. He, we can show you that solution. We can show you, Hey, this is how it’s been solved. There’s more than one way to
We have different solutions that we have already implemented or we’re able to design for your situation.
It’s so you mentioned about ⁓ digital efforts and staying relevant. think that in industrial space specifically, I think a lot of people still rely on more traditional word of mouth, a lot of outbound basically tactics, trade shows, which are still great for relationship building. But as the world changes and how people find solutions,
I’ve noticed that you guys actually have a huge emphasis on SEO and your online presence. What do you think created that shift in the company to start doing more of that stuff? What was the motivation behind it?
Let’s say.
It probably started with realizing that most people need seven to 10 touches, right? And a lot of people want to do their own research and build their own trust before they ever reach out or talk to someone. And that’s why we put a lot of research and information and education out there on our website, on our YouTube, on our social platforms. And even in some person events where we’re doing some educational things and doing some teaching and trainings to help the help people
when they’re searching, they’re trying to find a problem, they’re going to look at two or three different things, they’re going to reach out, look at some videos and try to do some self-education before they just listen to someone to tell them what they need. And we want to give the people the power to find that, educate themselves and know what they need. And it also makes, we want to be a trusted advisor to them.
We’re here to help them provide a solution and we’ll help them as much or as little as they need. And we’ll give them the support and education that helps support them.
What do you think has been the biggest challenge of transitioning to more digital efforts to attract clients from traditional manufacturing ways?
Yeah, I would say one of our big things is case studies, right? That really helps showcase solutions showcase. Hey, we’ve solved a problem. Here is how it’s been done. Here’s proof of concept. Here’s a happy customer. Here’s a happy manufacturer.
The manufacturing space though is not secretive, but they don’t like to share their processes, procedures. And so probably the biggest challenge is, hey, we’d like to, we hear what you’re saying and it’s all great and you love everything we’re doing and we helped you and help your employees. We’d like to share that with the world, but also we have to make sure that we’re not over sharing their process, their product, their people, that type of thing. So it’s a lot of times of we can, yes, you can share.
but you can’t include our name or we can’t share the process. So I’d say that’s probably been the biggest challenge of trying to give education is keep it specific enough to help but also generic enough that people don’t feel like we’re giving away secrets.
So basically creating your own credibility by showcasing the work that you’ve done is something that currently is a big challenge for you guys.
You could say that yes, because we have a hundred. We have thousands of solutions in the field, right? And you could go to any one of them and we could write a case study on it.
but it’s sometimes getting that permission. Hey, is this okay to share these pictures? Is it okay to share your feedback and publicize that some companies they’re like, yes, give us as much marketing as you can. We want our name tagged in it, share it with everyone. We love this other people, uh, because a lot of what we’re doing is someone might’ve been in violation of OSHA or the EPA and we’re coming in solving that. there’s no, there’s no issue in the future. They don’t want to publicize. Hey,
our people were at risk or we were having we were being inspected so like those types of situations people don’t want to admit to or showcase so it’s that’s kind of hard to do you’re right
As far as like your role specifically being in the sales position, and I know that you’ve worked in a different company and I’m not sure if they had such digital efforts the way, A.C.T does, how does that affect your like ratio of let’s say people who are actually finding you and talking to inbound leads compared to you having to go out and do a lot of cold outreach and outbound leads? How is that affecting your role?
Yeah, I would say we have a decent amount of inbound warm leads, whether it’s from our website or LinkedIn or trade shows we do in.
⁓ Honestly, I have two other people on my team that we cover six states and right now we are very busy. I travel three, four days a week, visiting customers, being on site with them, walking through solutions, designing systems for them. Why my team backs me up, covering those, creating the quotes, doing that type of thing.
⁓ So it’s great, but I would say if we can find time or when things are slower, obviously have outbound and we use some processes where we’re able to find people who are looking for help and we’re able to help provide them that information so when they’re ready.
that they reach out to us. So the majority of our stuff is warm and we probably do need to do some more cold outreach. But right now we’ve been able to provide a network or an environment that we have a lot of people coming to us just wanting to talk. And that’s a great environment to be in.
Yeah, it’s so great because how was this compared to other companies, manufacturing companies that you worked at and doing sales roles?
Yeah, I’ve worked at a handful of other manufacturing companies since college. It’s always been custom engineered solutions and the capex space for manufacturing. And I would say A.C.T has a great web presence. They care about it. I’ve been in multiple marketing meetings and management meetings where they’ve talked about, here’s your strategy. Here’s what we’re planning on doing. Because we know that’s the direction the world is going. We can’t just sit back and rely on
Hey, this manufacturer tell someone else. We love referrals. It’s great. We love to showcase that, but we know we’re in a large world where everyone picks up their phone, Google something real quick, finds, Hey, I need a dust collector. Who’s, who’s near me. Who’s what’s the top three manufacturers. And we want to make sure we are there or they look up. Hey, I have a blasting application. That’s very dirty and nasty. I need some help with this blasting dust. Who handles blasting applications?
and they can pull up our website and see we have a whole page on blasting. And then they’re like, okay, here I see all this, this is some great stuff, let me reach out.
That’s amazing. It’s so refreshing to hear how a manufacturing company becoming such a front runner in the digital world. You guys are really maximizing on that opportunity. What do you think right now is really then the number one challenge that you guys are working through? Or is there no challenges? You just have so much business that you don’t know what to do with yourself.
⁓ I would say the number one challenge is being able to help people visualize the solution, right? So we’re starting to use more and more technology to do that because as someone that’s been in the industry, myself and anyone else in the sales team or engineering team can visualize the solution, can say, hey, we’re going to set the unit here. We’re going to run duct here. We’re going to build this type of capture hood here. We’re going to prevent this from by using this and that, right? But
We’ve seen it, we’ve been in it, we know what we’re talking about and we can visualize it. A lot of people can’t. So what we’re starting to use is digital software, especially with our ductwork designs, where we’re able to take their layouts and drop in our 3D collectors and run ductworks and do 3D images. And we’re able to present the solution to them over their floor plan, 3D, spin it around, have them walk through it almost like
you would see in a home renovation show or something like that, right? Where you’re walking through the home. That’s what we’re starting to do. And it takes time, right? We’ve got to sit down. We’ve got to do all that. And so that’s our biggest challenge is, hey, we need to make sure we have accurate information going into our system, into our design, into our layouts, as we’re sizing, calculating everything, and then laying it out. And then we go back and present it and help the customer see the process, make sure it’s not interrupting anything.
and get their feedback of, how does this make you feel? Will this solve your problem? Will you see this being implemented by your employees? Because if they’re not gonna buy into it, then there’s no reason for us to be looking at it. Because if they’re not gonna use it, I don’t wanna help you put it in, because that’s a waste of your time and money.
100%. There’s so many ways now that people are demonstrating their product visually and ⁓ it’s really amazing the things that people come up with. How do you see yourself compared to your competitors? Do you find that you guys are so miles ahead of the competition or is this something that the competitors are catching up on as well?
I mean, I think it’s honestly anything our competition can do, right? It’s not proprietary software. It’s like any of our competition can do it. I just think they’re not taking the time and effort to give their customers this extra mile. like, they, you can sell a piece of equipment. It’s easy and have someone else take care of it. But we like to make sure their hand is held as far and as long as they need. So we want to take that extra time and effort and support to make
sure they have a solution in place that works for them.
If you think about the use of technology and automation systems, even in your own department, in the sales department, what type of tools are you guys using to maybe prospect with people faster? Because you do have an insane amount of inbound leads. So that means pre-qualifying people, setting the system up. How do you see that adapting your own department with the change of technology?
Yeah, for sure.
So what and it’s an ever growing process, right? As we grow things change as the environment and industry grows, we change. What we’re currently doing and implementing is any leads that come in are handled by our business development team. They sort through them, they vet them, and then they normally start that communication. Then as that moves through, they my business development person, Liz has full control over my calendar. So she’s
She can set up those site visits right away. She can set up presentations for myself or my inside team. And she’s able to just implement that immediately and control all of our schedules to make sure we’re as efficient as possible. And she can move things around to make sure, hey, actually this person just called in, they need you, you’re on the way. Can you stop in there? I’ll move the other appointment out an hour so you have time. I’ll confirm everything’s okay.
So that’s kind of what we’re doing is we’re building a machine where everything flows through, has their process, and we use Salesforce and HubSpot and Outlook and Teams ⁓ to make that happen. For presentations, we’re able to use Teams pretty easily. Most people nowadays have no problem and we can present things, show everything they need, have multiple people from all over the country on the call if they need to, if they’re…
I mean, if you’re a multinational company, right, you might have someone over in Germany that also needs to be on that call to review it. Their environmental team might have someone on the East Coast and West Coast that needs to be on the call and we’re able to coordinate all that together and only take an hour of someone’s time, opposed to everyone trying to meet. So I would say we try to utilize technology as much as possible.
I know Salesforce is constantly trying to get us to use their AI agents to help streamline some of that. Right now we’re more of, hey, we need more of a personal touch on each thing. And that’s why we have someone like ⁓ Liz handling that for us, to make sure each request, each conversation is handled with a human personal touch.
Yeah. Again, I just have to point out that the way that you talk is just so different from a lot of manufacturing in different types of industries. And I really love the fact that you’re in the sales role, but you’re so in tune with also the customer service, like aspect of things, like the value brought that can be brought by demonstrating the product visually, what the marketing is doing. It seems like you guys just have like a very good
clear communication, cohesive team. Like how big is your team?
⁓ My team for the Great Lakes is three people on the sales side and then we have a handful of people on our engineering team, handful of people in our customer service, then we have filters and parts division. And I have to give props to our boss, Jason Wyman, who makes sure that we have a streamlined open communication process. He’s big on the speed of trust, if you’re familiar with that book. So that’s what we go through and work. Hey, we need to
the more we can trust each other, the faster we can move, the faster we can implement, and the cost of manufacturing goes down, as well as the cost to the products to our customers is able to go down. So it helps us be competitive.
Can you tell us a little bit more about that book and maybe some of the main highlights of what they actually teach as far as creating that end result?
Yeah, for sure. I know there’s a lot better people at it and it’s been about a year since I read the book, but the main thing is…
As this as your speed of trust with your colleagues goes up the cost of business goes down So the faster you’re able to do things the less rework you have to do the more you trust and rely on your co-workers if I ask One of my engineering team members. Hey, I need this strong done. We have a presentation by the state Can you get it back to me a couple days before so can review it? I don’t have to worry about it. I can trust them and I know at that deadline they’re going to have it back to
and we’re going to be able to review it. And maybe there’s some miscommunication, hey, can we tweak this or that? But we’re able to communicate that without anyone getting offended or upset and make those modifications to get that solution to the customer on time and be able to present that full solution for them.
With that type of vision and structure that it seems to be working really well, because you guys are getting great results, where do you think your company is going to be, let’s say, five years down the line compared to your competitors who are not taking advantage of these things?
Yeah, I mean, I would like to say that we’re able to blow our competition out of the water, right? That’s the easy thing to say. But at the end of the day, it’s really how many people are we able to help provide solutions for? Right. So it’s how many more people are we able to improve their situation? How many more businesses can we help solve a problem that not only helps their employees, but improve efficiencies in their business and help them make more money? And then we’re able to scale and help
as many businesses as possible as quickly as possible. That’s our goal.
Would you say that you guys are the leader in your segment right now?
Of course, I would like to say that. yeah. A.C.T strives to be the number one dust collector manufacturer in North America. We do things internationally, right? But we focus on the US and Canada and Mexico and it yes, I would like to say we’re a leader. I’m sure our competition would say things differently, but they would also everyone would say they’re the best so.
Yeah,
for sure. Is there plans for global domination taking over the world with us collectors?
Of course, we like to solve as many problems as possible and we already work with companies and ship systems all over the world and help solve problems globally. yeah, we want to be the name that everyone thinks of. A.C.T Act stands for air cleaning technologies. We want to be the name that everyone thinks of when they think of smoke, dust, particulate, combustible dust, flammable dust, any type of particulate that’s causing a health hazard.
We want them to, hey, I need to talk to A.C.T.
I love that. What’s the difference that you notice with customers in America, North, South America, compared to, or Central, I guess you guys know it in South, but Central America compared to overseas? You mentioned Europe, Germany, like how are things different between those two continents?
Yeah, so Europe is a lot more stringent on their standards and the work environment. And you can almost, we like to joke, not only ourselves, but our customers that, hey,
The policies and procedures you see in Europe were five to 10 years behind that in the US. So like, hey, we see maybe someplace in Germany has lowered their milligrams per cubic meter for hexavalent chromium, right? Five to 10 years later, we might start seeing something like that in the US. And it’s like, all right, we can, they’re a little more stringent there and then we kind of can prepare and start prepping our customers being like, hey, this is what
coming down the line. We know this is coming because it’s typically what happens. We’re able to see it’s not increasing the cost of business or putting people out of business. We’re able to help improve people’s lives more. Let’s start thinking that way.
One of those things that we were able to do about 15, 20 years ago was we were seeing a lot of EPA crackdowns and scrap yards for torch cutting. So about 2010, and I think even early 2000s, we started
helping the scrapyards with their outdoor torch coating where we knew the EPA was starting to crack down. And now we’ve seen it where some scrapyards are getting $50,000 fines a month from the EPA because of their emissions, where in Europe that took place 10 years ago.
So we’re able to, so the differences are Europe is a little more stringent, Central and South America, depending on where you are, a lot of times they can just exhaust and it’s not so much a concern. But on your larger projects, that’s when they’re like, hey, we need someone like A.C.T and we can design a solution for them.
love that you really it’s almost like you can you’re just in such a great position where you see a little bit of the future you’re improving the present you can see a little bit of the past you can like accelerate it further you guys are just in a in a wonderful position and in a work environment that sounds that it’s very growing and it’s innovative and it’s you know and up-to-date and there’s just so many wonderful opportunities where you guys are and it sounds like it’s really trickling down from the leadership
100%. Yep. So I know we care and we know our customers care and we know, hey, things are changing and we need to make sure we can help people make those adjustments.
Yeah.
Is there something with your own department that you would like to see change or get better or accelerate over the next little while?
⁓ Actually, I was just talking to my team about this earlier this week is we like to be able to improve the speed of turnarounds for solutions, right? So we’re working on, hey, something that might have taken us three, four weeks to design a solution, get drawings done, get back to the customer. How can we reduce that time and have a quicker turnaround for the customer to present the solution?
from basically from a site visit to when we’re back on site or virtually hey, here’s your full drawing Here’s your layout. Here’s why here’s the calculations. Let’s walk through it
Yeah. So like the sales cycle itself, like reduce the time of it. So right now you said it’s a few weeks and
Mm-hmm.
A
few weeks for us to turn around a proposal. The full sales cycles can be a couple weeks on your larger systems that are capex. Normally that needs to be put into their next fiscal budget. So your larger multi-million dollar projects normally are a 12 to 24 month cycle. Yeah.
With the use of AI and technology, like what do you think that could be narrowed down to?
I think IC is using it for better follow-up, for reminders, for updates to make sure we’re not losing track of anything and staying on top of things. I think we’re not there yet with it being able to design solutions or drawings for us.
So I think it’s more going to be on, hey, pulling the list, here’s some potential customers, here’s how we can reach out to them. I know we’ve talked about, if people are familiar with disk profiles, being able to generate disk profiles to better understand how people want to communicate and talk to each other and being able to adjust our conversations to better express what we’re interested in and help someone else better understand what we’re trying
can be.
I love that. As we’re wrapping up here, one piece of advice from basically a very forward thinking company to people who are a little stuck behind, what’s your number one advice for them or something that you can share here?
Yeah, don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s okay if you don’t know the answer, you’re not the smartest person in the room. Ask questions, listen and learn, and make sure if you’re not understanding something that you find someone that you can ask to express it or explain it in a way that you do understand.
I love that. That’s awesome. Well, thank you so much, Adam. It was been such a pleasure and honestly such a great conversation and hearing how just a simple product, but so important and could have been left in the dust is actually making such great moves into the future and utilizing technologies, just showing that no matter what the company is, like you can really utilize the new world of technology to your benefit. Yeah, I loved it. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
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