Samantha Taylor:
Welcome to the Amigo CartCast, the podcast where we roll through the ins and outs of material handling with Amigo carts. I’m your host, Samantha Taylor, here with my co-host Scott Chappell, and we’re on a mission to find a better way for material handling.

Scott Chappell:
Thank you, Samantha. Each episode will explore the innovative features, success stories, and the endless possibilities that Amigo material handling carts bring to the table. Let’s roll into a world of efficiency, innovation, and endless possibilities. This is the Amigo CartCast.

Samantha Taylor:
Welcome back to the Amigo CartCast. This is episode two of two. We have Jen, our Director of Business Development here in studio today, sharing with us how our industrial line got started with Amigo. Our last episode with Jen was going so well with some amazing stories. So we want to go ahead and wrap up that conversation with this episode.

Scott Chappell:
So let me ask you real quick, Jen, because when I started in ‘17, I believe you attended ProMat in Chicago, Illinois, and tell us kind of how, because ’16 I think we had a different distribution system and then I think you switched it up. So give us kind of an idea what you did in ‘17 or what changed.

Jennifer Kehres:
So ‘15 and ’16, we spent a lot of time focusing on local sales, testing the market. I did a lot of demos, which was so fun, getting in to see the, you know, all these facilities and talk to people and get ideas for the products. It was so different from what I’d been doing before. I think that’s a common theme.

All of us have come from such a different background, Samantha too, and Scott, and we’ve learned a lot about the industrial market. So we were selling, testing out the waters and selling direct locally in Michigan. But I knew to scale this, it was such a big market and we had to really see how did our customers buy. It’s one thing for me to sell how I want to sell, but it doesn’t get you very far.

You have to look at how your customers want to buy. Doesn’t matter how great of a salesperson you are. You kind of have to do what the customers need and want and already currently do. So I got in touch with a local material handling dealer and he introduced me to his material handling rep that he worked with, which was John McCartney.
John McCartney came up to Amigo, visited in person, toured our facility, met, and then we went to the ProMat Show in Chicago. And he brought the reps that he already worked with in the Material Handling Network. So I got a chance to show and demonstrate our material handling carts to I don’t know how many? Six, seven reps?

Scott Chappell:
There’s eight, eight, eight in the beginning. Yeah.

Jennifer Kehres:
So yeah, we went from having, one kind of rep locally to having a whole the whole country covered, which was so wonderful that they saw the product, met Amigo took a chance on us, signed up and wanted to work with Amigo. So that helped a lot.

Scott Chappell:
And in ‘17, 2017, when I started back, I came back in July because I was gone for a little bit. I came back, we had our sales meeting, I think it was August of that year, maybe September. It was in the fall. So what we did is we not only had to kind of sell our manufacturer reps this product line, this brand new product line that nobody really knows about, but we also had to create a relationship with them so that they would basically give us the keys to the kingdom and open up their dealer networks.

Because at that point, you do have manufacturer reps, but where the road hits the pavement is when you actually are dealing with people locally in the field.

Jennifer Kehres:
Yeah. And they trusted us, and they were so kind. And we’ve made friends out of that. In the show notes, maybe we can post a picture from that first sales meeting. I know we have one. Yeah, visit myamigo.com/podcast.

Scott Chappell:
But you’re one hundred percent…

Jennifer Kehres:
To see pictures from this episode!

Scott Chappell:
Jen, you just hit the nail on the head. And that’s a part of this that people kind of miss is that when they came up, they liked the company, and they still like the company and how we work. And it’s just, we’re just kind of magnetic, right? I mean, you come in, you meet everybody here, and you just feel really good when you say you’re a family company and you do it the right way, but it’s 100…

I mean, I realize we’re biased because we work here, but it is real. It is true. And that is part of why we still have those reps today that are continuing to promote this product for us.

Jennifer Kehres:
I think, and I hope that people, when they get to know Amigo, they know that we are in this for the long haul. You know, we’re not looking to build and sell the company in the next five years and squeak out as high profits as we can. We are here to build relationships and to earn people’s trust.

And I think it went a long way with our industrial material handling reps, showing them in the grocery and retail industry that we’ve had reps that have been with us for 20, 30 years. We really want to work together with people on this and let’s grow this together and do the right thing. So I think that helped lend some credibility to this industry too.

So then Samantha joined our industrial sales team.

Samantha Taylor:
I was just going to say, things didn’t get really spicy until I joined. I love hearing the history and how this all came about. But I joined the industrial team, I guess officially it wasn’t until 2023. So it’s only been a year.

Jennifer Kehres:
It’s hard to believe.

Samantha Taylor:
I know it feels like…

Scott Chappell:
Been a long year.

Samantha Taylor:
Okay, alright…

Samantha Taylor:
Hence why Scott’s on the road today and not in the office.

Jennifer Kehres:
I don’t think he traveled as much when I was here.

Jennifer Kehres:
I don’t know, I’m kidding. We love Samantha.

Scott Chappell:
Too funny, but, you know, now that you mention that, travel — what we found is through these manufacturer reps and through the local material handling dealers. That is where we really shine the most. And we’ve tried, and where we’re successfully growing this market. And that is by traveling, by providing the local demonstrations, by showing people what we do that is different and how we move people and products differently, because that’s basically what we do.

But this kind of all comes full circle because, you know, think about this, everybody. Al started a sit-down product for somebody that couldn’t get around in 1968 from a company that made a stand-up model. And it wasn’t until, let’s say, 2015-16 when we started developing this — you started developing this, Jen — that now all of a sudden in ‘17, we have a stand-up model for another segment of the market.

Jennifer Kehres:
Yeah.

Samantha Taylor:
So I just learned that. That’s very insightful, very cool. And it gets me thinking about, because you’ve referenced a couple of things about, you know, always looking to the next 50. And I think, what did Scott say? He said a breath of fresh air, like each market that he’s kind of helped, it’s been a breath of fresh air.

So that is one of Amigo’s values: looking to the next 50, and Al Thieme has always been the visionary. Like the, what’s the word?

Scott Chappell:
The man.

Jennifer Kehres:
Dad.

Samantha Taylor:
The man. Yeah, okay. We’re going to edit all that out. But Al Thieme has definitely been the visionary, the driver. Yes. Absolutely. To think about what the future looks like. And, now in your role talking about business development, I’m just curious, can you share with us anything? We all know the industrial market is kind of the up-and-coming hot thing that we are very much focused on.

Jennifer Kehres:
Cool Kids Club. They all want to be part of it. That’s why it’s so fun for me to be part of this podcast today. I miss it, and industrial is so fun.

Samantha Taylor:
Well, can we also say, too, not because I know we touched on this briefly, that, I mean, you do oversee our marketing efforts, but a lot of that is to help grow business. And the podcast was another Jen idea, so I think…

Jennifer Kehres:
So then why did it take… how many episodes are we in?

Samantha Taylor:
We had to make sure we had a great listener base.

Samantha Taylor:
And now after this, watch it skyrocket!

Jennifer Kehres:
I didn’t plan on being part of any podcast, but yes, took me how long to get invited as a guest?

Samantha Taylor:
Yeah.

Scott Chappell:
18 or 20.

Jennifer Kehres:
Thanks, guys. Thanks. I appreciate it, and of course, conveniently, it’s when Scott’s out of the office too. But no, I’m teasing. I’m very happy to be part of it, but, yeah. Industrial was really fun for me to be part of. I think I was in industrial sales for maybe 4 or 5 years.

And then during that time I took marketing back over. And then we continued to grow our team, because for a couple of years it was just me and a sales assistant, well one year and then me and Scott. And from there we’ve continued adding to our team and Samantha now, and we’ve got a couple regional territory managers. So it’s been really, really exciting and fulfilling to see it grow.

And I know we’ll continue to do great things. But in 2021, we did our first acquisition as a company and we bought a company called AeroTow based out of Wisconsin. So completely new sales network for us, which was a very fun challenge and puzzle to figure out. We manufacture small aircraft tugs to pull people’s personal airplanes.

So that’s been a whole new market to learn about and do. So industrial is no longer under my new business development umbrella. It’s grown up. It’s now officially in sales, and I nurtured it. Yes. And, so I’ve been focusing on AeroTow the last few years, which has been a completely different process. In industrial, we work through our material handling reps, and then they sell through a dealer and then to our end user, and that is a great way to scale it and create relationships in the industry.

But for AeroTow it’s direct to consumer and mostly online. So yeah, that’s been a fun, fun thing to work on and see. As far as what’s next in the future, I don’t know, what do you want to sell?

Where do you want to go, Samantha?

Samantha Taylor:
I’m sticking with industrial. I’m not I’m not going anywhere.

Samantha Taylor:
This is.

Jennifer Kehres:
Yeah. We’re always looking at… Okay, what’s the next sales network for us? And it’s so cool because Amigo’s become so dynamic. You know, for the first, gosh, I don’t know how many years, Scott, did we have the front drive? 20 years, 25 years?

Scott Chappell:
Oh my gosh. I started in 1989 and we still had it back then. And now we started ‘68. Yeah. So there you go.

Jennifer Kehres:
We had one product that we built the company on and it did so well. So it’s just incredible to see how diverse and dynamic our products have become. But I think there’s a lot of opportunity to pull some products from all these different sales markets and sell to a new market. So I don’t know where we’ll go next. Maybe it’s hotels, hospitals, amusement parks.

Samantha Taylor:
All of the above.

Jennifer Kehres:
All of the above.

Samantha Taylor:
The sky’s the limit.

Jennifer Kehres:
Yes, yes. But the material handling products that we have now can be used in so many different ways. I mean, part of my favorite things when going to do an in-person demo. And you guys know this, I mean, you go in and you get a group of people, maybe two people agree to the meeting, right? And then a few more come over and then a few more come over and you tell them about the product, and then you start to hear them brainstorm like, “Wait, this would be great to restock our assembly lines, or our maintenance person could use this.”

“They can clean the bathrooms faster and get bathroom to bathroom or mail delivery in our office area.” There’s just the amount… the different ways to use these products is endless. So that’s been a really fun thing to see. And when you do in-person demos, it really lights that up.

Samantha Taylor:
Gets the wheels turning. Absolutely. I think one thing that is also really cool about our material handling carts is not only in that industrial setting that we’re kind of maybe used to seeing and doing demos for, and they start brainstorming, but we have recently even seen a need in different markets. So we’ve sold some through a dealer to a local hospital down in the southeast territory.

We also have been in casinos. We’ve been in nurseries; like there’s so many different applications that sometimes it’s easy to look at maybe manufacturing settings where they are using it for housekeeping reasons or to fill their assembly line. But there’s so many different uses. Event centers we’ve done demos for. So that’s just a few of the things that you just never know what the need is until you show up and do the demo.

Jennifer Kehres:
Did you know that one of our distributors used, was it a Max Pro? I think at a local zoo for when they had to do veterinary work on a lion? Oh, they would use it to move the lion when it was under anesthesia.

Samantha Taylor:
Can we get a good picture of that?

Jennifer Kehres:
I wish, I know, isn’t that so cool?

Samantha Taylor:
That’s intense.

Jennifer Kehres:
And then they also used it in a bank. They were moving a lot of money. So yeah, there’s been so many uses for these material handling carts. It’s been really cool to see. Right now, the biggest success is in warehouse fulfillment centers and distribution centers. That’s where we’re seeing the most success. But really, I mean, take our sales team into any facility.

And we will find a great use for you. The Dow Event Center, local, they use it; they were struggling moving salt to salt their sidewalks. And so they use that to run all around the arena. And, I think, shirt and promotional goods they’re using it for. So, yeah, it’s fun. There’s endless opportunities with this product line.

Scott Chappell:
Normally, at the end of our podcast, we have an actual customer visit or somewhere that we’ve gone or a dealer we’ve worked with. And I think…

Samantha Taylor:
I feel like Jen should share her favorite story of doing demos. In her sales days, I can think of one. The one that you like to talk about. It’s when you were like seven months pregnant.

Scott Chappell:
Oh!

Samantha Taylor:
And walking through like a 1,000,000 square foot facility?

Scott Chappell:
Jen, this is a unique story.

Jennifer Kehres:
Yeah. There’s a local automotive manufacturing facility that is huge. And I was very pregnant, and I was walking through the facility, getting a tour, starting a relationship with them. And unfortunately, Scott wasn’t there with me, but it was me and a lot of managers and executives. And I was so pregnant, and I almost passed out in the back of this facility.

And I had to sit down, and I just remember them all saying, “Oh no, what if she has a baby? What do we do? How do we carry her? She’s seven months pregnant. We can’t fireman carry her.” And I’m like, “I’m okay. I will not have the baby back here.” But yeah, I really wish Scott or Samantha would have been with me.

They were… You could have said she’s fine, she’s fine. She’ll make it.

Scott Chappell:
But yeah, that would be the most… best demo ever.

Jennifer Kehres:
I don’t know. Yeah, they did go on to buy six, I think.

Samantha Taylor:
They probably felt like they needed a few to get people from point A to point B a little bit faster when they’re going to pass out.

Jennifer Kehres:
I think I actually did when I came to make that quip and say… I didn’t fully pass out, but yes, when I was feeling better, I said, “Well, if you had an Amigo Dex, I could have just sat on the back and you could’ve wheeled me right out and avoided this problem of how to carry a hugely pregnant woman through your facility.” But yeah. And then another time we were at a facility on the west side of Michigan, and they were going to try two Amigo carts, I think. And Scott, did we bring four? Maybe they just wanted to try one. So Scott and I drive over.

Scott Chappell:
They tried one. Yes.

Jennifer Kehres:
So Scott and I drive over to the west side of Michigan. We do this great demo, and I remember that was another time when more people just kept coming over and saying, “I could use it for this, and I could use it for this,” and we’re getting ready to leave. And we asked for the sale. We said, “Okay, do you want to keep this one? Do you want to buy one? We can ship you another.” And he said yeah, it went really well. And then we’re like, well, how about four? We got four in the car.

Samantha Taylor:
Take them all!

Jennifer Kehres:
And he placed a PO for four later. Isn’t that right? Or did he get six eventually?

Scott Chappell:
No, no. That location in Walker, Michigan, which is by Grand Rapids, actually purchased four of our Dex Pro Pluses. And then it wasn’t until later that their Portage location in Michigan honestly purchased six of our Dex Pros. So yes.

Jennifer Kehres:
That was a very fun sales call. We were hoping to unload one, and then we were just so excited. “Hey, what about four?” Pushing our luck, and what do you know, that happened. Yeah. So those early days were really fun. And one of our first demos on the road was to Columbus, right? How far of a drive is that? One way. Was it six hours?

Scott Chappell:
Four hours? Four hours?

Jennifer Kehres:
I think it was six. Probably with the stops we had to make, I think it was six. And Scott was gung ho and he said, “Yep, I’ll drive us there and back in one day,” because I had a baby at home and couldn’t leave them overnight. And so he said, “Nope, I got it.” And I have never had a road trip go by so fast than I did with Scott.

We just solidified being best friends on that road trip. It was so great, so easy to talk to. We had so much fun. We had a really great demo down there. Oh, and then we stopped to meet with the material handling dealer too. And yeah, as Scott remembers, I had a baby at home, I was breastfeeding, so we had to make a few stops.

So he says it was a four-hour trip. I feel like it was a six-hour trip because I had to stop and pump a few times. And Scott is a father of five and nothing fazes him. But I did kick him out of the car to wander around a gas station and like, “Go sell an Amigo if you can, but you’ve got to leave me alone for ten minutes.” So, he is just the absolute best person to travel with. So go with the flow, easygoing, and makes every trip fun. And it really, when we started doing demos on the road because Scott and I did a lot of them, I did a lot before he came just locally, well within Michigan.

And then Scott really started doing them more and he got a van. And then when we started partnering with our dealers and reps, that’s when it took off, and we saw, okay, demos are the best way to sell this product. I mean, what’s our percentage? How many demos go to sales? Do you know, Samantha?

Samantha Taylor:
Oh my goodness. Off the top of my head…

Jennifer Kehres:
I feel years ago it was like 80%.

Scott Chappell:
Yeah, I think it’s… yeah, it’s in that range. It really goes really well once you show it. Yeah.

Jennifer Kehres:
Yeah. And people want to see it and it’s just, I don’t know, Scott, you make things fun. Maybe Samantha and I need to do a road trip too.

Samantha Taylor:
Oh my goodness, that would be a hoot.

Jennifer Kehres:
We haven’t done that initiation yet.

Samantha Taylor:
Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer Kehres:
But no, I really do miss doing the demos on the road because you learn so much, and it’s so fun to see how all these businesses work, even take apart from the selling side of it, just learning about other manufacturers and companies, you know, in America who are hustling and trying to make it work and provide jobs for all the people in their facilities.

And if we can help them with that and right-size their material handling carts, I’m proud if Amigo can be part of that.

Samantha Taylor:
It’s awesome. Yeah, you definitely get to get close with the people that you go on the road with kind of quickly.

Jennifer Kehres:
Rain, shine, snow, pregnant, breastfeeding, anything… sick. You know, Scotty’s along for the ride.

Scott Chappell:
We had a job to do, Jen. And we still do.

Jennifer Kehres:
We do. Nothing can stop us. I think truly, you know, we say that we’re a family business. And like it or not, you work long enough with any one of us. Scott. Samantha. Trish. Me. You become family.

Samantha Taylor:
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s another core value.

Jennifer Kehres:
For better or for worse, we’re together.

Samantha Taylor:
Treating coworkers like family.

Scott Chappell:
I agree 100%.

Samantha Taylor:
All right, guys, so this has been fun, and I really appreciate you taking the time to share with us how the Amigo industrial line came to life. I think I learned a few things, as I’m sure our listeners did as well, and the stories are always fun. It’s great to hear more of the people behind the product. So we really appreciate you joining us today.

Jennifer Kehres:
Yeah. Thank you for having me be a part of it.

Samantha Taylor:
Scotty, are you ready?

Jennifer Kehres:
I’m going to join in!

Scott Chappell:
Thank you again, Jen. You started this, and you allowed me in 2017 to come back to doing something that I loved, that I started obviously with Amigo in 2000—or actually, 1989—but it was a real breath of fresh air in 2017. So thank you. But yes, Samantha, I am ready.

Samantha Taylor:
All right, until next time, keep it rolling. And that wraps up another episode of the Amigo CartCast. We hope you enjoyed this exploration and the journey of finding a better way for material handling with Amigo carts. Be sure to subscribe, and visit myamigo.com/podcast to see pictures and videos mentioned in today’s episode.

Scott Chappell:
Thank you for tuning in, and until next time, keep rolling with Amigo.

Samantha Taylor:
Until next time.

Scott Chappell:
Keep it rolling.

Samantha Taylor:
Keep it rolling.