Security Business: Marketing and Ops for Ambitious Alarm Companies

This is my rule of thumb for how much money an installer can do. This is for commercial installs with our technicians working in teams of two. The exact numbers might not match your business. Adjust them as necessary. But find out what your numbers are, so you can make better predictions for your company.

We were picking our next training session and disagreed on what would be the best approach. In particular, we had two types of systems we wanted our guys to know: an older technology that we consistently install or a newer technology that we had sold for five or six projects. Which do we choose? Find out how we made the decision by following our thought process for these five questions…

I try to take advantage of the activities I do at work to improve my life skills. It doesn’t have to be related to security. Try improving your eye contact when you talk to customers. Build your typing speed on the job. Grow your network. There are all sorts of opportunities when you frame your day to day as a growth lab.

Holidays like Memorial Day and Labor Day purposely always fall on a Monday. What happens when the days off don’t line up so well… especially when you work in the field, like our security technicians and sales professionals?

If you have a Company Policy for your security dealership, you should probably stick to it. If you need to change it, go ahead, but don’t just have it to have it and change it whenever a decision gets difficult.

We offer 24/7 service for our customers, but our security technicians don’t work 24 hours a day. Here’s how we manage this to make sure our customers get the best service experience while keeping it fair and easy to handle for our team.

And zip ties. Did I mention zip ties? This is the list of equipment, materials, and tools that our installation and service technicians keep on their company vehicles. Oh, and did I mention step bits?

When I first started in business, I didn’t realize how important it was to communicate throughout a task. I thought when someone assigned it to me, I was just supposed to do it. Here’s what one of my mentors taught me instead.

Getting hired can seem like a mystery. Submitting applications. Tailoring your cover letter. Updating your resume. Following up. Here’s some how we actually found our most recent sales person (hint: he found us).

One of the biggest challenges for small businesses with high-ticket products, like security dealerships, is that they typically don’t get enough traffic to their website or even ads to be able to properly test variations. Here’s what to do about that.

Apologies for mispronouncing his last name, but in the spirit of Gary, I’m leaving it in…

There are two kinds of products: the ones customers want and the ones customers need. Knowing the difference in what you’re providing can change how you sell it. Intrusion detection and fire protection systems fall into the second category. Here’s how that matters.

There are two kinds of products: the ones customers want and the ones customers need. Knowing the difference in what you’re providing can change how you sell it. Security cameras and keyless entry systems fall into the first category. Here’s how that matters.

Ever get into a conversation about your security products and someone, maybe an ex-cop or IT professional, asks some off-the-wall question about a technical aspect of your technology? It’s easy to get pulled into the minutia. Here’s how I like to respond to validate the question but keep the conversation on track.

How much time and money should you devote to designing the logo for your security company? In this episode, I share how I think about this, particularly if your business is new or you don’t have an in-house marketing team.

We sell three cameras. Yeah, we have a bunch of options for special PTZ cameras, various megapixels, thermal, and more. But we pretty much stick to three. And that accounts for half our business.

It wasn’t catching a bad guy and putting him behind bars. It wasn’t some off-the-wall customer experience. It wasn’t breaking our sales, install, and RMR yearly growth records. No, it was simply telling the truth.

Service agreements are at the heart of how we do business at our security dealership. And the biggest area where this is a factor is in the camera systems we sell. This is so ingrained in me that I forget that some companies are completely missing out on it.

Sometimes, we get too far into the details. Sometimes, it can be helpful to step back and realize… there are only a handful of reasons employees fail to do what you want. And recognizing which reason it is can help you diagnose how to work through it with them, before you get bogged down on whatever actual situation is right in front of you.

If you’re just starting in social media for your security dealership, I think a podcast is the way to go. In this episode, I share why… along with the practical side of how to format episodes, four questions to ask to never run out of content ideas, and how to use the show to branch into other areas of marketing.

Letting an employee go isn’t always easy. But there are still ways to improve at it. I made a bunch of mistakes my first time. I’ve learned from that experience…

Peek into our business to see how we install access control, video, fire, and security systems. You probably have some of these steps in your company too. What’s missing? What’s added? Compare and contrast with what we do to see how you can improve… or we can.

How do you feel talking about your dreams and plans with your friends? Are there financial numbers that seem ridiculous to discuss with them but normal for you? I’m realizing that in order to continue growing, I have to shift what feels normal in my life regarding money. Have you bumped up against this yet?

There are people out there who love this work. People who spend their lunch break reading about the latest developments in camera analytics. People who spend their free time thinking of how to streamline ops procedures. People who listen to podcasts about cold calling. Are you one of those people? Is there a part of you that is, maybe just interested in a specific aspect of the security business?...

We get all nerdy about our technology, the latest cameras, the coolest software, our verified security products. But for most customers, they might never actually experience the benefit of all that. Instead, what experience does do we provide?