Security Business: Marketing and Ops for Ambitious Alarm Companies

What are the biggest expenses for your company? Do you know them by heart? Do your employees know them? Are you all making decisions based on those expenses?

How do you contact customers when they have a problem with their security system? You have phone calls. You have email. You might even have a written notice in the mail. But are you using certified letters to make sure they receive it?

Just start. Share what you’re working on now. Do more, not better. And that will help you get better. That’s what I’m doing anyway.

“Install a camera here. So we can see this spot. So we can see who is pooping here. So we’re not embarrassed. So we don’t lose face with our employees, stakeholders, and the public.” You don’t always know why your customers really want cameras added, that fancy new access control installed, the security system upgraded. Unless you learn to ask and listen to what they say.

Is your marketing language the same as the other integrators in town? Does your website look and feel like you’re basically the same company? Been around for 30 years, owner operated, one-stop shop? I hadn’t really looked at other companies recently. When I did, I realized there’s a problem with our messaging.

Two weeks passed. I completed the Email Challenge and kept going. Let me share some of my failures in this along with two or three lessons I’ve learned in the process.

A customer complained that we haven’t given them a timeline for their camera system installation. They sent it in a polite email, but they were clearly frustrated. Here’s how we’re responding and learning from this particular situation…

Wouldn’t it be great if all your business processes were clearly documented? The problem is that it takes a lot of time to do this accurately, and then you have to keep updating them for them to stay accurate. Here’s how you can start creating manuals and standard operating procedures before you technically need them.

The Theory of Constraints says that in any system, there’s one limiting factor that prevents the system from producing more. When we’re running our businesses and deciding how to allocate our attention and resources, our focus should be on identifying those constraints and fixing them instead of trying to make everything work well. The challenge, of course, is that it’s easier said than done.

Some secrets are like your secret sauce. Others, you’re just ashamed to admit.

I’m not good at email. I can write. I can type. I’m just not good at responding to all my emails. I don’t keep track of it all very well. So, I’m going to change that… for two weeks anyway…

Every business, fundamentally, sells the same way. But in practice, the process can be wildly different. We have seven steps in our process, whether we’re selling burglary alarm systems, access control, CCTV, or fire protection. We use direct calls to initiate conversations and in person appointments to find out how we can help and delivery our quotes. It’s old school, but our system works.

If you’re testing new technology, products, or entire vendors, here are some things to think about in the process…

When I call someone for work, I start with this simple question: “How are you doing today?” It sounds like a filler question, small talk for no reason. Except I do it on purpose. Two reasons really. One, I want to frame the conversation in my head to be about the other person. Two, I want to get an immediate sense of their attitude before I jump into the conversation agenda.

Some skills can make you a dramatically better business person but typically don’t surface when we’re hiring or training someone. Skills like leading meetings, email communication, or how we greet our coworkers in the morning. It’s hard to pin down how important these are, much less how to develop them. Can we be more intentional about improving these types of skills?

How many techs do we have? How many sales professionals? What’s the mix in management roles? Do we do our own accounting? Marketing? This is the exact breakdown of all the employees we have in our security company.

What’s our process for bringing on new security installers? Where do we start? Do we do a phone interview? What questions do we ask? Do they need prior experience in CCTV or access control or anything else? This episode covers what we’re doing right now to hire new talent.

If there’s one marketing strategy that’s driven the best results for our security company, it’s our focus on getting five-star Google reviews. In this episode, I share how we get them and how we promote them once we have them. Seriously, if you don’t have a process for doing this, you’re going to get left behind.

Every week, there are a handful of projects or tasks that are different than normal. New initiatives. Oddball trouble shooting. One-off reviews. As managers, it’s our job to plan what to do with them and get them done. For years in our company, we didn’t have a way to do this as a team in real time, other than sending around emails. We finally started using, ahem, high tech software to help us…

Each security system install is different for us. Maybe we’re installing cameras in a warehouse. Maybe we’re adding access control at an office building. Maybe we’re doing a fire and evacuation system in a live-in healthcare center. Each technician also has different skill sets. We keep track of progress with the Installation Update, a phone call each day to each team. Here’s what we ask.

In business, it’s easy to default to, “Whatever gets the job done.” That can-do attitude is a prerequisite for success. But there’s a downside to it too. Sometimes, climbing up the ladder yourself isn’t the best way to get cameras installed. Here’s why…

Installing cameras if you’re a manager. Answering the office phone if you’re the owner. Bookkeeping if you’re the CFO. We don’t want to do that. We want to automate and delegate and, frankly, just not do certain types of tasks anymore. But are there benefits of getting in the weeds sometimes?

Morale or job satisfaction is often overlooked in formal review processes, but it’s one of the most critical metrics to watch in your company. Why is it so important? How do we measure it? What can we do to improve it?

Recurring monthly revenue (RMR) is critical to building a sustainable security company in our business model. Here’s why, along with some of the ways to keep growing it.

Customers, potential customers, vendors, competitors trying to steal our secrets… who’s going to pay attention? Or, really, who do I want to pay attention? I talk about who I hope listens… or at least who I’m talking to.