Your Security Marketing Questions Answered!
March 13, 2009 by Bob Maunsell
Filed under Ask Bob, Bob's Security Marketing Blog!
1) Do you limit who you work with on a market by market basis?
- Kevin Donnelly
Kevin the security marketing services you see listed on the website are not limited to specific markets or exclusive areas but I do offer private consulting programs with geographic area exclusive rights and they start anywhere between 15-20K. However I guarantee you the programs I’m offering right now, especially the Mavericks Program, will revolutionize your approach to marketing your security or low-volt biz. But hey don’t take my word for it, check out my audio testimonials page!
2) Bob you have quite a few programs on your site, what’s the best value?
- Mike Levine
Mike, I would recommend if your new to my Tuesday Smack Down and the direct response marketing I preach the, Smokin’ Security Newsletter. I literally swamp my graphic design guys every month with articles, examples and sample direct mail pieces to pack inside the newsletter. The newsletter also features a 1 hr audio success CD. Last month I interviewed the designer and SEO optimizer of my new webpage, Bill Parlaman. He literally spoon fed my subscribers with $1000’s of dollars worth of Web 2.0 consulting for practically nothing! You absolutely can’t beat the value, at $97 a month.
3) How do you figure out what to charge a client?
- Richard Carlisle
Richard, I take a few things into consideration when I’m evaluating my pricing. The #1 point of consideration in my opinion is finding out what the marketing will bear for your services. One of the ways I would recommend doing that is using your business associates, have your competition come and give quotes on a system at x y and z properties, use those quotes as parameters around which to gauge your pricing and sales presentation when you are asked to quote a similarly sized job.
4) OK, HIT ME! THANKS IN ADVANCE!!
- Paul Pitchford.
Paul, I suggest lacing up the gloves if you haven’t already cause with a mindset like that, your competition are going to feel like they are stepping in the ring with Ali, when they’re going up against you!
5) Where can I get sample application forms that will lock monitoring for 2-3 years? Is accepting credit cards worthwhile considering the percentage charged for each transaction?
- Dave Hansel
I would recommend getting into credit card processing, considering the number of businesses moving away from the cash and check payment method is going to increase exponentially over the next decade. For the contracts I’m going to give a little referral here……visit my friend over at www.alarmcontracts.com , Tell him I sent you!
6) In the current economic climate, how do I hold onto my client base when so many are suffering financially and are not paying their monitoring invoices?
-David Asay
I know it’s a tough climate out their, and guess what its probably not going to get much better over the next year either but its during these times when you can absolutely dominate your competition. I 1000% recommend at least 1 monthly mailing to stay in touch with your base, a newsletter is ideal. I probably shouldn’t do this but I’m going to let you in on a little secret of min. In the past when some of my better clients have slacked on the monitoring, I ran a special contest in my monthly newsletter for a year of free monitoring and picked their names out of the proverbial hat. Guess what happened….I must have gained at least 5 referrals from each client I did that for. What did it cost me like $75-$100 bucks a month for a year and I gained 25 installs and 25 more monitoring contracts. I think it was worth it!!
Security Marketing Styles | Marine Sniper vs. Hill-billy Shotgun
March 13, 2009 by Bob Maunsell
Filed under Bob's Security Marketing Blog!
A lot of security installers that call my office looking for marketing advice and ideas from the “Guru” usually fall into the “hill-billy shotgun” mentality. What I mean by this is that they are doing exactly the same marketing that all the other installers in their area are doing (molesting each others ideas and copying each others ads—even each others yellow page ads!). Another term for this incestuous marketing is West Virginia Marketing! Once an installer joins one of my coaching programs or is a longtime newsletter subscriber, is when 
they come to understand my style of thinking. The “Marine Sniper Rifle” marketing is what this cat’s all about! A sniper is a infantry person who specializes in shooting from concealed position over a longer range then the regular infantry, often with specially designed or adapted sniper rifles. A sniper requires skill in marksmanship and camouflage. When marketing, a sniper is in tight markets, specifically targeting his prey (customers). What I want to make you think about is how a hill-billy would think and how a sniper would think with shotgun shell vs. a sniper shell.
There are “broad” media and “tight” ones, referring to what’s called “reach” (the number of prospects that media touches).
Your website has the broadest potential, but not if it’s impossible to find your site (please read the truth about security websites). The yellow pages have a broad reach, too. Television and radio are considered broad reach, but within them is that cool word “demographics” which refers to viewers /listener profiles of the programming. 
So the “tightness” begins to squeeze as you select audiences. Newspapers, though broad with general circulation, can be zoned. Direct mail can blanket a town or pinpoint exact homes/business. An e-mail can go to your entire database. Or select a select few. A major point here—the biggie—is segmenting your messages and aiming them at the most appropriate markets—the wisest way, though rarely achieved. Your recognition and transition of “broad” to “tight” will save you time, money, and bullets and will allow you to pick off highly targeted prospects along the way.
13 Ways To Differentiate Your Security or Low-Voltage Business
March 3, 2009 by Bob Maunsell
Filed under Bob's Security Marketing Blog!
To the untrained eye these look like regular old fake c**** cigars but…
to the trained eye….. they are the real deal baby.
How Can I Differentiate My Security Company from the other 20,000 Security Dealers out There…?
I just sat down to write this weeks “Smack Down” and I caught myself looking out the window at the major Nor’easter that’s moving in over Central Massachusetts. It’s predicted to drop about 13” of white fluffy snow on my front lawn…just as I could start to see my lawn again after the 68” we had dumped on it this winter!
I like that quote the weather persons always say, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” I’m gonna give you some lion advice, so you can be King of the Security Jungle, and you won’t be perceived as a little old lamb in your security sales presentations.
Seeing as though we’re gonna get pounded with 13” of snow, I’m going to give you 13 sure-fire ways to differentiate yourself from your competition (that are not product dependent). This is the type of information the security trade magazines won’t dare talk about. Because what do they care as long as your buying thee products they advertise!
Most security dealers and security sales reps operate under the assumption that because they sell or install a certain security product/brand it is a sufficient way to differentiate themselves in the eyes of their potential clients. I can’t think of anything the further from the truth and you’re leaving HUGE $$$’s on the table thinking this way! Let me explain this to you…
When you take one of your company service vehicles to one of those “Big Name” oil, lube and filter quick stops, do you honestly care if the grease monkey who’s doing the oil change on your vehicle installs a FRAM, ACDelco, WIX, NAPA or Purolator oil filter as long as the product performs its job for your engine? Honestly, are you going to loose sleep over which filter the grease monkey installs? I would bet your going to forget all about it within 12-36 hours after he installs it.
Pretty much every oil filter manufacturer claims their filters operate at 99.9% efficiency mean. So theoretically 99.9% of all the contaminants that pass through the oil filter are captured in the media, saving your engine from damage. All the oil filter manufactures make this claim. This is a COMMODITY item and there isn’t much to differentiate its image considering the amount of manufactures selling the same widget.
The same can be said about security manufactures. They all make the same claims about their products. Like images per second (IPS) of the DVR, or the “toast proof” rating of a smoke detector. How about the response time of a motion detector?
In today’s economy, you’re dead wrong in thinking that your security equipment standing by itself will sell the job by itself. I’ll make a confident bet that you’ll be driving back to the office from a presentation without a signed contract for the job, it that is your strategy.
Here we go…I’m going to give you 13 ways to differentiate yourself from your competition. The conceptual first step in differentiating yourself is moving away from thinking it depends on the security equipment you install.
1- You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by the security marketing material you hand out when you arrive at your new security prospect’s home or office.
2- You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by the quality of the questions you ask when doing your security audit.
3- You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by the new security ideas you bring to the table and your effectiveness in communicating these ideas to your new security prospect.
4-You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by being more prepared than any other security company.
5-You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by applying new exciting and exotic ideas for securing their home or office.
6-You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by having more killer testimonials than any other security or low-voltage guy.
7-You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by having a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that literally stumps the competition at the front door.
8-You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by doing what you said you were going to do in the first place.
9-You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by becoming an education-based security entrepreneur, consistently educating your client base.
10-You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by having a risk free 100% money back gua-ran-tee, if they’re not happy with your security services, and you will kindly refund the money with a smile.
11-You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by how you follow up with your new security clients after the installation.
12-You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by sending out a monthly security newsletter to all your clients, prospects and friends.
13-You differentiate your security company or low voltage installation business by having free reports to pre-sell your security services before you even show up!
The reality is all security products are essentially the same.
The reality is most security companies are perceived the same.
And, last but not least, most security sales reps are perceived as the same.
If you want to be perceived as different then just another ham and egger, you might want to start thinking about implementing these 13 strategies ASAP!
Hey, I gotta go…time to take the kids sledding!
Bob Maunsell
Security Marketing Guru
Security Marketing Free Reports
December 24, 2008 by Bob Maunsell
Filed under FREE Reports!
Are You Just Starting Out In The Low-Voltage Industry or Does Your Business Need A Bolt of Marketing Electricity To Jump-start Your Sales..? Check Out Our FREE Security, Fire-Alarm and Low-Voltage Business Marketing Reports!
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