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2.14.20 – SSI

Tips for communicating with your potential customers and delivering enhanced value with products, services and integrated packages that they may not even know you offer.

Customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. This adage is especially true when it comes to electronic security. The industry is no longer about selling system packages that are designed as one-size-fits-all.

It’s now about truly figuring out what the customers’ needs and concerns are, what they would like to see as a resolution and how we — as security providers — can solve their unique challenges.

Here are some tips for communicating with your potential customers and delivering enhanced value with products, services and integrated packages that they may not even know you offer.

It all starts with knowing as much as you can about the customer and the challenges they face in their industry before meeting with them. Then, upon securing your face-to-face appointment, ask a series of questions that will help you address their challenges. Some important questions to ask include:

  • What issues/incidents is your business currently experiencing and how are they affecting operations in the short and long term?
  • What measures do you currently have in place to deter, detect and prevent these issues/incidents?
  • What are your hours of operation and do you face any specific challenges as a result of these hours?
  • If you could design the perfect solution for the issues your business is experiencing, what would that look like? How would you measure the success of this solution?
  • Would having access to security system analytics — such as traffic patterns, customer service wait times, the impact of weather on customer behavior and other key information — be valuable to your business?
  • How many security providers do you currently work with? Is it important for you to have one point of contact for your security program?

These questions often lead to meaningful discussions about the business’ pain points and will allow you to start thinking through unique solutions you can offer to solve their challenges.

Listen, Then Offer Recommendations

This seems simple but is often overlooked. As you ask the questions above, be sure to actively listen to your potential customer. Take detailed notes and jot down any integrated packages and solutions that could enhance their business security.

1. Problem: Your customer finds it difficult and frustrating to pull reports for their disparate security systems.

Proposed Solution: You suggest integrating their access control and video surveillance systems, so it will be easier to pull up video of an access incident immediately in one report, instead of having to go to two different systems.

2. Problem: Your customer is incurring fines for false alarms.

Proposed Solution: You suggest implementing audio or video verification solutions, which can help reduce false alarms and the associated costs.

3. Problem: Your customer has high-value assets stored outside of their business and they’ve recently been a target for theft after-hours.

Proposed Solution: You suggest investing in thermal cameras to detect and verify intruders trying to steal your customer’s assets at night.

4. Problem: Your customer has incurred thousands of dollars in damages to their business due to pipes freezing and bursting in the winter months.

Proposed Solution: You suggest installing a low-temperature sensor that can notify them when interior temperatures have dropped too low, which can help them prevent a pipe from freezing and bursting.

The key is to ask the right questions, listen to their answers and recommend custom solutions to meet their needs. By learning more about their business and having these conversations, you’ll open the door to offering additional products, services and integrated packages.

Even better, you’ll begin building lasting relationships with your customers that will keep them coming back for more.

About the Author

Contact: Corey Nydick is Regional Sales Manager at Stanley Security.