Build Your Sales As An Integrator

Can security integrators become excellent sales organizations? I think so!

When I left a career in healthcare information technology and entered the electronic security industry 11 years ago, a friend of mine told me to be prepared. She knew nothing about security, but she knew that I had been spoiled up to that point in my career–spoiled with optimum sales processes; spoiled with every sales tool necessary to succeed; spoiled with frequent and excellent sales training; and spoiled with leaders that didn’t simply manage but coached us as sales professionals.

And I didn’t get forget the importance of leaders that considered sales the most important department in the company. My friend’s exact words: “Chris, not everyone takes sales as seriously as you do. You better be prepared.”

I made the move anyway and became the head of sales for a security manufacturer. I immediately got to know dozens of integrators. What I found initially in the integrators was a population of companies who cared about their deliverables and the safety of their customers more than they cared about their number of new clients or growth of recurring revenue. Of course, gross profit and sales were always part of our discussions, but care for their customers always trumped topics having to do with sales.

Why did sales get secondary attention? There are many answers to this question, but one that has made a huge impact on me is the past experience of most of the owners and leaders. Most integration companies are run by someone without fundamental sales experience. They typically grew through the project management route, moved over from leading a similar business in a comparable industry, or simply took over for their father after college. These companies fit into a perfect storm of sales team mediocrity: They’re too large to operate without well-trained sales leadership; they’re too small to justify paying a competent sales leader; and their owner/general manager doesn’t have the sales management training or time necessary to take the business to the next level.

After six years of working with these organizations, I decided to do something about it. Security integration companies care too much about their craft to compromise their sales performance, so I created Vector Firm. Vector Firm is a sales-management consulting company built to help security businesses dramatically improve their sales performance. Our mission is to inspire and teach the sales professionals and leaders in the security industry to invest in, embrace and improve their selling capabilities. We do this through assessments, sales programs and training seminars.

Since 2010, we have contracted with 47 security companies, helping their sales organizations get to the next level and grow the business. Now that we have two types of assessments, eight sales programs and four workshops, we are confident that we will assist even more companies in the coming years.

We are also excited about entering 2015 in partnership with the Security Industry Association (SIA). Our 50-minute education session, Stand Out from the Competition, at ISC East 2014 was so well received that I will be giving the full workshop at ISC West on Tuesday, April 14. Please find more information on this session and register for SIA Education@ISC West at http://www.iscwest.com/education.

Please look for more from me and SIA as I seek to spark debate, provide validation and provide answers regarding the craft of selling in the security industry.

Chris Peterson is principal and consultant at Vector Firm. He can be reached at cpeterson@vectorfirm.com. For more information, visit his website at http://www.vectorfirm.com.

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts and/or profiles are those of the authors or sources and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Security Industry Association (SIA).