Five Essential Sales-Focused Sessions at ISC West

ISC West 2023 is coming up March 28-31 in Las Vegas, and the Security Industry Association (SIA) and ISC West recently revealed full conference details for the SIA Education@ISC West program, including keynote presentations from top luminaries and 65+ sessions on the most current business trends, technologies and industry developments.

Among the robust lineup of conference sessions are several informative offerings on key sales and business development development topics. Here are five sessions you won’t want to miss; make sure to add them to your ISC West calendar!


All Times PDT

Growing Security Sales Professionals

Tuesday, March 28, 1:00-2:00 p.m.

Companies with rising sales, or who see potential for revenue growth, often seek to increase the size of their sales force. Doing this isn’t as simple as hiring the right talent. Companies need to plan for fitting the new sales reps into the existing sales structure. How do systems integrators recruit and grow the next generation of sales professionals while retaining the existing team of multigenerational salespeople?

“Developing salespeople can be very difficult. In this session, we will discuss the pros and cons of practical ideas that can be implemented immediately.”

Chris Peterson, founder and president, Vector Firm

In this session, an expert panel of industry professionals will discuss how to recruit a new generation of salespeople, the differences in training a sales team made up of different generations and understanding what factors motivate your sales team to stay with your company.

Speakers:

  • Grady D. Jett, vice president of sales, Preferred Technologies, LLC
  • John Nemerofsky, chief operating officer, SAGE Integration
  • Chris Peterson, founder and president, Vector Firm
  • Ben Shour, director of sales, Eastern U.S. and Canada, PSA

Reality Check on Your Sales, Margins, Profitability and Business Valuation

Tuesday, March 28, 2:15-3:15 p.m.

Are you sitting on untapped margins? Does your amount of revenue health align with your margins and profitability? Are you unaware of the growing issues with today’s solution sales paradigm? Do you know the most powerful financial factors influencing buyers of security dealer/integrator businesses?

In this session, experts from the industry that include a mergers and acquisitions specialist, integrator, manufacturer and consultant, expose real world factors you need to know as an integrator if maximizing sales, profitability and valuation are priorities for your organization. Get expert perspective and real-world feedback on these important topics and more.

“You never know as much about your business as you do on the day you sell it. In this session we will provide you the insights and information to help you understand where your strengths and weaknesses are and what you can do to create the greatest value in your business.”

Kelly Bond, partner, Davis Mergers & Acquisitions Group

This panel discussion is specifically designed for the benefit of the dealer, installer, integrator audience, but all are welcome.

Speakers:

  • Kelly Bond, partner, Davis Mergers & Acquisitions Group
  • Dan Gundry, vice president and managing director, VuWall USA
  • John Maffey, founder, M3T Corporation
  • Paul Metzheiser, managing partner, TAMCO

Staying Motivated and Managing Sales Performance Anxiety

Wednesday, March 29, 2:15-3:15 p.m.

A career in sales is a career of score-keeping. In no other occupation besides professional athletics is one’s performance measured more intensely and more frequently. For most people, with performance comes performance anxiety, and that’s without supply chain issues, price increases and a global pandemic adding to uncertainty. How do we stay motivated? How do we manage our performance anxiety? That’s what will be discussed in this session.

This session is raw. No artificial or empty tactics – just the brutal facts and ideas that will make your selling career more enjoyable and prosperous for you.

Speaker:

  • Chris Peterson, founder and president, Vector Firm

Keeping Customers Loyal. Pre-Attrition Metrics: What Are Your Customers Not Telling You?

Thursday, March 30, 10:00-11:00 a.m.

We’ll explore what great companies are doing to retain customers so that don’t show up on an attrition report. Forty-four percent of businesses focus on customer acquisition, while only 18% focus on customer retention. It’s all about keeping a customer for life, yet only 42% of companies can accurately measure the lifetime value of their customers.

“In this session, we’ll be exploring what customers are not telling their alarm dealers or integrators. We’ll peel back the onion and look at what companies need to do to keep customers loyal, thus reducing attrition. We’ll have a lively session with Chuck Petrusha, president and CEO of Advanced Security, a 2021 SDM Dealer of the Year, and Kelly Bond, advisor at Davis Mergers & Acquisitions Group, who know firsthand how attrition can impact company valuations.”

Kirk D. MacDowell, founder and CEO, MacGuard Security Advisors

This interactive panel presentation will outline what great companies are doing to mitigate attrition, lessons learned from current customer surveys and how to best position your company to garner additional installation and recurring monthly revenue during the lifecycle of the customer. Attendees will review actual consumer feedback and hear from dealers and integrators that have implemented concepts that have succeeded.

Speakers:

  • Kelly Bond, partner, Davis Mergers & Acquisitions Group
  • Kirk D. MacDowell, founder and CEO, MacGuard Security Advisors
  • Chuck Petrusha, president, Advanced Security Systems

Five KPI-Driven Strategies That Create Sales Superstars

Thursday, March 30, 11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Security system sales are complex. Sales success is essential to business profitability and growth and requires a healthy combination of sales skillsets, tools to support the sales process, and key performance metrics to measure and confirm success.

In this session, a panel of experts will identify the key behaviors, characteristics, skill sets, and key performance indicators (KPIs) sales leaders and salespeople need to meet to be sales superstars.

“KPI-driven sales strategies help salespeople know, from the start to the end of the sales process, that the actions they are taking are working, and if not, insight into what to change. Our panel shares their expertise on what sales superstars do differently, and how to get there.”

Tracy Larson, president and partner, WeSuite

The experts will discuss sales coaching and training plans, the right sales tools to support the selling team, the use of KPIs for goal setting, tracking and measurement and how to incorporate results into one-on-one coaching opportunities that improve individual and sales team performance to meet company goals and vision.

Speakers:

  • Gretchen Gordon, CEO and co-owner, Boost Profits
  • Tracy Larson, president and partner, WeSuite
  • John Nemerofsky, chief operating officer, SAGE Integration
  • Audrey Pierson, founder, Audrey Pierson Consulting

Learn more about SIA Education@ISC West, view the full session lineup and register for the conference on the ISC West website.