May 18, 2015, 10:20 PM
The security industry is incredibly competitive. But this isn't news to you, you face fierce competition everyday. So how do you really separate your security company from everyone else? What really makes you different? In this podcast we discuss 3 easy techniques that will help you change the sales conversation and close more deals.
Before we jump into the 3 easy techniques, we have to remember that at the heart of everything we share today is one simple concept. You have to know your customers & prospects.
"You'll never win a contract or retain a customer without understanding their needs and delivering the desired outcome. "
The number one way to be different in the sales process is to show a genuine interest in meeting the prospect's needs.
The three techniques listed below can be used to show your genuine interest. Put these in place and you'll stand out like the partner your prospect has been searching for.
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1) Offer to Coordinate With the Maintenance Team
Maintenance is the biggest ongoing cost for both commercial property managers, residential property managers, and facility management teams alike.
Most security providers will offer to report the basic "lights out" issues in their Daily Activity Reports. But that doesn't actually save anyone any time.
When you bury that important information in the Daily Activity Report you make the property manager responsible for relaying that information to the maintenance team.
Why not just coordinate with the maintenance team yourself? Try finding out what processes are in place for submitting work orders to the maintenance team and offer to take part in that process. We talk more about this concept in our Shifiting From a Vendor to a Partner webinar.
This small step will help prove that you are interested in saving your prospect time and effort.
2) Offer Prioritized Reports
Your prospects and customers are incredibly busy.. Then again, who isn't?
"One major way you can save your prospect time is to offer prioritized reports that are tailored specifically for their operation."
Imagine how much time you can save them if they are able to skim through your Daily Activity Reports and easily identify the issues that are most important to them. Check out the example below of a Daily Activity Report generated using Silvertrac.
All of the issues are prioritized to fit the needs and interests of the customer.
- Green items show that the routine requirements of the site were completed on time.
- Yellow items are cautionary issues that may require the attention of the manager.
- Red items are the critical, high priority, issues that matter most to the prospect.
Of course you don't have to use Silvertrac to prioritize the reports. You can simply have the officers highlight the most important entries on a written DAR.
However you decide to go about it, prioritizing your DARs will help set you apart in the sales process.
3) Offer Quarterly Account Reviews
Most property managers have a poor perception of the security industry. In fact, it's so bad that I have had a property manager tell me that she replaces her security vendor every 90 days just to ensure that they are always doing a good job.
Unfortunately, many security companies put their best foot forward when the account is new, but end up letting performance slip over time.
You can set your company apart in the sales process if you have a clear plan in place for fighting this negative stigma that your competitors have given the industry.
Consider setting up a detailed account review process that your operation manager can use to access the status of the account. This will also help build stronger relationships with your clients and ultimately create lifelong customers.
We hope you got a lot out of this episode. Are there other techniques you are using to help communicate your value in the sales process? Leave us a comment below!
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