CHAPTER
6 Reasons Companies Use
Contract Security
Have you ever tried to summarize in a very succinct way why your clients or prospects should use your security services rather than go in-house? Maybe you’re familiar with how difficult it can be to try and outline the benefits in a short piece of marketing material. If you could use some help in that area, the following six reasons are a great place to start when you’re describing why companies should use contract security.
1. It improves company focus
Companies that outsource their security needs can concentrate their limited resources on their core function. By allowing contract security companies to handle security related duties, your customers can still focus on servicing their clients while also maintaining a high level of security at their facility.
2. There’s less training involved
Contract security vendors make extensive investments in methodologies, technology (e.g. electronic reporting software), and people as a result of lessons learned from facing challenges across numerous clients. Those investments eliminate your client’s need to identify and procure those types of resources.
3. The quality of security won’t decrease
It’s a challenge for a company to be highly efficient in all areas of operation. In a company whose primary function isn’t security, it’s easy for their security needs to be placed on the back burner as they face other challenges. However, when a company utilizes a contract security company, the contractor can ensure that any security related needs are addressed.
4. There’s shared risk
By outsourcing the security function, your clients effectively spread the risk associated with operating a security team with you, the vendor.
5. Resources are freed up for other purposes
Hiring a contract security company allows the client to redirect its resources, most often their employees, from non-core activities to activities that focus on serving their clients.
6. It’s more cost efficient
Because a security contractor focuses on providing security guard service, they typical y have a lower cost structure because of economies of scale. As a result, the cost to hire contract security is typical y less than hiring in-house security personnel. Those reduced costs allow your clients to channel those savings and efforts into activities that increase their competitive advantage.
I have found this list to come in handy from time to time and thought it would be good to share. For more on why companies contract security officers, read “Outsourcing Security: A Guide For Contracting Services.”
Security Guard Company Cold
Calling Mechanics
Building up a security guard business takes blood, sweat, and tears. In the security guard industry, commoditization of services and long sales cycles have become the norm. As a result, having a long-term marketing strategy is more important than ever. Your marketing strategy should consist of five key elements:
• Cold calling
• Email campaigns
• Search engine optimization
• Social media (esp. LinkedIn)
• In-person networking
Cold calling is probably the most misunderstood aspect of a security guard company’s marketing strategy. Notice that I say “marketing” and not “sales” strategy. The purpose of cold calling isn’t to make a sale over the phone, it’s to gather information that allows you to sell more effectively later on.
Security Guard Company Cold Calling
The following are four basic steps to mastering your cold calling mechanics.
1. Get the person’s attention. Start off by letting them know who you are. A simple script to say is, “Hi this is (your name), and I’m calling from (the name of your company). We’re a local provider of security guard services here in (your location).”
2. Qualify the lead. Make sure that the company you’re calling is one you should be pursuing. Find out this information by saying, “I’m calling to see if you currently use security guards at your property.”
3. Acknowledge their purchasing process. Chances are the prospect won’t be thinking about security until a much later date, so let them know that you respect their time. Immediately after stating the sentence in step two, follow up by saying, “If so, when is the best time for me to contact you regarding submitting a proposal of services?”
4. Schedule a follow up call. At this point, the prospect realizes that you’re not trying to sell them anything during that phone cal , so they’re more likely to be open to speaking with you at a later date. An easy way to ensure you stay in contact is by saying, “Okay, I will contact you then, but in the meantime, can I have your email address to send you some information about our company for you to review and keep on file?”
Once you’ve completed the last step, you’ve accomplished two very important goals:
1. You’ve demonstrated to the prospect that you’re a professional that understands their purchasing process.
2. You have an email address which allows you to add them to your email marketing campaign.
Security guard company cold calling isn’t exactly the most enjoyable thing you can do. However, it becomes easier the more you get used to it. Besides, the real fun comes when you know you’ve landed a new client all due to your savvy business development skil s.
A Security Guard Agency Lead
Generation Program How-To
As a security agency in today’s very competitive security guard industry of more than 14,000 agencies, developing a good lead generating program is essential. Your prospects are less likely to take your cal s now more than any other time in the history of the security industry. In order to fill your sales funnel, it may be necessary to outsource your lead generation to a company that specializes in it.
When choosing a lead generation company for your security agency, there are six criteria that your chosen firm should meet.
• Only one representative should handle your calls. Rather than have your cal s scattered to several representatives, having only one rep allows that person to establish a level of familiarity and comfort when they’re speaking about your business. They’ll be able to convey a level of knowledge and expertise that is unlikely to happen when there are several reps handling your account.
• The representative handling your account must be professional. This isn’t up for debate. The person handling your account represents your company, and their interactions with your current and prospective clients are a reflection of you and your brand.
• You should be able to interview your representative. You’re trusting the representative with an important task, so you’ll want to make sure they’re a good fit with your company.
• Calls are recorded. For quality control, you should be able to periodical y listen to recordings of your representative’s cal s.
• The firm should have other clients in the industry. This helps ensure that the agency is comfortable speaking with your prospects and understands their perspective. If they don’t have security agency clients, clients who also provide similar services should suffice.
• The firm should provide you with metrics. In order to gauge the firm’s performance and make adjustments to the campaign, you’ll need a consistent set of metrics regularly delivered to you.
Goal Setting
Prior to signing your contract, make sure that you’ve established measurable goals for your campaign and have outlined how the firm will ensure that they’re met. In order to provide a seamless transition of prospects from the lead generating firm to your company, we suggest having the rep call as a member of your “Marketing Department.” Most importantly, because the rep won’t be able to convey your company’s differentiators as well as someone from your business, the representative shouldn’t attempt to sell your services.
The rep’s goals should be:
1. Confirm that security guards are used on the property.
2. Confirm contact information.
3. Confirm the dates that the contract ends.
4. Determine who the current vendor is.
Once the rep has gathered the information, a business development manager from your security agency can then contact the lead as necessary. Prospects who request more details about your company from the representative should immediately be transferred over to your company.
What I discovered very quickly was that in most cases, these campaigns will be more cost efficient than having your business development managers make cold cal s for most of their day. In fact, using a lead generating firm to make your cold cal s allows your business development professionals to spend their time making appointments with WARM leads and closing more deals.
10 Tips To Help Make Your
Telemarketing Really Pay Off
Back in 2013, I published a blog post titled “A Security Agency Lead Generation Program How-To.“ Since then, I’ve received dozens of questions from companies looking to develop lead generation programs by using third party telemarketing agencies. Those conversations inspired me to publish this follow-up article to elaborate a bit more on the topic.
If you don’t have the resources to develop a lead generation program internal y, using an outside telemarketing agency is a good option. Working with an outside agency to generate leads can be a great experience if you:
1. Select the right telemarketing firm.
2. Establish reasonable goals and objectives for the representative handling your account.
3. Develop internal processes that allow you to capitalize on the leads that you receive.
Considering the first blog post focused primarily on points one and two, this post will go more in-depth about point three. I’ve learned some very valuable lessons while working with telemarketers over the years. Keep reading to discover the top ten lessons that have proven to be the most useful to me.
• Your telemarketing agency shouldn’t be tasked with selling any of your services. Their job must consist of only one task: gathering information from potential clients. So what information should they be collecting? To begin, they need to find out the name of the person that’s responsible for the contract, the person’s contact information, and the time they wish to be contacted. Getting permission to follow up is the final step.
• Invest in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. This software collects and organizes leads that the telemarketing agency provides so that it can be properly evaluated and followed up on. Considering the extensive amount of leads you’ll be working with, using a CRM platform such as SalesForce.com, or SugarCRM.
• Designate one person to manage the program. Ideal y, this person should be a manager or supervisor. Amongst other things, this individual should ensure that the information the telemarketing agency generates is put into your CRM and followed up on appropriately.
• Provide sales and non-sales related online content to potential clients. You can do this once they’ve given you permission to follow up, of course. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of “content” as it pertains to your marketing and sales efforts, check out this helpful content marketing article.
• Distributing your content shouldn’t be an arduous task. To make this an easy process, invest in an email marketing platform such as MailChimp or ConstantContact. These email marketing platforms allow users to easily automate the distribution of content via email, which means much less work for you.
• Be consistent with your lead generation campaign. Starting and stopping isn’t going to do any good for your business. Make sure that your sales team always has a steady flow of viable prospects to work with.
• Understand your customers. Before you even start the orientation process for your telemarketing vendor, make sure that you know what questions your prospects will respond to and what information they’ll be willing to share. The telemarketers are doing the dialing, but it’s your job to set them up for success.
• Be patient. Don’t expect changes overnight; things take time. As the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” It’s important trust in the process that you’ve developed.
• The point of finding leads is to eventually set in-person appointments. If your sales team is trying to close deals over the phone, they’re wasting your time and money.
• Set realistic objectives for your telemarketing campaign. It’s very likely that you’ll have to tweak your campaign here and there as you learn what does and doesn’t work. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with setting goals and then revising them if necessary. In fact, it can lead to greater success. Working with a telemarketing agency to generate leads can be a great investment if you take time to select the right firm, set reasonable goals, and have processes in place to ensure follow-through.
Use LinkedIn Groups To
Become An Expert On Your
Customers
In order to be successful in the security guard industry, you need to be an expert on your customers and their needs. Successful businesses must know their customers as well as they know their own families.
In addition to knowing basic facts, such as the size of the market and number of potential customers, you must also be an expert on each of your individual customers and prospects. The type of information you should be collecting includes:
1. Names
2. Ages
3. Genders
4. Number of children
5. Hobbies
6. Personal interests
7. Associations they’re involved in
8. Magazines they read
9. Wants and wishes
10. Challenges they face
Possessing this depth of knowledge about your customers allows you to deliver the solutions that they need at the right time, place, and price. There are several methods for gaining this type of knowledge, including sending surveys, networking at business events, and leveraging social media.
As social media becomes more ubiquitous, platforms such as LinkedIn – and especial y LinkedIn Groups – have increasingly become the go-to tool for becoming an expert on your customers and prospects.
LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups was developed to provide a place where professionals can share content, post questions, find answers, and connect with those who have similar interests. If you’re not currently participating in LinkedIn Groups, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. Before you jump right in, however, there are several tips for making the most of your experience.
1. Join groups that your customers take part in. Resist the temptation to join groups that are specific to your industry. Take a moment to find several customers or prospects that you would like to connect with. View their profiles, find out which groups they are part of, then join those groups.
2. Don’t advertise. Although you’re joining these groups to eventual y build connections with prospects, avoid self— promotion. No one in a group wants to see a lot of advertising.
3. Join the maximum number of groups. Failing to do so means that you’re missing out on news and discussions that help you better understand your customers and prospects.
4. Remain active. By doing so and engaging in discussions, you’ll continue to learn things about customers and prospects that you wouldn’t have been able to know otherwise.
5. Ask questions. They should be compelling, thought-provoking, and relate to your company’s expertise. By asking questions, you’ll be more equipped to deliver products and services that speak to your clients’ wants and needs.
You’re an expert. Now what?
Now that you’ve gained a deeper insight into the wants and needs of your customers, it’s time to put that information to use by answering questions and providing useful materials. First, consider speaking at local community events or offering a free webinar for customers or prospects. As with LinkedIn Groups, don’t use these events as a way to self-promote, use them to build your standing as an expert. You’ll begin to see that prospects convert to customers at a much higher rate when you’re seen as an expert in your niche.
Should you find that customers and prospects are repeatedly asking the same questions, consider putting up a downloadable document on your website. An even better way of sharing your expertise is to set up a blog and post on a routine basis.
Buyers tend to be much savvier these days and do a lot more research about companies before they decide to sign up with them or make a purchase. By learning about the wants and needs of buyers, it’s much easier to position yourself as an industry expert. By doing so, they’re more likely to trust your advice and purchase your products and services.
Do you have some expertise that your clients or prospects need?
How are you leveraging your expertise to convert more prospects to clients?
Not All Security Guard
Customers Are Good
Customers
Chances are you’ve heard the saying, “The customer is always right.” That may be the case, but the truth is that it doesn’t mean they’re always right for you. Many years ago, I learned that not all business is good business, especial y as it pertained to security guard customers.
When you’re responsible for selling security guard services, there are many instances when you’re going to be tempted to pursue customers for one overwhelming reason: revenue. This tends to especial y happen in the beginning when new security guard companies have no choice but to take on any customer that walks through the door. However, the sooner you can transition away from that customer acquisition model, the better off you’ll be in the long run.
Over the course of more than a decade, I learned that there are some tell-tale signs that are going to pinpoint which security guard customers are going to be a problem. The following are just some of the red flags to watch out for.
1. They’re difficult to get along with. These are the customers who are horribly indecisive, they’re rude, nasty, and they feel that they deserve much more attention than all the other clients you provide services to. If you add them to your client roster, expect a huge drain on your well-being.
2. They’re cheap. It’s one thing to try and negotiate the price, it’s another when they’re asking for free services or steep discounts and then get mad when you say “no.”
3. They see your service as just a commodity. Your business is worth a lot more than that. If the customer is accepting bids from 20 different companies, it’s likely not worth your time developing a proposal.
4. They request much more of you than what you can currently offer. For example, if you don’t typical y offer armed security officers, then it’s probably going to take an inordinate amount of time to develop processes to ensure that you’re providing great service.
5. They don’t have a clearly defined scope of work. If the responsibilities are not clearly defined up front, you will undoubtedly find yourself at odds with the customer about what your officers should and shouldn’t be doing. Ever heard of the term “Scope Creep“?
In order to avoid problem customers, you must always keep an eye out for the aforementioned red flags. Analyze your customer retention rates, profitability, brand recognition, and ease of acquisition. After completing that analysis, you’ll be able to understand what the optimal profile of a good customer is. Keep in mind that the more time you spend chasing customers that are sub-optimal, the less time you have to find those that are going to be good for you and your business.
What are good security guard customers?
Every company feels the pressure to chase customers despite having the nagging suspicion that they’re not going to win the bid. If you’re working with a “We might get lucky” mindset, you’re wasting your time. Instead, if you pursue security guard customers that fit your target profile, your win rate will increase dramatical y.
It’s crucial to have a process in place to determine which customers and bids to pursue. One of the ways to identify good customers and/or bids is to use a Bid Decision Matrix…and stick to it. When developing your Bid Decision Matrix, you might want to consider including the following factors:
1. Do you currently work in that area?
2. Do you currently have the resources to manage the project?
3. Does the customer already know you?
4. Have you submitted a bid before?
5. Do you have an X Factor that differentiates you from the competition?
6. Are their specs within the job that will price you out of it?
7. Are you hoping to get lucky?
Below you’ll find an example of a Bid Decision Matrix that I used in 2012. Keep in mind that every company will have one that’s different from the next as it depends on their particular resources and situation. Any Bid Decision Matrix should be a living document that changes with the circumstances of the company.
Being able to identify which security guard customers to pursue is one of the primary factors in determining whether or not your security company will be successful. Doing business with the wrong customers will leave you with decreased client retention rates, stretched resources, and thin margins.