Marketing Tips for Security Dealers: Stand Out From the Crowd

When you’re talking to a new prospect, how do you quickly convince them to select your security company rather than the competition? It’s critical that every business have defined, competitive differentiators that you can pull out of your back pocket in sales discussions .
These competitive differentiators are the reasons why you are different from your competition.
Once you can say that you are the best at XYZ, your list of competitors suddenly shrinks because there are only so many security providers that service your market and have the same strengths.
This then helps move the conversation away from price to focus on meeting your prospect’s unique needs.
How Do I Know What Makes Me Different?
If you are looking to attract more customers similar to your current base, you can do a survey or quick interviews with these existing clients to find out why they selected your integration firm and what they like best about working with your company.
You should start to see some common themes that will give you a head start in identifying your competitive differentiators.
What if you are looking to make a change to your customer mix?
One approach is to take a look at just your most profitable customers. You could also look at a fast-growing segment within your client list. Once you identify the people whose opinions you most want to collect, you can again implement either a survey or conduct quick interviews.

Related: How Invision Security Won the 2020 SAMMY Award for Best Vehicle Graphics Design

Types of Competitive Differentiation
Companies can stand out in many different ways. You can focus on specific vertical markets, become an expert of certain types of projects/technologies or emphasize business capabilities such as customer service.
Focus on Specific Market Segments
Each vertical market has somewhat different needs. Deploying a digital signage solution on a college campus is very different from a retail environment. One way to really stand out is to focus.
Select a couple of vertical industries that are big in your area and become the expert at understanding and addressing their needs.
Specialize in Certain Types of Projects
Alternatively, you may have amassed experience with certain types of projects or technologies such as very large video walls or unified communications systems. When you look for more customers with these same needs, you should work to identify commonalities between your existing customers.
Do they tend to be a certain size business? Are they in specific locations with unique requirements such as corporate campuses with more than three buildings? Characteristics such as these will help you create a profile of the type of customer you are looking for.
Highlight Specific Business Capabilities
When you talk to existing customers, do they frequently call...