The Keys to Unlocking Your Client’s Castle
Making noise about product capabilities alone will not convince or produce added business value. Instead you must roll up your sleeves and do your homework about your customer’s business operation.
You dont have to storm castle walls or banter with gatekeepers over logic, justifications and value. There is a better approach and it starts with changing your perspective.
©iStockphoto.com/Anton Brand
The problem, of course, was video quality, availability with downtime, surprises of no video available when least expected and consistency of service, which this market considers a given. Bandwidth and connectivity to stores historically may have been an issue that precluded networked-based solutions. Installation and service scheduling has been another big issue with dynamic store activity and food delivery cycles. Finally, integrating of changing third-party point-of-service (POS) data streams with analysis and operational data were basically beer talk at the end of the day; possible but not really probable.
So what changed? To continue the Monty Python references: the laden airspeed velocity of African swallows. All it took was a company with a different or fresh perspective – one that took time to learn the business challenges to tailor product offerings that met the operational added-value needs.
Innovative Provider Prevails
Louisville, Colo.-based Envysion (envysion.com) is a good example of a company that focused on learning the operational value proposition of this market. This provider recognized an underserved part of the market and addressed price, position, purpose and simplicity of technology in delivering improved operational capabilities in the following ways:
- Pricing: slightly higher than low-end DVRs and lower than feature-laden NVR offerings
- Positioning: added actionable third-party POS data intuitively with video data
- Purpose: addressed the needs of both security and operational managers for training
- Simplicity: really easy to use, configure, install and maintain.
The solution Envysion offered had some unique operational features such as integrating the POS register data with the video, not just overlaid but rather integrated and searchable to save time. The firm also integrat
ed PCI compliance to protect credit card data two years ago when virtually no DVR makers offered that feature. Finally, the company recently announced an alliance to offer solutions bundled on Sony laptops.
Simple, effective, purpose-built and saves time. How do you like them coconuts? Apparently the quick serve market has responded quite favorably. Remember to use your coconuts to think about creating operational efficiencies through security solutions, and not just making noise like Patsy does for King Arthur.
Paul Boucherle, Certified Protection Professional (CPP) and Certified Sherpa Coach (CSC), is principal of Canfield, Ohio-based Matterhorn Consulting (www.matterhornconsulting.com). He has more than 30 years of diverse security and safety industry experience and can be contacted at [email protected].
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About the Author
Paul Boucherle, SSI Contributor
Paul C. Boucherle, Certified Protection Professional (CPP) and Certified Sherpa Coach (CSC), is Security Sales & Integration’s “Business Fitness” columnist. A principal of Matterhorn Consulting, he has more than 30 years of diverse security and safety industry experience including UL central station operations, risk-vulnerability assessments, strategic security program design and management of industry convergence challenges. Boucherle has successfully guided top-tier companies in achieving enhanced ROI resulting from improved sales and operational management techniques. He is a charismatic speaker and educator on a wide range of critical topics relating to the security industry of today and an accomplished corporate strategist and marketer whose vision and expertise in business performance have driven notable enterprise growth in the security industry sector.
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