Ace Marketers Reveal Their Methods
Security dealers/integrators from across North America entered the 15th Annual SAMMY Awards to match their sales, marketing and installation prowess against industry peers. Who won and why, plus what can you learn from their successes is explained within.
Photo via Flickr (exacq)
Stanley Convergent Security Solutions
Best Community Outreach Program
Sponsored by Altronix
Don’t Underestimate the Payback of Giving Back
As big as it is in size, with more than 2,000 employees working out of more than 75 branch locations generating in excess of $465 million, Naperville, Ill.-headquartered Stanley Convergent Security Solutions (CSS) has proven its collective heart is just as large. In 2009, the Stanley Gives Back program helped more than 35 different charities across the nation, donated in excess of 12,000 hours in volunteer work and raised more than $102,000 for assorted philanthropic causes.
“Whether we build a house for someone through Habitat for Humanity, contribute monetary funds to a women’s shelter, adopt a family for the holidays or raise money for cancer research, we are impacting people’s lives and the lives of future generations,” says Beth Tarnoff, Stanley CSS director of marketing. “Being such a large organization, we have the ability and scope to have an amazing p
ositive impact in communities across the continent. Serving others, both customers and communities, is the driving force of Stanley CSS and the foundation of its corporate culture.”
Four main elements ensure the program’s success: 1) nationwide community impact with a localized touch, where branches are encouraged to get involved; 2) comprehensive community support, where fundraising, donation collection and volunteer work are all endorsed; 3) nationwide campaigns, where suggestions are shared with each office and then executed and coordinated on a local level; and 4) team competition, where branches vie to raise the most money, volunteer the most hours and develop the most creative fundraising events.
“In our opinion, the most enduring impact from our companywide Stanley Gives Back campaign is helping to reinforce the giving and caring nature of our employees, encouraging them to touch more people in a positive fashion and to attract more employees who share our company value of helping the community. It’s very exciting to see how much of an impact our associates have made across the country,” says Stanley CSS North America President and COO Tony Byerly.
A case study of Stanley CSS’ Integrated Installation of the Year will appear in July’s SSI.
SecurTek Monitoring Solutions
Best Newsletter
Sponsored by Honeywell
Regular Communications Maintain Customer Connections
The headline story on the next edition of The SecurTek Monitor will likely crow about the Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada-based monitoring specialist running its string of consecutive SAMMY Awards for Best Newsletter to an amazing three in a row. The quarterly publication is only a couple of pages, but is very polished looking and full of safety tips, systems/services updates and company news.
“Through our surveys and contests we run, we know that customers read the newsletter and like the format,” says Leanne Woodhouse, general manager of Marketing and Dealer Relations. “We developed the format over a couple of years and have fine-tuned it … it’s a quick read because we know customers are pressed for time today. We’ve invited our staff to contribute ideas and articles. They feel more connected to what we’re doing on the communication side and it presents a more personal face to the customer.”
That collaborative enterprise was evident to the judges, who scored the newsletter particularly high on benefits. Considerations in that area include: if the benefits of the company are apparent; if it spurs an existing client to call for an upgrade; if it makes a special offer with urgency to act; and if it provides interesting, non-sales-related editorial, such as crime tips or other information.
One of the newsletter issues submitted included false alarm advice, vacation planning tips and a warning about door-to-door alarm salespeople. There was also an item celebrating SecurTek’s 10-year anniversary. But one of the most important reasons to produce a company newsletter is to maintain regular and ongoing communications with your clientele — even if its cost against the bottom line may be difficult to justify.
“We are constantly fine-tuning our ROI model as I don’t think it’s an exact science yet,” says Woodhouse. “Some things we do are for customer retention purposes. We feel it’s important to touch base with our customers as often as possible to ensure them that we value the business they are doing with us. That’s the case with our customer newsletter.”
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