Security Integrators Reveal Their Favorite Brands, How to Earn Their Business

Top 3 Reasons a Market Leader Chooses to Change Brands

1. Manufacturers that perform a “disappearing act” from remaining in contact with us is the main reason. Brands should not assume that an integrator will always be buying their product regardless of the level of support they receive. When we fail to learn about new products, systems and technical procedures from our sales point of contact we begin to look elsewhere for a similar product and brand that keeps us in the loop as a dealer.
2. Long holds for phone support is very frustrating to integrators. A technician in the field can’t stay on hold for long when they have several appointments to keep during an average day. Time is money. Extended hold times are something we keep track of and could be an influencing factor if we change brands.
3. Brands that don’t have reliable sales staff that won’t answer their phone or return emails will get us looking for new avenues quickly. Our customers don’t like to wait long for specific information that we may not readily have available. Information we must get from the brand itself. Losing a customer because we can’t get brand information in a timely manner is a big reason for us to change products.

1. If we don’t see a manufacturer staying up on technology and trends to the point where we feel like we are lagging behind with our offerings to our customers.
2. Ability to tie together something that we are offering in another sector of our business that might work better with another brand.
3. Many out-of-box failures, poor warranty or don’t stand behind their products or they are costing us money and reputation with their product we sell.

Low Voltage Contractors
Robbie Danko, Marketing Manager

1. Lack of support for the territory and/or lack of support for our people. We view our vendors as partners and expect the same from them.
2. A competitor has a more comprehensive solution that addresses the current and future technology needs of our clients.
3. A change in strategic focus which dictates different partners.

Dowley Security Systems
Mark Davis, President & CEO

1. Brand requested by a key existing client.
2. If a new product comes out that is a significant technology advancement beyond a current product.
3. If relationship/support from a current brand is not good we would consider changing brands.

Intec Security Solutions
Danny Soileau, Consultant

1. Changing brands would be hard for us to do because we are loyal to that brand if that brand is doing their job right.
2. Price is not always the issue. Just because something is less expensive doesn’t mean we must jump ship and change partners.
3. We might change if we get poor service, and product fails too much.

1. Manufacturer’s product falls behind the competition in offering innovative solutions and cannot compete with the changing market. This includes feature/benefits and costs.
2. Offering becomes obsolete because of code changes or raw material availability.
3. Quality control falls off the cliff and does not recover. If our mission statement, “Protecting lives and property through leading technologies and quality services while creating valuable relationships,” does not ring true, we must change vendors/brands to one that will help us meet the standard our clients have come to expect.

1. General lack of ongoing technical service support from the equipment manufacturer.
2. Beyond providing great technology, we’re looking for manufacturers who also understand the value of business development. They days of they make it, we sell it are gone. We are looking for manufacturers who can also help us generate new leads and customer opportunities to grow our business.
3. Manufacturers need to have the infrastructure and bandwidth to be able to create a relationship with our field office locations. They need to be able to get out to our locations and develop a relationship with our sales and operations teams and colleagues.

1. Potential or actual breach of equipment.
2. Lack of or poor support from manufacturers.
3. Inability to keep up with new technologies, such as analytics.

Securitas Electronic Security
Felix Gonzales, V.P. Strategy & Business Development

Technology Change – For security equipment, our customers value a strong balance in proven reliable technology with new emerging technology. A product brand partner that overlooks technology changes or under-invests in R&D would be a potential key reason for SES to make a product brand change.

Service Change – Providing outstanding service to our customer 24 hours a day, seven days a week is top priority for SES. Achieving unparalleled customer service response every day requires our product brand partners to provide the same level of service commitment to SES. A product brand partner that overlooks the importance of service support for their products would be a top reason for SES to make a product branch change.

Partnership Change – Being a committed long-term business partner to our customers has been a key component to the business growth and continued success of SES. Product brands that value a long-term business relationship and work in partnership with SES to deliver the best solutions and service for our customers are part of our success story. A product brand partner that overlooks the value of partnerships and collaboration for the benefit of our end-user customer would be a reason for SES to make a product branch change.

1. Superior product performance.
2. Better quality.
3. Better tech support and/or warranty.

1. Dramatic change in dealer loyalty.
2. Degraded product quality.
3. Poor grasp on technology innovation and/or cybersecurity.

SSP
David English, Sales Manager

1. Lack of support, reliability and loyalty; loyalty to things that we have agreed on.
2. If the manufacturer not reciprocating leads when we are leading with their solutions.
3. Not delivering on promises for product advancements, new feature adds and product updates on time, oversaturating regions, etc.

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!

Related Content

AMAG Technology Unveils New Strategic Direction, User Experience, Products

Hanwha Vision Announces Strategic Partnership With SAVI Controls

RapidFire Safety & Security Acquires Albuquerque Low Voltage

Hardening Access Control With Biometric Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)