Conventional wisdom dictates that in lean economic times one of the last places a business should cut back on is sales and marketing. In fact, such periods may warrant allocating more resources than ever to this cause. After all, the largest and most aggressively cast nets catch the largest and greatest numbers of fish. Doing otherwise is likely to amount to little more than tales of the ones that got away.
SSI’s Sales & Marketing Survey indicates security contractors have no intention of letting their prospects off the hook. The new data shows 54 percent of companies are earmarking at least 6 percent of their total operating budget to sales and marketing, compared to just 41 percent in 2008 (the last time the biannual study was conducted). And nearly nine in 10 plan to spend at least as much on sales and marketing in 2010 as they did in 2009.
At the same time installing firms have leveraged in-house personnel and the Web, among other tactics, to boost cost effectiveness and efficiencies such that the average annual marketing investment and cost of marketing per account fell to levels last seen nearly a decade ago. In addition, although the average closing rate has slipped, companies are relying less on free equipment and monitoring incentives, and making a greater effort to secure new business with existing customers.
The 2010 Sales & Marketing Survey includes responses from 100+ security dealers/integrators of all sizes, locations and market specializations. Take a look at what your peers are doing, what seems to be working for them, compare how your company stacks up, then synthesize it together for an optimized sales and marketing plan.
Click to view SSI‘s Sales and Marketing Survey.
