TULSA, Okla. — A third-party monitoring company based here has launched a new dividend-paying membership program that offers security dealers recurring revenue and other benefits.
The new account acquisition program by Monitoring America Alarm Co-Op, an Installation Quality (IQ) Certified and UL-Listed central station, allows dealers to continue receiving 15 percent of recurring revenue. It will launch this March at ISC West.
The dealer program is really an extension of how the 20-year-old company monitors its accounts, Monitoring America General Manager Ron Wies tells SSI. The central station was started by a group of alarm companies who were tired of paying a local competitor to serve as their central station. As a result, the company was formed.
“We’re a cooperative business and each member has ownership of the company,” Wies says. “In essence, the owners told the subscribers that this is their central station. The same is true for the dealer program.”
When a customer calls into the central station, the operator will answer calls and dispatch in the dealer’s name. The client will never know that Monitoring America is serving as the central station, Wies explains.
He adds that the program is geared toward dealers who truly want to build their business and not those seeking to make a quick dollar.
“We want to help [companies] go further,” says Wies. “We don’t want to get the trunk slammer companies that have a tendency to sign on to some of the other dealer programs.”
The program also features a buy-back option that allows dealers to purchase their accounts back after 36 months for the same price they sold them to Monitoring Alarm.
“It’s a unique plan that we’re putting together,” Wies says. “Over time, the dealer is going to make considerably more off our dealer program than they would with other dealer programs.”
Ashley Willis is associate editor for SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION. She can be reached at (310) 533-2419.
