4 Dealer Programs to Help Security Companies Achieve Greater Success
Bosch, COPS, Honeywell and Wavestore — which dealer program is right for your business?
Dealer programs emanate from a variety of provider partners offering a range of business and technical support.
2. COPS Committed to Being Customer Care King
As a leading provider of wholesale alarm monitoring services for independent alarm dealers across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, COPS Monitoring believes that its people are actually the greatest benefit to its dealers. Jim McMullen, president & COO, explains that dispatchers with specific character traits are handpicked from six geographically diverse regions of the U.S. to serve dealers from its network of load-sharing central stations. In addition, because COPS promotes from within when possible, nearly all of its employees in varying positions up to executive management all started as alarm dispatchers, giving them a complete understanding of the operations and the ability to assist dealers.
It’s important to note that a primary differentiator with COPS is that it does not specify, sell, install, monitor systems, or compete with its dealers for business in any way. “Our business is third-party monitoring, which means that our success is dependent on our dealers’ success,” notes McMullen. “Our goal is to be a partner to our dealers and support them with professional service and the best products and services to help them run their business.”
Some of the services COPS Monitoring provides its dealers include direct subscriber and billing services. The central station does the invoicing, collects the payments and writes a check to the dealer after deducting the direct billing fees. Dealer associates can also take advantage of the TeleMax Messaging Center, and elect to have their phones answered by a live, friendly professional whenever they’re unable to answer t
he phone. And, COPS’ dealer access offering, MPower, provides an extensive set of online tools to help dealers manage their account database, activity and invoices from anywhere.
Dealers can look to COPS’ dedicated dealer support department to assist with most of their needs, including technical and programming support. An additional benefit dealers can leverage is the monitoring specialist’s funding programs. While COPS does not purchase accounts directly, it has relationships with select companies that can provide its dealers with the operating capital they need.
McMullen points out that COPS also offers marketing materials to its dealers and is a conduit for them in obtaining more elaborate services, such as professional Web-site design, logo design, business cards, brochures, door-hangers, yard signs and more. Participating dealers also enjoy discounts on office supplies, job postings and alarm equipment from several popular manufacturers through COPS’ exclusive relationship with the SS&Si dealer network.
The only requirement for dealers to have access to these benefits is to have their accounts monitored with COPS.
3. Honeywell Holds Events to Hone In on Best Practices
Honeywell launched its dealer programs in 1990 and over the years has continued to evolve these programs to make sure they remain relevant for dealers. A commercial dealer program was added 15 years ago and the company revises and shapes these programs to ensure they’re most helpful for customers.
“The Honeywell Authorized Security Dealer Program continues in this vein of making it all about the people using the program,” says Marek Robinson, president, Honeywell Authorized Dealer Programs. “Our dealers tell us that the most significant benefit is the networking opportunities. Our program provides a network of other dealers across the nation who share best practices and solve problems collaboratively. We host dozens of events throughout the year. In addition to networking opportunities, these conferences and meetings include dozens of educational sessions to build new skills and hone existing ones. We also provide Webinars that help our dealers launch new plans, grow business and stay informed of industry changes.”
RELATED: Honeywell to Drop ‘First Alert’ Brand in New Dealer Program
Robinson notes that Honeywell takes into account regional saturation when assessing additional dealers to ensure the network isn’t overly saturated with folks operating in the same geographic areas. Combined with Honeywell’s new portal infrastructure and enhanced support, the Honeywell Authorized Security Dealer Program provides a full suite of resources to drive success for dealers.
News spread recently that First Alert Professional, the iconic brand for Honeywell’s Security Dealer Program, was being phased out in favor of a Honeywell-branded program. Robinson explains the change: “In any type of dealer program, there are varying degrees of dealer commitment – some are thoroughly committed while others are more casual or opportunistic about it. We wanted to reward and recognize those dealers truly committed to all aspects of the dealer program, which led to the Honeywell Authorized Security Dealer Program. The changes are designed to enhance the experience for dealers who participate in the program by adding additional resources, support and rewards.”
There’s a tremendous amount of upside to participating in the Honeywell Authorized Security Dealer Program, Robinson notes. Participating dealers have the ability to receive additional cooperative marketing funds, which they may use toward joint marketing efforts; receiving larger rebates; utilizing different branding logos reflecting the level of program commitment; and obtaining marketing development funds (MDF) to drive new initiatives within the company’s business. New to Honeywell’s program is access to a real-time portal that tracks a wealth of customer and business metrics available on demand.
“Our customers have told us for years that the Honeywell brand is one of the most recognized in the world,” Robinson says. “Our brand helps dealers engage with more end users, and because of that dealers can further leverage the Honeywell brand to fuel the growth of their companies through the new program.”
Honeywell dealers can also tap into customized literature and promotional videos or case studies, as well as written case studies and whitepapers. They also enjoy priority access to the manufacturer’s technical support and proprietary portal infrastructure, as well as regularly scheduled Webinars for technical training and product launches, among other benefits.
“We have a fairly formal onboarding and rollout process for new dealers, and that’s something we’re constantly tuning,” Robinson adds. “We thoroughly vet and evaluate potential dealers to bring onboard, and once they’re engaged in the program, go through a rigorous process to identify and understand what they are looking to achieve through our program. Once we identify the opportunity, we create and execute a rollout plan to help them achieve their custom objectives.”
4. Wavestore Partners to Be Happier ‘Together’
A global leader in digital video recording and data management solutions, Wavestore launched its Better Together Partner Program in January 2013. Its hundreds of worldwide participating dealers/integrators that specialize in installations ranging from standalone systems to large distributed server networks with tens of thousands of cameras, sensors and analytics options can take advantage of numerous program benefits.
Among those benefits are project registration, system design and quotation support, intensive free training and free demonstration licenses. Customer service support is at the core of the Better Together program. That spans 24/7 technical support and active marketing support, including a lead generation provision to applicable partners, as well as tiered pricing discounts, exclusive training commitments, private portal access, project design and application customization assistance, and warranty and SLA preferential options. End-user liaisons, camera/device partner involvement, remote site management, and integration design and applications support are also integral to the program.
WavestoreUSA offers a skilled in-house technical support team to help with troubleshooting and system maintenance. Marketing options include hyperlink associations, authorized use of the WavestoreUSA logo, and event sponsorship and participation. Better Together dealers are trained and acclimated to the program via sales training performed in the field at the partner’s location in conjunction with technical training presented at WavestoreUSA facilities in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“The WavestoreUSA Better Together Partner Program is open to any company involved in the installation and commissioning of electronic security equipment,” says Randy Miller, WavestoreUSA vice president of
sales. “The most critical component is our attempt to be loyal and create a core partnership that helps separate them from the crowd. Being open platform and truly independent means [participating] systems dealers can deliver innovative and best-in-breed total security solutions across a wide variety of end-user markets. WavestoreUSA’s discount levels, warranty, technical and design support reflect an aggressive stance to maximize partner profitability.”
WavestoreUSA regularly sends program members free new platform version upgrade integrations and software-only support levels, and offers training and product support before, during and after the sale.
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