Re: Brinks v Rojas Update Request

[Jim <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

On Sep 21, 4:20?pm, tourman <robercampb...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Sep 21, 12:14 am, Jim <alarmi...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > Hard to imagine anyone trying to make a living on doing takeovers,  in
> > my area, like Bob in Canada. But it could be I'm insulated from the
> > real market by my total dependence on referral work.
>
> RHC: I would hardly say that I make my living from doing takeovers,
> but lately anyway they do comprise a lot of incoming systems.

I was just picking up what you seem to imply about your business.
Taking over systems just seemed to be what you were talking about
mostly..


>After 15
> years in the alarm business,  mostly I work as you do by referral -

I seem to remember that you were just starting out about 7 or so years
ago in the actual installation of alarm system. You were talking about
limiting the size of your account base to 300, 500, 700, etc along the
way. (Which, if you remember .... I told you that wouldn't happen ....
I'm sure your happy I was right ;-)  You've said you were doing
physical security prior to that (?) or am I mistaken?

> I'd say  70% from referral and 30% directly from my website. Other
> than the website, I don't do any advertising at all.

I'd thought about having someone do a website for me but .... ya
know  .... I got more than I can keep up with as it is ...... and I'm
supposed to be thinking about retirement .... not how to increase
business. Sometimes I find my self pulling into a new strip mall, with
the intention of laying cards on doors or trying to meet new tenants.
And before you know it, I've got two or three jobs that I don't have
the time to do and they've no-less got a deadline to be in before they
open the new shop. So after working all day on one job, I wind up
working a night shift till 10 or 11pm just to get it in on time.

It's just hard to turn off, after so many years.

>
> I believe I experience pretty much the same things you do in your
> area. A lot of takeovers are people moving into a new home with an
> alarm installed already, and when they do their shopping, end up at my
> website, and from there to me. A lot are takeovers from high priced
> systems put in by ADT and others, who have paid off their systems, and
> instead of staying with the high priced status quo, decide to go
> elsewhere.

I don't get too much in the way of takeovers, I'd say about 10% if
that much. Most of mine is new work .... either retrofit or new
construction. But the new construction is usually the big jobs. Mega
million dollar homes, on the water, high end stuff. It's just an
evolution thing. The longer you're around the better the reputation,
the more willing the people with the money are willing to pay for the
expertise and knowledge and the fact that you did their friends mega
million dollar home too.  I don't do the low installation price with
the high monthly. But of course I have to stay competitive so my
monitoring fee has to jive with what the market will bear. So I guess,
in some respects I do subsidize my installations somewhat with future
income from monitoring. But it's easily absorbed at this stage.

> I also get people calling with systems installed by a lot
> of the "little guys", but these I ALWAYS inspect before taking them
> over.

Yeah, but it's always a chore in diplomacy trying to tell them nicely
that they got ripped off and their system isn't worth a damn.

>Alarm installations are totally unregulated up here, and as a
> result, we depend upon market forces to drive out the poor companies,
> but unfortunately, not before they end up doing a lot of damage in the
> process.

That happens here also, but I think it may happen over a shorter
period of time. Newbies don't last very long around here. Nowdays it
takes some pretty substatial backing or wifey has got to be making a
damn good salary with medical, for some one to last long enough to
build up to the magical number of accounts.

> Most of the bigger companies put in a decently installed
> system, and don't lock their boards either. I also get a few systems
> coming from Alarmforce, after the customer realizes how useless his
> system really is, and has them remove it, then opts for a proper
> system.

Never came across and alarm system that wasn't locked. I assume
everyone does it here.

>
> Overall, takeovers now represent about 30 to 40% of our new business.
> It wasn't always that way, but seems to have increased greatly over
> the last couple of years. I know you and I don't agree about long term
> contracts;

It's not the disagreement about the pros and cons of long term
contracts.

You have your way and others have theirs.

Maybe this will explain it.
When an end user or newbie alarm company comes to ASA, I don't promote
one year, two year, 5 year or any amount of time contract. I don't
ever remember anyone in ASA  EVER telling an end user to sign a long
term contract here. Or to steer clear of anyone trying to give you a
month to month contract.

Get it?

> however, a lot of the large companies shoot themselves in
> the foot by insisting on a second contract after the first one is
> finished, and they won't lower the rate at all (or if they do, only by
> a dollar or so a month). So the customers shop around and inevitably
> find someone else to do the monitoring.

Thats just something that doens't effect me. My monitoring price is my
monitoring price. If it's higher then someone else and a client wants
to quibble over a dollar or two a month. He's not my customer. When
the original 5 year term is up, the amount stays the same. I'm
required by law to notify them via certified letter and they've got
time to cancel. The next time I vist on service, I ask them to sign a
new agreement for 5 years and they do. If they don't it remains at one
year or they always have the option to cancel without penalty.  I
prefer the 5 year because it's worth more in the market.
>
> As you say, the customers shopping around who want everything for
> nothing, or who won't pay a penny to upgrade a 15 year old clunker, I
> don't want either. After awhile, you can smell these guys.......
>
> I do believe you have a larger percentage of the large Nationals in
> your area than we do in ours. Brinks is almost non existent and  ADT
> is the most prevalent, and generally the most expensive. By my
> informal calculations, once the ADT salesman gets in the door, the
> $149 special ends up costing the client about $1100 on average. This
> is almost double what any other dealer up here will install the usual
> system sold here .....2 to 4 hardwired doors, 2 hardwired pet motions,
> hardwired basement windows, and maybe a smoke.
>
Same thing here. I can beat them out ...... every time.

> Like everything I guess, it's up to the consumer to do his shopping
> before they sign on the dotted line.....

Yep.