Security Dealer & Integrator

APR 2017

Find news and information for the executive corporate security director, CSO, facility manager and assets protection manager on issues of policy, products, incidents, risk management, threat assessments and preparedness.

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38 Security Dealer & Integrator / www.SecurityInfoWatch.com April 2017 America's Fastest Growing Security Dealers and Systems Integrators each sales and installation team is accustomed to working with the same technologies and systems. Plus, Gay- lord, Weinstein and Sessa are estab- lished industry veterans – Gaylord launched his company in 1995; Wein- stein's Absolute Security dated back to 1999; and Sessa's ASC, which became an authorized ADT dealer in 1998. "When they look at mergers and acquisitions, most see them in terms of gaining footprint or account base," Gaylord says. "For me, it was more about talent acquisition. Bring- ing these strong regional companies together, the biggest benefit to us is simply bringing together all that talent. We were able to mold together all of the strengths from every one of these companies. We spent a lot of last year identifying who is the strongest at what and where everybody's wheel- house is so we could put them in the right place to succeed." e sheer number of employees at SafeStreets has nearly doubled since the 2016 merger; however, because the relationships of each of the six leaders dates back more than 20 years in some cases, the transition did not create the sort of "clash of company cultures" that others may experience. "e good thing about knowing these guys for so long is we already know each other's philosophy in busi- ness and because we get along so well, it was clear that most of our philoso- phies were very similar," Gaylord says. "ere wasn't a big shock of someone coming in and making huge changes." When he officially began as CEO in March, Gaylord toured many of the company's satellite offices and held town hall-type meetings where he was able to express to the employees his vision for the company and how he likes to run his business. "I have been able to express that to all the employ- ees over the last couple of months, so it wasn't a big culture shock," he says. Growth Strategies Now that the major mergers and lead- ership transition are in the rearview, Gaylord and the team are focused on maintaining SafetStreets USA's status as a customer-focused security com- pany. SafeStreets, in fact, has one of the lowest attrition rates among ADT deal- ers, Gaylord says. "We are trying to grow the com- pany, but we want to make sure we maintain the focus on the customer," he says. "Attrition and those sort of things on the back end can bite you, so we are very cognizant of that. We want to maintain that focus, but we certainly do want to grow." In addition to traditional customer growth, SafeStreets is also focused on expanding its own dealer program – one of the only programs of its size sanctioned by ADT. An independent dealer can become a SafeStreets USA Dealer to take advantage of the com- pany's well-developed resources, such as operations and fulfillment support. It enables companies to take advan- tage of becoming an authorized ADT dealer while SafeStreets handles the back-end support. "A dealer might be really good at sales on the front-end – our program lets them focus on that while we take care of the back-end things like instal- lation, maintenance, equipment acqui- sition and handling attrition," Gaylord explains. "Some owners just don't find that a strength for them; so this is their opportunity to still have their own company, do their own thing, but let us focus on the back-end. If you are going directly to ADT, you will already have a solid understanding of the back-end as well as the sales front-end." SafeStreets USA's dealer program also consists of hands-on training in its Garner, N.C., corporate office for topics such as customer retention, call center management, HR, licensing, funding and business management, to name a handful. Through the SafeStreets USA dealer program, companies can enjoy installation and maintenance support while they focus on their sales efforts. We were able to mold together all of the strengths from every one of these companies. We spent a lot of last year identifying who is the strongest at what and where everybody's wheelhouse is so we could put them in the right place to succeed." — Kevin Gaylord, CEO

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