A Security Agency Lead Generation Program How-To

As a security agency in today’s very competitive security guard industry of more than 14,000 agencies, developing a good lead generating program is essential.  Your prospects are less likely to take your calls now more than ever.  In order to fill your sales funnel, it may be necessary to outsource your lead generation to a company that specializes in that function.  When choosing a lead generation company for your security agency, here are some criteria that your chosen firm should meet.

Security Agency Criteria for Selecting a Lead Generation Firm

Here is a short list of 6 criteria that you can use to help evaluate lead generating firms for your security agency.

  1. The firm should assign 1 representative to make your calls – Using just 1 representative allows that rep to establish a level of familiarity and comfort when talking about your business.  They will continue to learn more about your business as you communicate throughout the campaign.
  2. The firm should assign a representative that is polished and articulate – This criterion helps ensure that they are representing your company in the most professional manner possible.  Which leads me to…
  3. The firm should allow you to “interview” your designated caller – Because you are trusting this person with your brand, you should ensure that they are a good fit.
  4. The firm should be able to record calls – For quality control,  you should be able to periodically listen to recordings of the reps calls.
  5. The firm should have clients from the industry – This helps ensure that the agency understands and is comfortable speaking with your prospects.  If they don’t have security agency clients, clients who also service similar prospects should suffice. 
  6. The firm should provide you with metrics – In order to guage the firms performance and make adjustments to the campaign, you will need a consistent set of metrics delivered to you regularly.

As the previous Director of Business Development at a regional security agency, I used these exact criteria to select a firm.  I had the opportunity to speak with several great companies and in the end selected CMS Solutions of St. Louis, MO.  The Account Manager was very diligent about winning our business and maintained the same level of service after we became a client.  CMS also did a great job of helping me establish goals and execute a very successful campaign.

Goal Setting

Prior to signing your contract, ensure that you have established measurable goals for your campaign and have outlined how the firm will ensure that they are met.   In order to provide a seamless transition of prospects from the firm to your agency, we suggest having the rep call as a member of your “Marketing Department”.   Most importantly, because the rep will not be able to convey your company’s differentiators as well as someone from your agency, the representative should not attempt to sell your company.  The rep’s goals should be:

  1. Confirm that security guards are used on the property.
  2. Confirm the responsible party’s contact name and email.
  3. Confirm the dates that the contract ends.
  4. Determine who the current vendor is.

Once the rep has gathered this information, a business development manager from your security agency can contact the WARM lead as appropriate.  In cases where the representative reaches a prospect who would like more details about your security agency, the representative should  transfer them to someone in your business development department.

What I discovered very quickly was that in most cases, these campaigns will be less expensive than having your business development managers make cold calls for most of their day.  In fact, using a lead generating firm to make your cold calls allows your business development professionals to spend their time making appointments with WARM leads and closing more deals.

Has your security agency used a lead generation company in the past?  If so, what worked or did not work for you?

By Courtney Sparkman 

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