Posts by Scott MacDougal
National Small Business Week
This week the nation celebrates small businesses. In his 2016 National Small Business Week proclamation, President Obama says, “Our Nation’s small businesses play a critical role in generating economic prosperity, and the effort poured into them by ordinary citizens across our country reflects the hard work and determination inherent to who we are as a people.”…
Read MoreIs It Time To Raise Your Rates?
Security alarm dealers handle rate increases carefully. No dealer wants to lose current subscribers to lower priced competitors. However, inevitably rates must change as the costs of goods and services do not remain stagnant. In this post, we share some of our best practices, developed from years of working with companies to implement rate increases.…
Read MoreIntegration and the Benefits to Security Alarm Dealers
Workflow and productivity drive our mission at Cornerstone. We get love helping security alarm dealers work more efficiently and serve their customers better. Maybe your hobby is golf, but ours is improving processes to help dealers work faster, smarter and better. Dealers understand the value of having systems that work seamlessly with each other. However,…
Read MoreISC West and What Security Dealers Need to Know
ISC West, the largest largest security industry trade show in the U.S. was held last week in Las Vegas. There were vendors, educational opportunities, celebrations and of course new product launches, but I learned the most from the intimate conversations with security dealers. Spending the week immersed in “shop talk” led me to reflect on…
Read MoreExit Strategy Planning for Security Alarm Dealers
All security alarm dealers need an exit or succession plan. In fact, many experts advise having one at the start of your business, so that you stay on track with how you grow, plan and manage your business. Even if you are many years from considering retirement, an exit plan will help you prepare if…
Read MoreManage Prospects and Customers Together
Most security dealers we talk with use different software tools for specific purposes. For example, they might use Outlook for prospecting and emailing quotes, Quickbooks for company accounting and possibly service/installation management, and another tool for CRM. Why? Usually it’s a combination of things – in our industry, true “enterprise” software that handles EVERYTHING is…
Read MoreDealers: The Most Profitable 2 Hours You’ll Invest
Security alarm dealers know the importance of billing and invoicing, but there is another activity that often gets missed and it is costing you money. Year in, year out, we’ve found that our dealers get a great return from one simple activity: auditing their list of monitored accounts versus billed accounts. Your central station should…
Read MoreI Did Not Know You Did That!
Nearly all of our security dealer customers have complained that they’ve lost subscribers because—after they’ve switched to Comcast or AT&T or whomever—the subscriber didn’t know that the dealer offered X, Y or Z service. ARGH!!! You may not have the time or resources to publish a regular newsletter to your customers. BUT there is an…
Read MoreHow to Get Alarm Customers to Show You the Money
I really can’t remember the last time a contractor left my house after doing some work WITHOUT a check or credit card payment in hand. So I’m perplexed that so many of our dealers are willing to fix or upgrade a subscriber’s security system, then leave the site without getting paid! Yes, it’s true that…
Read MoreThe Cloud Has a Silver Lining for Security Dealers
Security dealers embrace internet-driven technologies when installing security systems but may not have adopted it for their company’s workflow management and back office software. Many rely on a patchwork of software and tools that use valuable time and resources to toggle back and forth between non-integrated pieces to get the work done. This is inefficient…
Read More