Ex-Integrator Now Growth Strategist Interviewed

Scot is my (new) hero: 

I mean, John, you’ve spent enough time around startups to know that "AI" is a fucking drop down in the AWS environment. Anyone still excited about AI has literally never studied it.

A long (but interesting) read - a podcast would have been great.

In terms of people starting to do their own installations; this was true in the early days (IP video was just for the nerds back then), then it took off, and "normal" guys came on-board and they needed a lot more help. The next stage is that people will assume/expect to be able to do it themselves. In the past, you'd need dedicated IT consultants to set up an email-server, now it's just a few clicks away.

The actual mounting, wiring, maintenance of the hardware etc. will still be done by integrators. The savvy integrator will still have a lot of work on more complex and bespoke installations, but 5 years down the line, the bulk of the cookie-cutter installs will probably be systems that are affordable and easier to use with fewer bells and whistles.

I am also confident that the incumbents will try to fight this trend by adding even more fluff to their offering - it won't work, but they'll def. try it that way.

Great article and Amen!!! The integrator portion of our industry has changed dramatically in the past few years. Specs are worse than ever on the video side. I went through one today that had so much old analog and new IP in the same sentences that it was just mind boggling. Using terminology that was outdated 10 years ago. 

Great read. A lot of good points made. I think because physical security is a relatively small & specialized market and has had the rigid model of Manufacturer sells to Integrator sells to End-User, it allowed integrators to get away with not investing more in all the things mentioned in this interview, because there hasn't been that many major new entrants from IT space at integrator level. 

When I first entered the space 15 years ago, I was sure it was to be come more like IT, where sometimes manufacturers sell direct and integrators focus on services and being product/technology experts, but it hasn't happened yet in any major way.  Ironically because of market slowing and consolidation in industry, companies and people not upping there game are going to get left behind. It is already happening on residential side, with telecoms bundling alarm.com with internet and TV offering and doing often a better job at branding, customer service etc.. 

Thank you, Scot!  The industry has changed and I think it is getting easier.  Build a brand and play the long game.  Service your customers better than they ever have. Provide solutions and don't sell boxes. Make systems easier for your end user to us.  The biggest challenge is having funding and people to continue the growth. 

Outstanding article.

UI#1 , You absolutely nailed it describing what is happening.

I like the back and forth with the "extra hands" vs value bit. I have often felt that many integrators are missing a lot of revenue by not providing their own tailored managed services. I don't believe that anyone who is willing to continually educate themselves and seek technical advantages observable in other industries has much to worry about.

More attention to protocols, interoperability and standards rather than brand differentiators like the "ultra-intensifier" is going to make for happier customers. As an end user I want see my integrator as the "tip of the spear" in innovating security solutions not "just" a helping hand or purchasing agent.

As someone relatively new to the industry, what is the sentiment surrounding Honeywell? 

Why is it common knowledge that they'd rather integrators go into insolvency? 

I enjoyed the honesty of this interview- Truly glad West Virginia was mentioned 20 years ago as a youngster in this industry I learned many a valuable lesson by selling and living in the State of West Virginia that help me today.   I moved from Washington, DC to Nitro, WV to open ADI distribution.   The most honest people I have ever met and done business with are in that state.  If you are honest and if you build a relationship you will have a following.  That business relationship will quickly become a personal relationship that symbiotically will help each other grow. In any territory If you don’t dedicate yourself to your territory and the people in that territory you will always be an outsider and a charlatan – a simple traveling purveyor of products.  Products and technology are a commodity they can be bought and sold in which the manufactures and distributors hold control over.  A relationship can never be bought and never be sold and no matter the technology if you dedicate yourself – learn your trade – build those relationships - you will be a trusted adviser and always have business no matter the size of the territory.  Thank you for the life lesson WV !!!!

In terms of a podcast, this one would have made a good one but I am not sure how many would. Given MacTaggart's strong opinions and lack of constraint, this was a more engaging debate / discussion.

A lot of people, though, would be much more restrained in such a discussion. If there are recommendations on people who are willing to speak frankly (or if you are), let us know and we will consider.

It’s a repeated, multiple touches kind of thing that you need to make without an immediate expectation of a transactional gratification. Just because you say something positive does not mean the customer is overcome with lust and all of a sudden starts writing checks. The customer wants to hear your story over time. They’re listening for a longterm positive impression not a single hit impression.

You know that feeling, when you meet someone for the first time, and you just know that they're the real deal?  That was what it was like when I first met Scot.  I think I'll nominate him for the June cover of Tiger Beat.

Integrators, Integrate with MSP providers. Integrate with IT.

You will find your technicians are very much the same.

Payroll is very much the same.

If you want to add and edge and adopt IT/S and cloud infrastructure....

Unify with those MSPs around you. There is plenty of work to be done, if IT can take over security then ADT type big guys are out.

Collaborate your sole source resources to customer with your product(var) lines and that of the local MSP...everyone needs security.

Scot is right. I went back to school recently to study social media marketing. I've been working with a Grill company for three years now running their social media groups. When they first started their company everyone told them there was no way they could sell a $700 grill on the internet. They have been able to tell their story and allow their customers to tell their story using social media and have continued to grow tremendously over the last few years far more than they did when they were going through a dealer network. 

Converting my experience from Grills to security cameras has been a significant challenge. So much so that I went back to school to study social media marketing. Telling your story online isn't easy especially when you can't talk about a lot of what you do. But we're figuring it out; we're not doing it through the traditional means of what's on our official social media pages either. If you look at our pages, you'll think we're not successful on social media. 

I also agree with what he says about collaboration. Over 400 emails, 1,000 text messages, dozens of phone calls, dozens of site visits and three years ago I started working with a client who wanted to do something I had not seen done before to the extent that he wanted it. Here's what he wanted. 

He was building a softball park with 11 fields. He wanted to stream 1080p video at 30fps to people on his website. He told me we could see as many as 1,000 viewers per field at any given time. That's about 11,000 viewers at a time. I told him I had no idea how to make that happen. We spent hours working on it. Mostly nights and weekends with a single temporary camera at his indoor park. The way we had to configure that camera to work goes against everything I know about security cameras. Streaming wasn't the only challenge; he also wanted public WiFi and to record all of the cameras for resale, to not even mention the sheer size of this park. We had never done anything like this before. But we figured it out. Before we even finished the project we started to get calls from his friends who own other places like this. They see how smooth the video stream is and are blown away. 

We're a small insignificant company. Our revenue is healthy, and we're licensed in 8 states doing business in 13 at any given time. This gives us a leg up I think. We're small enough that we can do whatever we want, but we're also big enough that we can afford to spend years on a project without making any money on it to see if it was possible. 

This project has launched us in a new direction. For nearly 30 years we were just a security company. That is no longer the case. 

The writing has been on the wall for years, but we (most of us I think) still see it- a lot of old ways of thinking and doing business still in the industry. It wasn't said directly in this interview, but if you read between the lines I think it a lot of it was "if you're selling widgets, anyone can sell a widget" (correct me if I'm wrong). You can't just sell widgets. Or if you do, make sure you're one of the few or only ones in your town selling those widgets. Otherwise, you need to think like the businesses you are working with and understand their needs. Not just from the Security Manager's perspective, but from the CFO's perspective. The IT Department's perspective. The Risk Manager's perspective. Their Human Resources perspective. Their insurance company. We've gained business simply but knowing how to speak to their Finance Department, and not because we were the cheapest.

There's not enough business for just anyone anymore, but there's plenty of business for those who understand what was well put in the article, those who know how to integrate into their customer's business.

“The most dangerous thing is to be
successful. You then think every
decision is the right one.”
—Wong Wai Ming, CFO of Lenovo