Ex-Avigilon Sales Director Promises 'Exciting Announcement'

JH
John Honovich
May 10, 2017
IPVM

Recently, there's been an upswing in Avigilon sales departures.

One of the more notable ones is Gary Tryon.

In an uncommon move, he is using his LinkedIn profile as a teaser:

What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? Build interest?

 

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
May 10, 2017

I noticed that in my LinkedIn alerts last night.  My initial reaction was that it seems a little cheezy, but my interest is piqued. 

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
May 10, 2017

I agree. I'm no longer awaiting the next Star Wars movie, the next big iPhone release, or the inevitable war with North Korea.  "What's Gary Tryon doing?" is all that is on my mind.  No way this could disappoint!

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
May 10, 2017

The less sarcastic version of my above comment is that it's definitely an interesting way to keep potential customers engaged.  At the very least 3 of us on here have read the post.   On the negative side the potential for disappointment is huge when generating hype.

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U
Undisclosed #3
May 10, 2017
IPVMU Certified

Gary's Tryon too hard.

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JH
John Honovich
May 10, 2017
IPVM

This has gotten 105 reads this morning, with no promotion, emails, social media, etc. Evidently there are people interested...

But to #2's point, Gary better deliver!

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JH
John Honovich
May 11, 2017
IPVM

This discussion is going to easily do 500+ reads in the first 24 hours, which is very high considering its about a LinkedIn promotion.

I will say that teaser format for announcing a new job has value in a social media world. If people start doing it all the time, it will certainly go down but it's an outlier right now.

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #4
May 10, 2017

Virtually all of the major sales leaders that actually carried a bag and knows what it takes to produce the double digit growth have left or were left. 

Its vary sad that a company that grew at the pace it has on the backs of their extremely hard working sales people has abandoned them, shorted them on commissions, and treated them like mushrooms in an apparent attempt to 'save money' and prop up their financial position for a sale. 

Its a character issue...

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
May 10, 2017

That's totally inaccurate and insulting to those that are still there. Just saying.

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
May 11, 2017

I'd love to know who disagreed with that, although I have a fair idea...

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #4
May 10, 2017

Look, I understand he gave Avigilon an opportunity to talk about his options and tried to work with his current employer, only to get a massage back that they were not interested and immediately shut down his email and computer and other company items. 

If you can't have an open and honest discussion with the leadership of the company you worked the last six years for and I know Gary was the top three producers in the entire company for years, what else is he supposed to do. 

I agree that this was a very unique  way to keep his current contacts and customers engaged, also understanding that it may have been the only way to communicate with those contacts after they remotely wiped his phone. 

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JH
John Honovich
May 10, 2017
IPVM

Btw, if you think UM4's description of Avigilon is surprising, check out Avigilon's glassdoor reviews, with submissions like "Saddest place I've ever worked" or "No Respect for Employees" or "Worst company I have ever seen", just 3 examples in the last month.

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
May 10, 2017

Glass door is one of those sites to accommodate those that are unhappy with their previous employer but you never hear both sides of the story. Bit like reading a story on TripAdvisor where an English man knocks his hotel because the ketchup wasn't Heinz. Avigilon employs over a 1000 people world wide and as is common in this industry from time to time people will leaven and do the dirt, cest la vie mes amis.

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Avatar
Ethan Ace
May 10, 2017

an English man knocks his hotel because the ketchup wasn't Heinz

That sounds like a justifiable complaint to me!

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
May 10, 2017

I do agree it is much more likely for someone to post a negative review than a positive.   Still, I think there are some grains of truth in there.  It is usually pretty easy to see reviews that clearly had an ax to grind... they're usually the ones with either no capitalization, all capitalization, or every other word misspelled.  Avigilon has a pretty decent quantity of reviews so the sample size is decent enough to get an overall picture.

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JH
John Honovich
May 10, 2017
IPVM

#5, we get information from dozens of manufacturers, including various reports from employees of all the big companies. Without a doubt, the most consistently negative is from Avigilon. As a point of comparison, and to emphasize this is not about companies IPVM 'likes' or not, Dahua and Hikvision employees generally have fairly good reviews of their companies. There is something amiss in Avigilon's culture or approach that creates such a high level of employee ill will.

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
May 11, 2017

I can of course only speak for myself but having worked for AVO for nearly 5 years I have seen several people leaving on this side of the big pond. I'm sure most had a good reason for leaving, some for money, some to change their career path, and some for other more private reasons. Some people who left found out that the grass wasn't always greener on the other side and decided to come back and AVO gave them a second chance. I have also seen people posting total rubbish as to why they left on social media and other publicly accessible websites, trying to 'throw people under the bus' in the process whilst the true reasons they left were only known to a few and not publicly shared for obvious reasons. I am also aware of many people who changed jobs between competitors who never posted anything good or bad, they just carried on with their careers. If it's not for you it's not for you, move on. I myself am perfectly happy where I am and have no complaints. Working for any large company poses a challenge at times but you deal with those and stay true to yourself.

I'd like to wish Gary T. all the best in his future career. I had the pleasure to meet Gary once or twice and he is a true gentleman. All I can say is they are going to get only half the man he used to be ;)

JH
John Honovich
May 11, 2017
IPVM

#5, for sure, I agree that people have different experiences and some are surely are or were happy to work at Avigilon.

My point is that, at all companies, some people will have bad feelings or be upset, however, overall, ex-Avigilon employees have far more negativity than other manufacturer's ex-employees.

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
May 11, 2017

Maybe (ex)AVO employees are more outspoken and not afraid for repercussions, who knows. I'm not letting you provoke me any further on this one :) 

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
May 10, 2017

Is it that he is joining IndigoVision?

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
May 10, 2017

Maybe he is joining IPVM?

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JH
John Honovich
May 10, 2017
IPVM

Which is more 'exciting' - IndigoVision or IPVM? ;)

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U
Undisclosed #3
May 11, 2017
IPVMU Certified

Only Carl knows for sure...

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #6
May 11, 2017

I'm gonna throw this out there.... hes been liking posts about hikvisions analytics...

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
May 11, 2017

This would fall under my "disappointing on hype" comments above.  I think at this point anyone can join Hikvision.  Their recruiters have called or emailed me 4 times in the past year and a half to discuss sales positions... and I am not a sales person.

Avatar
Gary Tryon
May 11, 2017
ReddWare

Hello IPVM and IPVM Members,

I would like to thank John for brining attention to my “Teaser” on LinkedIn. According to LinkedIn the activity level on my profile has increased +650% significantly over the last 2 days and there have been 2555 views of my posting so far today.  I have heard from so many people thru LinkedIn, email, text messages, phone calls and even better I am a topic of discussion here on IPVM. So my idea yesterday to update my profile with the "Exciting Announcement Coming on May 15th, 2017" Teaser is working far better than I had hoped.

On a personal note, I discussed my history with Avigilon and new offer with my dad who is 89 and wise beyond his years. He helped me to make a decision and we both agreed I needed to meet in person with Direct Report at Avigilon to deliver my message. However, he was traveling this week. So that left my Two Week Notice – Letter of Resignation discussion with my boss to happen via a phone. That was a personal discussion between my boss and I, he is a great guy and I presented to him a very difficult situation. I am not sure that this is the proper platform to discuss what was said and what happened after… I will confirm that I only spoke with him.

I personally had a very emotional time explaining to my Team I was no longer with Avigilon as most of my amazing team was handpicked by me. I mentored the team for many years and together we developed a top producing territory. I know they will continue to grow and deliver a great Avigilon experience.

Based on all the great feedback I have received since Monday I know my decision was a positive decision for me. The best news of all is the new company I will be representing and building a new amazing team for will deliver even better results! My plan is to still update my new job and title on Monday when I start my new career. 

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all the comments. I am truly humbled and happy to see something about me show up on IPVM.  Please feel free to reach out to me at time.

Gary Tryon

"Do what's right, not what's easy"

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U
Undisclosed #3
May 11, 2017
IPVMU Certified

I discussed my history with Avigilon and new offer with my dad who is 89 and wise beyond his years...

So maybe as wise as someone 110 years old? ;)

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Avatar
Armando Perez
May 15, 2017
Hoosier Security and Security Owners Group • IPVMU Certified

GARY! c'mon man, it's the 15th!

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Avatar
Gary Tryon
May 15, 2017
ReddWare

It just posted to LinkedIn

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #7
May 15, 2017

Am I the only one who thinks his beard looks kind of weird? There are no sideburns. Does it connect to his hair UNDER his ears? Or not at all? 

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #8
May 15, 2017

The only reason Gary got traction on this is because he is an ex-Avigilon sales director.  Lets see how much traction he gets in 2 years when he leaves dahua or whatever brand he lands at.  I doubt you would get half the clicks on an article for any other brand that isn't a top 3 or one of the Chinese controversy companies.

Avigilon has had difficulty keeping top execs but it seems they have slowed a bit.  Admittedly, Still a long way to go, but hopefully under the newly promoted leadership they can help to continue to curb the exits of executives.  

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JH
John Honovich
May 15, 2017
IPVM

For sure, working for a bigger brand company gets you more attention, on LinkedIn, IPVM, etc. That's a lot, maybe most of the draw.

The 'exciting announcement' element though contributes to it, since it is not something commonly done.

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Avatar
Gary Tryon
May 15, 2017
ReddWare

7,606 views on LinkedIn so far.  

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
May 15, 2017

The Announcement is up!

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Avatar
Brian Karas
May 15, 2017
IPVM

"Upgraded". Nice positioning.

Additionally, IndigoVision seems to be accumulating ex-Avigilon people lately.

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U
Undisclosed #3
May 15, 2017
IPVMU Certified

For his sake, I really hope he is more excited than I am :)

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Avatar
Gary Tryon
May 16, 2017
ReddWare

Thanks Brian, I thought it was an appropriate use of the word.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #8
May 15, 2017

Exciting Announcement Coming Today.  Indigo Vision thinks hiring another Avigilon employee is news worthy.

Look at Indigo Vision's News page.  https://www.indigovision.com/en-us/news  Top two stories are ex-avigilon people.

Anyone notice that 4 out of 10 (40%) of the top ten news articles for Indigo Vision is about new employees.  Is this a small time thinking and approach to news?  Conversely, Avigilon actually has news about the company, new products, and industry information.  They don't seem to be posting a press release every time a new employee was hired.

A quick search of the major VMS news and press releases don't have anything to do with employees.  I believe this is directly indicative of their market approach.  Pick off other reps and try to create buzz and work to peel out as much of that other VMS's contacts and convert to Indigo.

BEFORE EVERY INDIGO VISION FAN OUT THERE REPLIES - Here is what I mean.  While I like the Indigo Vision product, I don't really care for the small time mentality here.  Look below and ask yourself which company posts about new employees and which one doesn't?

This one?   

 

OR This One?

 

 

I know of several integrators on this site who make more money than indigo vision.  It is difficult as an integrator to feel secure doing business with a manufacturer that is close to or an arms reach away in total revenue to your own integration company.  I don't know Gary, but if I was him, I would have done the same thing to try and attract as many people to my linkedin profile because I would want build the biggest safety net of potential employers before I took the biggest risk in employment by going to a company that was literally 135 times less profitable (profits).  

Who knows maybe in this new role Gary can be the next Bryan Schmode.  Doubt it.

sources:  

http://www.indigovision.com/Portals/2/IndigoVision%20Annual%20Report%202016.pdf

http://s1.q4cdn.com/094373169/files/doc_presentations/2017/feb/Avigilon-Corporate-Presentation-February-2017-FINAL.pdf

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Avatar
Brian Karas
May 15, 2017
IPVM

As you note, Avigilon and IndigoVision are at different revenue points.

Back when Avigilon was much smaller, they certainly thought that hiring/promoting people was press-release worthy: Avigilon Announces Global Expansion of Sales Team to Meet Growing Demand for Avigilon HD Surveillance System

I know of several integrators on this site who make more money than indigo vision. It is difficult as an integrator to feel secure doing business with a manufacturer that is close to or an arms reach away in total revenue to your own integration company. 

I think this is an important comment. Integrators often view manufacturers (for better or worse) as having significant resources and the ability to support them in terms of field sales, RMAs, product recalls, updates, features enhancements, and so forth. When a manufacturer is relatively small, and not a startup, or targeting niche/specialty applications, it can create some uneasiness and make it more difficult to pick up larger integrators. 

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U
Undisclosed #3
May 15, 2017
IPVMU Certified

...maybe in this new role Gary can be the next Bryan Schmode.  

Or maybe they will just hire the last one...

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #4
May 16, 2017

Your missing the entire point. Avigilon is loosing the vast majority of their sales producers. They are resorting to promoting Sales Directors that have only been in the industry for less than a year. 

Avigilon rarely promotes when they hire someone, and do not even tell their own employees when someone leaves. Employees have to discover why their emails and calls are not being returned through the rumor mill. 

Noticed you didn't put net revenue on the financials detail you posted, that because for a software company its pathetic. And it looks like they missed their numbers last quarter as well.

 

I know half a dozen good people who have been hied in the last six months already looking for the fastest way out, and that is in the addition to the seasoned sales people jumping off the ship...

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
May 17, 2017

I wonder who your source is. Some bold statements there like 'vast majority'. Avigilon employs over 1200 people world wide. I'm not sure what the head count is in the states but 6 is not a big number. Avigilon now receives many offers either direct or through recruiters for professionals looking to join them. This was different 3 or 4 years ago.

If you join a company like AVO and look to leave after 6 months you might need to look at yourself as well as the company and ask the question if it was a good match in the first place. I suppose the good news for these guys is that Hik hires anybody especially if they have a stint at AVO on their CV.

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #9
May 15, 2017

And in other exciting news today..rain is still wet. Just a publicity gimmick to have everyone look at him. No big deal.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
May 15, 2017

He's in sales... getting someone to look at you is not a minor item.

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #4
May 16, 2017

Well your following the story, so I suppose it worked.

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