By: Kelly Bond, Davis Mergers & Acquisitions
Featuring: Chris Gilbert, Security Pros, LLC
Running a business is often a rewarding endeavor, but it also comes with its own set of challenges and stressors that can lead to sleepless nights. Especially for security business owners who work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Business owners juggle multiple responsibilities, from managing finances to ensuring customer satisfaction, and the weight of these duties can create significant anxiety. Over the next few months, I will continue to highlight different owners who will share what is causing their restless nights and how they are dealing with it.
This month I spoke with Chris Gilbert, Owner and Founder of Security Pros, LLC. Founded in 2009 and based in Sellersburg, Indiana. Security Pros focuses on mastering the delivery of their technology platforms which positions their team to provide the best customer experience.
Chris shared that he has a passion for developing people and building a team that makes a difference in the lives they touch. He has over twenty-seven years of experience in the electronic security industry, where he’s learned to design, deliver, and support innovative and customized solutions for his clients.
Chris, what’s the one thing that you find keeps you up at night?
As our business evolves, maintaining and transferring relationships with our client base is priority one and constantly keeps us on our toes. Without relationships at every level from suppliers, clients to our own internal staff, the work would become much harder to maintain. The risk of failure when transferring from one individual or department to another always remains, but the emphasis we have put on developing strong relationships with our customers does allow us to fail forward, in most cases. Suffice to say, it takes a village to manage all the relationships necessary to maintain a business for the long term.
How have you worked to overcome it?
We have departmentalized our organization and worked very hard to hire people of integrity and character. In turn, that has proven key in the natural development of those relationships where they continue to thrive. The use of CRMS (Client Relationship Management Software) technology, regular communication with our clients and continued announcements of how we are evolving with the industry is proving to be effective, albeit challenging.
What are some of the specific ways you are staying in touch with your customers?
One example is tasking our service team to provide at least one onsite inspection per year of all installed equipment. Within each inspection we check for functionality, cleanliness and warranty replacement timeframe.
A second example is that we task our advisory (sales) team with outbound communication and/or onsite visits with clients on a quarterly basis. This gives our customers the opportunity to review their account, the effectiveness of their installed solutions and ensure the decision makers are all in tune with their solutions and how we are providing value.
Finally, we are looking at ways we can automate elements of this “touch” process but ensure we remain intentional about the human-to-human interactions our teams have with our clients.
What advice do you offer other business owners?
Expect more of your organization. Push your team to operate at a higher level than what you currently are. If you have five employees, operate like you have fifty. You can achieve this by setting a vision five to ten years down the road and continuing to focus on that while you make decisions for the immediate term. That push will change your decision making and set a goal for your team to operate toward. Another recommendation for anyone just starting up or even someone who has an established business: prioritize integrity and character in your new hires.
If those two things are not in place, find the people who align with what you are about. Their energy needs to match the organization, without question. We have found that sometimes the people we employed are in the wrong seat (position) in our business and they need to be moved to a role which better suits them or, in some cases, out of the organization entirely to ensure our long-term goals and expectations are being met.
Just like Chris, business owners face a myriad of challenges that can keep them up at night, from financial worries and competition to customer satisfaction and employee management. Recognizing these stressors, and acting on them, is how we find solutions. By working closely with his team to set and reach goals within the company as well as in their marketplace, Chris has found ways to alleviate potential stressors and manage growth opportunities successfully.
Thanks, Chris, for sharing with us.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Kelly Bond brings over twenty-five years of industry experience to her clients. Newly inducted into the Security Sales and Integration Hall of Fame in 2024 at ISC West, she currently serves as Partner with Davis Mergers and Acquisitions Group, representing buyers and sellers of Alarm and Integration companies.
As the Owner and Founder of Security Pros, LLC, Chris has a passion for developing people and building a company that makes a difference in the lives his company touches. He has over twenty-seven years of experience in the electronic security industry, where he has learned to design, deliver, and support innovative and customized solutions for their clients.