Affiliated launches PERS conference

NAPLES, Fla.—Affiliated Monitoring is expecting at least 250 people at its new PERS-focused conference Catalyst, held here May 17-19, Affiliated's VP Daniel Oppenheim told Security Systems News.

This event fills a specific need, according to Mike Zydor, Affiliated's managing director. “Right now, most of the educational opportunities that a PERS dealer has, if they go to other types of conferences, is all equipment-focused, or … just about insight into the PERS business—nothing focused on sales and marketing,” he said.

Registration is now open for the event, and Catalyst is not exclusive to Affiliated dealers. “It is open to all PERS dealers … and vendors that are in—or want to be in—the PERS space,” Zydor said.

Zydor added that PERS dealers will share business best practices. Oppenheim said, “The PERS industry is spread out across the country; it's very hard for people in the industry to build relationships and find other people who understand what they go through day-to-day.”

Affiliated announced five educational sessions: “Supercharge Your Sales Team: Overcoming the Five Toughest PERS Customer Objections”; “Mobile Mania: Catch the Wave of Mobile PERS”; “Benchmarking: Is Your Sales Technology Holding You Back?”; “Cut the Red Tape and Grow Your PERS Business”; and “Executive Spotlight: How I Built a Multi-Channel PERS Company.”

Speakers for the sessions and the ending keynote have not yet been released.

Oppenheim underlined the benefits of having a session on benchmarking. “A lot of people go to work every day and try to determine if their performance is good. … It's very hard, in a vacuum, to [answer questions like] 'Are you doing well? Are your metrics accurate? Are your ratios correct?'”

The early bird rate for registration ends on March 15. Catalyst will be held at the Naples Grande Beach Resort in Naples, Fla.