Growing strong in the Southeast to the tune of $25m in sales

RICHMOND, Va.—Power Home Technologies CEO Ben Brookhart started his career selling alarm systems right out of college. He knew it was the right fit for him, and eventually he decided to start his own company.

Power Home Technologies, born in Brookhart's apartment here 11 years ago, now has 16 offices, had $25 million in sales last year and has more than 75,000 installed customers in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Maryland. And, it has plans for big growth—expecting to expand its Southeast footprint and hire dozens more sales reps within the next year.

Brookhart started the company with his friend and colleague, Erik Rendesi, who is company president.

“We're both guys who want to be top achievers. We have experienced a lot of success, but that hasn't always been easy,” Brookhart told Security Systems News, crediting mentors for helping him succeed.

Power Home Technologies, which relies on door-knocking sales techniques but is not a “summer sales company,” Brookhart said, does a lot of CCTV jobs, but the majority of its work is residential. It is an authorized Monitronics and has 200 employees.

“All of our growth has been through internal growth. We try to hire reps who have never sold a security system. I always tell people that to be successful you have to be willing to help people, to be proactive, not just wait for something to happen to them so they'll be interested,” he said.

“My formula for success is that trust plus loyalty equals long-term success. I always tell my employees that if they can trust me and I can trust them, we can have long-term success,” he said.

The company plans to expand its footprint in the Southeast, specifically in Jacksonville, Fla., and Augusta, Ga. It has hired three recruiters to find new employees.

That plan also relies on the attraction of home automation.

“Home automation has just begun, we're very excited about it. We need to become home automation experts,” Brookhart said. “There's a lot of opportunity there,” and it will help home security companies break the persistent 20 percent market share ceiling, he said.

Power Home Technologies also has raised more than $170,000 for the Make a Wish Foundation in North Carolina, where Brookhart is a board member; the company asks for a small donation from every customer, he said.