Industry veteran, author offers advice on selling

ARLINGTON, Texas—Mark Tosoni, industry veteran and author, has some sales advice that he's offering with a complementary download of his new book, “Alarm Sales Mastery.”

Tosoni offered up some of his advice to Security Systems News.

The first of his best practice tips is about companies' need to do “expert positioning.” It's all about education, he told SSN.

A company's website should be used to its fullest potential. Provide free videos, free audios and other free content to assist salespeople in doing what they need to do to be successful. For potential customers, provide content, for example, on, “the seven mistakes homeowners make when buying an alarm and how to avoid them.”

“Connect with a customer before even making a [personal] connection. Most companies and salespeople are not doing this,” said Tosoni, GM at SafeGuard America.

SafeGuard, an authorized GE Security Pro Dealer, has been in the residential and fire security business for two decades. Rapid Response Monitoring monitors the company's accounts.

Previously, Tosoni said, he built and sold three other alarm companies.

The second most important advice he can offer, he said, is that sellers of resi and small commercial systems—his area of expertise—need to adopt a “healthy view of selling.” That comes down to intention and philosophy, he said.

Salespeople should give homeowners the feeling that they are leaving them “with valuable information regardless of whether the homeowner is going to go ahead with us or not.” Do a “bad guy walk,” he advises, and show homeowners where they are vulnerable.

“Add purpose into profit,” he said. Companies, of course, need to sell, but goodwill comes from serving as well as selling, he said.

Tosoni has been teaching people to sell in the business for more than two decades.