SAI restructures to move beyond wholesale monitoring

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-Security Associates International, a provider of monitoring and security services, has realigned top management positions in its sales, sales support and dealer-training functions to streamline its operation for its authorized dealer and wholesale business units. Steve Rubin, senior vice president of dealer development, said SAI's realignment, announced Oct. 6, will provide "more focus." He said that, for many years, "SAI was strictly a wholesale company" that monitored systems for dealers. A few years ago, according to Rubin, "we started the authorized dealers division, and brought Lou Sepulveda in. We were divided into 23 areas and had two separate sales forces." In the realignment, SAI placed Sepulveda in charge of all sales, leaving Rubin with everything else, "including dealer development," Rubin said. Sepulveda, now senior vice president of business development, will be responsible for the wholesale channels and dealer recruitment in the company's authorized dealer program. Rubin is now responsible for dealer orientation, training, dealer relations and support, along with development of various sales and marketing programs to assist dealers in growing their businesses. Another factor that precipitated the realignment was the fact that the number of SAI dealers has recently grown to a number that justifies an investment on SAI's part. According to Rubin, the company can now "focus on the development of each dealer ... We have constant contact with the dealers to determine how their business is going. The essence of it is that we assess each dealer individually and see what type of training needs they have." SAI does everything from going out on calls with dealers, to helping them with the financial end of their business. "Depending on their needs, we do training seminars, put on meetings, and even help with goal setting," said Rubin. No positions were eliminated in the realignment at SAI. "In fact," said Rubin, "positions are being added."