Samsung has new sales squad with a mission

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J—Samsung's “sales generation squad,” a new business development team dedicated to working with Samsung integrators, is up and running, according to Frank DeFina, Samsung senior VP sales and marketing for Samsung, which is headquartered here.

DeFina told Security Systems News of his plans to build this team in December.

“We've hired seven of the targeted eight salespeople and have deployed them in Boston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Dallas,” DeFina said.

“Their mission is to devote 90 percent of their activity to finding opportunities at the end-user level and then driving those sales to our strategic integrators,” he added.

All seven squad members, who are officially called business development specialists, have varied security-specific experience. “We're fortunate that they represent manufacturing, distribution, and systems integration and thus are an ideal team in terms of understanding the nuances of those channels.” The integrators that directly benefit from the work of the sales generation squad are those in Samsung's Strategic Integrator Program, a group that DeFina says includes integrators of all sizes.

“Some majors, some mid [-sized], a few small players as far as national footprint, but very influential regionally,” he explained.

One benefit for integrators, DeFina said, is that the squad “brings opportunities to them, including non-Samsung projects that they may uncover in the course of normal business. We bring these to the integrator as well, even though they may not be video-surveillance related.”

Business opportunities are distributed by Samsung's “local regional manager and manufacturer's rep to determine which integrator can best handle the opportunity, based on core competency in that particular vertical. If the integrators are deemed of equal capability then we use a rotational system,” DeFina said.

Asked for examples of specific projects that have been brought to integrators as the result of this sales initiative, DeFina said: “I can only say that some very significant projects have been uncovered that are currently being handled by our integrators.”