Security Partners to train dealers in managed video

LANCASTER, Pa.—Nearly two years after launching its advanced services division, Security Partners, a wholesale monitoring company based here, is partnering with CheckVideo to help drive managed video sales.

The partnership with CheckVideo, a provider of intelligent cloud-based video management services based in Falls Church, Va., enables Security Partners to provide comprehensive managed video sales training programs to authorized dealers.

The division has made significant strides since its inception, increasing its video monitoring customer base by 40 percent, Andy Stadler, division manager, advanced services, told Security Systems News.

Despite strong growth overall in the division, Stadler says some dealers—particularly smaller ones—encounter difficulties when selling managed video services—a category that includes video verified monitoring, virtual guard tours, video escorting, cloud storage and remote access management, among other services.

In other words, grasping the intricacies of the technology and acquiring the knowledge base needed to clinch sales can be daunting. That's where the CheckVideo training program comes in.

“Security Partners decided it needed a positive, consistent message on education with our dealer base,” Mike Bodnar, president of Security Partners, told SSN. “The folks at CheckVideo similarly saw the need to provide more education on how to go about selling the services.”

He added: “We all acknowledged that there's a real need out there for video and CCTV and even more critically the driving of live footage and archiving through the cloud. There's so much technology that our dealers should have at their fingertips to benefit their subscribers.

Effectively demonstrating the value of managed video is the major challenge of selling the services, and it's that aspect of the sales process, in particular, that the CheckVideo training program is designed to shore up.

The training program, projected to be offered to Security Partners on a semi-annual basis, will focus on three core recurring revenue models for managed video: video verification, video hosting and video guard services.

By enhancing their ability to sell such services, dealers will be better equipped to go beyond the “one and done” solution, Stadler said.

“Why stop there?” he said. “Why not expand the service options and make it more of a success. We believe the training on products and especially the sales portion will make this a more consistent offering for our dealers.”

Bodnar said the continued improvement of the advanced services division, highlighted most recently by the CheckVideo training program, underscores the main promise he made to dealers a few years ago, when he joined the company as president.  

“When I came on board, my commitment to dealers was to deliver new recurring revenue niche opportunities to help them grow their base of recurring revenue and their market share,” he said. “This is the culmination of that effort and that goal.”