UCC puts focus on dealer education

SAN ANTONIO—Wholesale central station UCC is investing more in its dealers, recently with a new line of regional educational sessions, according to company SVP Mark Matlock.

Each four-hour session is basically “a plan of how to grow your company, how to market, how to incentivize your sales force, how to pay commissions,” Matlock told Security Systems News. Controlling attrition is a big part of the session as well, he said.

“We've had great traction with attendance in the two markets that we've done it, so this is something that we're going to continue to build upon in 2016,” he said. The company has held two sessions so far, and is planning another five, in various cities, in 2016.

Fifteen people attend the first session, held here Oct. 13, representing 10 of its dealers. The second session, held in Houston, had 30 in attendance, Matlock said, from 21 dealers in the area.

UCC has helped some of its bigger dealers on a “one-on-one” basis. “[Now] we're opening it up to everybody, anybody who's a UCC dealer.”

How else does UCC gather its dealers? The company hosted its 12^th annual dealer dove hunt in Uvalde, Texas, at the beginning of October with 14 vendor sponsors.

Matlock said that dealers value the networking opportunity. “It's a dove hunt, but it's so much more than just a hunt,” he said, mentioning giveaways, dinners and a “mini-trade show” of vendor exhibits.

The hunt drew a large crowd with 180 attendees representing 60 of UCC's dealers. “We literally had dealers from California to Florida in attendance,” said Matlock.

United Central Control currently has 750 alarm dealers and monitors about 230,000 accounts in its central station.