Tip #1: Take a consultative approach
Getting back to the basics and taking a consultative approach is valid in any economy, but when things get tough, it’s an absolute necessity. Even if you’ve worked with an account for years, don’t presume you completely understand their needs. Ask open ended questions like: “If you started from scratch today, what would your ideal security system look like now?” By determining where they’d like to be, you can develop a game plan to get them there. Another important question is “What keeps you up at night?”

Probing to find areas of discomfort will help uncover vulnerable areas your prospect faces, and help you work together to fix them. Always start meetings with customers by asking if anything has changed since your last meeting so you can align yourself with their situation. 

I have been through other tough sales environments such as being at a venture-funded IT company during the dot-com bust of 2001. The best sales people with the best sales preparation do well no matter the state of the economy.  And taking a consultative approach has always had high success.

Tip #2: Think long-term sell
Even though installing a complete network camera system provides the most benefits to an organization, security directors can realize many benefits through a gradual adoption approach — at less of an initial outlay. Rather than swapping out a client’s complete analogue system, consider an interim approach using video encoders that convert analogue signals from legacy cameras to digital signals. Your customers will also need to license software so that network video recorders can be used with the analogue cameras. Immediate benefits of this approach include increased scalability, distributed intelligence and often lower cost of ownership since many standard IT components such as servers and storage can be used. This becomes the base of the security department’s new system.  As budgets become stronger, they can easily add the network cameras, which will provide them with higher quality images.  As well, they can incorporate higher resolution cameras such as HDTV or megapixel.  Laying the ground work for a longer term sale this year will pay off in the future when the economy and budgets improve.

Tip #3: Get other departments to share the cost
A creative way to help security directors pay for network camera systems is to encourage them to seek out other departments in their companies that would benefit from network video systems. For example, the IT department may seek surveillance cameras to protect its infrastructure, marketing may wish to use network cameras for merchandising purposes at retail stores (observe traffic patterns, effectiveness of en cap displays, etc.), while operations may seek to reduce safety hazards. Getting IT involved is particularly effective, since they typically have larger budgets. In addition, many IT organizations are in the process or have already put voice-over-IP (VoIP) initiatives in place. If so, it is particularly good time to piggyback onto this initiative and move completely from coaxial cables to Ethernet-based systems used by VoIP and network camera systems.
I have seen this work in many different companies and remember meeting a university customer for the first time.  He had set up a meeting with all of the departments that had purchased my company’s camera systems. At least seven departments were present at the meeting — a number that shocked the security department. So, if this is accidentally happening at your customer, surely you can purposely make it work to the security director’s and your advantage.

Tip #4: Align your approach to cost  cutting goals
Implementing network systems offers a lower cost of ownership than analog and can also help organizations save costs. So let security directors know that you are aligned with their needs to cut costs. For example, because video can be observed from central locations, organizations can reduce travel costs. Consider the loss prevention manager who travels regularly to stores to ensure camera angles are correct and the system is working properly. Taking advantage of remote management and high-quality images that network video systems offer, that same manager can reduce site visits from three to two a year. Likewise, many retailers have investigators travel to sites in order to review exception reports. Your clients can realize tremendous savings by investing in capital equipment rather than airline flights, hotels and rental vehicles. A security director can use your ROI internally to sell an upgraded security system.

A down economy certainly makes selling to security directors more of a challenge. But by taking a consultative approach, thinking long-term, finding creative ways for security directors to share the costs and focusing on cost cutting benefits, you’ll be more successful while meeting your clients’ important security needs.

Robert Moore is the Canadian Country Manager for Axis Communications.