Bruce Engel among first Smith & Wesson dealers

BENSONVILLE, Ill.--Bruce Engel, who’s been in the security business for 25 years, and has run S & S Systems here for the past three years, is looking forward to becoming a Smith & Wesson security dealer. Engel said he’s known Peter Giacolone, formerly of SafetyCare, now of Giacalone Associates, who helped set up the dealer program, for a long time, and “we both were involved with the AT&T dealer program-a large dealer program in the late ’80s and early ’90s. I’m excited to become a Smith & Wesson dealer because I know how the AT&T program worked with lead generation and name recognition … and I think the Smith & Wesson program will be the same way.” Gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson announced in May that it was teaming up with NationWide Digital Monitoring Co., a division of New York Merchants Protective Co., to design and sell Smith & Wesson-branded security systems. Smith & Wesson kicked off its active dealer-recruiting phase at the October ISC East show and had a large booth at the front of the show floor. Wayne Wahrsager, head of NationWide, said he’d had hundreds of inquiries from dealers. It was also showing its new S&W-branded equipment (manufactured by DMP, of Springfield, Mo.) and executives were emphasizing that, like Smith & Wesson guns, the alarm equipment will be manufactured 100 percent in the United States. Smith & Wesson CEO Michael Golden said the dealer program will offer a lead generation program through its 3,000 independent Smith & Wesson gun dealers located across the country. That program will be officially launched at a gun trade show in January, Giacalone said. “This will not be the only lead-generation program, but it will probably be one of the best,” he said. “It’s a double whammy approach,” he said, noting that the people who visit these gun dealerships are a “captive audience who are already very comfortable with Smith & Wesson.” The gun dealer will receive a commission and the local security dealer will get a qualified lead, he said. Engel does fire and commercial security work in addition to residential and small business jobs. He has a staff of 20 that does work from Chicagoland to Milwaukee and Northwestern Indiana. Engel said he expects to be among the first dealers to install Smith & Wesson security systems some time this month.