Nemerofsky joins Niscayah

DULUTH, Ga.—Industry consultant and entrepreneur John Nemerofsky is getting back to his roots, signing on as VP of sales and marketing for Niscayah, joining old friend and Niscayah president Marty Guay in continuing to reshape Niscayah's North American efforts. Nemerofsky was most recently head of executive search firm TSS International; along with Smarter Access Technologies, a developer of network-based access control; and WeSuite software, aimed at helping integrators estimate and organize their businesses.

So, why get back into security sales?

“The main attraction is that I looked at the way Niscayah was going to market, and that piece really impressed me,” Nemerofsky said. “Instead of years and years going to market as the traditional integrator [as Nemerofsky did for 13 years at SST, now part of ADT], and just doing the old blocking and tackling. Market conditions don't play well to that.”

Over the past three years, Nemerofsky has been consulting with integrators, saying “there has to be a shift in the market. You've got to partner with the end user, be more of a service business than a sales business, and work on reducing their risk over a long period of time, rather than sell more boxes each month.”

In Niscayah, Nemerofsky said he saw a company primed to sell and operate that way.

“It's happening,” he said, noting that while installation revenue is basically flat, “managed services grew about 40 percent for us this year. Just like everyone else, we're not way ahead of budget, but systems management grew significantly.”

He said, especially in this economy, if you're selling big systems, you're probably not having much success right now. “Even some of the best people in the business are millions and millions of dollars off their quotas and budgets,” he said. This is why those same sales people might be interested in readjusting the way they're compensated, even if it means less commission in the short run.

“He's going to sell a program for $1,000 a month, and that's not huge, but when the client continues to pay that, he gets a piece of that forever,” Nemerofsky said. “Now he's got a service base, and he can work with clients to partner on long-term solutions, instead of just focusing on being the low bid, getting the best price from the manufacturer, getting the cable cheaper, and all of that.”

“It's not something that's going to change in one month or three months,” he continued. “I'm not going to say that in October there's not going to be projects bid by Niscayah. Of course they will, but it's an eye to the future and changing the way we do things.”