SS&Si ramps up dealer network

DELTONA, Fla.—While his father founded Security Solutions and Services back in 1998 as a consulting firm, Jake Voll said it's only in the last year that it has become the full-service dealer network offering price breaks and marketing devices it is now.

“We're different from the other dealer programs,” Voll said, “because we focus on the small to mid-size companies. We try to help them build their businesses. We're looking for the guys who maintain high-quality work and maintain their personal integrity while they're out in the community.”

With 150 dealers currently signed up, and no initial buy-in fee, Voll feels the newly branded SS&Si should be able to grow quickly, even though he's already got dealers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. “We can offer them significant product savings, on Honeywell right now specifically,” he said. “These little guys they can't compete with the national companies who have deals with Honeywell because of volume. But we're adding more and more product, too.”

Why not just join the First Alert or CSS dealer programs Honeywell already has in place? Voll said a number of First Alert dealers are SS&Si dealers as well, and that SS&Si doesn't ask for any kind of exclusivity. Further, SS&Si encourages dealers to emphasize their own brands, helps them with branding through web design and social media consulting, and even encourages them to keep hold of their accounts, even through SS&Si does have an investment group that will buy accounts if companies are looking to raise funds.

“We want them to build up their account base so they'll stick around,” said Voll. “We know guys who build up accounts then sell them to the same people over and over. That's not what we're looking for.”