What the financial world thinks
By Martha Entwistle
Updated Sat December 1, 2007
COLUMBUS, Ohio--Security Systems News provided Gretchen Gordon, lenderCIT Group's director of communications, media and entertainment, with some factual information from this month's stories about two summer model alarm companies, ApxAlarm and Platinum Protection, and asked for her thoughts.
These companies are good for the industry because of their ability to "increase penetration in the general population," she said.
The biggest constraint she sees for companies using this model is the continued ability to attract and retain quality sales staff, however.
"My understanding is that the companies engaged in this business model compete pretty aggressively with each other to get staff," Gordon said. "They focus a lot of energy and money on recruitment of sales staff. I have to believe that having the right sales staff, not just the most aggressive sales staff, is critical to each of these company's long term success."
She also observed that those companies that rely on selling their accounts are "significantly dependent on outside sources of capital to continue to succeed."
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