Here are a few of the news reports APX Alarm has had over the last few days. They are a sharp contrast to the news reports they garnered over the summer. I have been really impressed with APX over the last few weeks, they have really seemed to step it up.
After a long summer of sales, and less than positive reviews from media outlets, APX Alarm is embarking on a Good Deeds mission. They are sending some employees, cash contributions, non cash contributions down to the Gulf Coast of Texas to help the clean up efforts after Hurricane Ike. Good for APX! Here is the press release:
Taking nothing away from their good will efforts, they should be proud of what they are doing, but could this, in any way, be in response to either of these stories? maybe?perhaps?
In other recent news, APX continues to make news in Minneapolis. It will be really interesting to see how the states that have had many problems with APX will respond. I know Minnesota has had a myriad of issues with not only APX, but other companies. It will be interesting to see how these states respond. I have heard that some states are getting fed up.
If anything, things like this hurricane recover efforts will bolster their good will in those states. It will be really interesting to see how this plays out.
Wanna hear a sales pitch for a free home security system from a guy from Pinnacle Security on helium? It's pretty lame but it does show that the same pitch lives on and every company uses the same pitch. I'm with advertising, free system for sign in yard, etc etc etc.
What's going to happen when that same pitch gets worn out? All companies are built on this same pitch reformulated for each company. It works so well but what about long term? Think people are going to see through it after hearing it 10x?
I recently was emailed this story regarding Platinum Protection. This story happened in Omaha, NE and some would say it is a positive news story. While it is not a scathing news story finding blatant disregard of the law, it isn't overly positive.
The story is a clip from WOWT and is telling people that they check out, have a permit and are legit. That's the good part. But how this appears is a little strange. It looks as if they got pulled off the streets because of a lack of a permit for selling home security systems. The news anchor then vouches for the guys, says they stopped by his house, pitched the free alarm system, and that they would be back to work making the rounds the next morning.
Here is the video:
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See comments from Platinum Protection below for their side of the story.
***UPDATE*** According to Platinum Protection, this story stems from a news release from the Omaha PD, as seen here: link. Basically, Omaha PD was concerned about an individual going door-to-door with a GE icon on his sleeve. Platinum Protection wanted to distance themselves from the story so that is why the news story is out there. They also put this bulletin out there:
So, needless to say, Platinum Protection wants it to be known, that they had nothing to do with the other guy with a GE Logo. While it may appear with no inside info that this story was regarding licensing, on Platinum's end, they had any necessary licensing in place.
However, this brings up another interesting topic. Just how homogeneous the door-to-door alarm companies are! They sell the same way, sell the exact same product, sell the exact same service, come from the same region, and now dress the same way. The differences are at times unnoticeable. They may differentiate with pay structure, claims of company structure and outlook, but in comparison to the larger picture, there is not much difference, usually, only the people.
Yesterday, APX Alarm secured a credit line with Goldman Sachs. After the announcement, Goldman Sachs stock price dropped 11% on Monday. It could either be APX Alarm causing that, or the federal government rescuing AIG to the tune of $80 billion and other economic problems. Either one. I would probably put my money on other economic conditions.
But, in all seriousness, this is a good thing for APX. It allows them to be able to continue doing what they do. One note I would make though, most companies when they get this, it doesn't become a news story or press release, it is something they do to carry on day to day business and go back to focusing on what they do. However, one thing I have noticed with APX and it's employees, things like this tend to become marketing tools. They name drop Goldman Sachs and attempt to instill confidence in either sale, homeowner or new recruit. It helps people take them more seriously. In light of that, it doesn't make them an angel of a company. Sales tactics still have issues, cancellation policies are still outrageous for customers, licensing debacles still abound, and employee issues still occur. For better or worse, all of it undeniably happens.
At any rate, here is the press release. -------------------------
Update from El Paso about the binder the tech left behind. Paperwork from 4 alarm systems were contained. Incidentally 3 out of 4 people canceled their system. Here is the link from original post.
My guess is that the tech got burned out towards the end of the summer, didn't want deal with the binder, office finished up summer, he went home and that was that. Things happen, the job tends to wear on people harder toward the end. It's stressful!
It's been a busy couple of weeks, summer selling season wrapped up, a little vacation and now it's time for catch up on a few posts.
Some of the larger things that happened are randomly enough things I have already wrote about. Took me a few minutes to wrap my head around this one. APX Alarm was named Business of the Year by the Provo-Orem Chamber of Commerce. At first read, I thought, "good job APX! That's two honors in the same year!" Then after reading into it, it's the same honor, APX just decided to let people know in a press release 3 and a half months later. Here is my original post. It fits nicely in the next topic.
The reason why they got the aforementioned award. 1000 new jobs and a nice looking new building! From the drawings, it looks to be pretty sweet. It should be a pretty nice recruiting tool and meeting place. It is supposed to be patterned after Apple and Google. It would be cool if they patterned their business after Google and even Apple. The building may be in the same league, but the business is nowhere close. Tell me which one is APX's Revenue: $24 Billion, $16.5 Billion, $450 million. Which one is it? Easy to guess huh? Google and Apple are product driven, their product sells itself. APX has a sales process that works. APX is good, some would even say it is great, but no one can say with a straight face that it is in the same league as those two. The building should be sweet though. Congratulations APX. If I had an award to give to the most entertaining company from the past summer, it would hands down go to APX Alarm.
I wonder what Warren Buffet would think of all the fancy stuff....
The purpose of this site is to give some straight forward opinion on the Summer Sales industry. I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts.
Anyone can get one!
You don't even have to advertise a sign in your yard!
Tips? Questions? Do you know something I don't? News? Comment? Do you have an alarm company experience you want to share? Anything!
My goal for this site is to provide a straight forward view about door-to-door summer alarm sales. It is not meant to bash, but merely taking the spin out of the sales pitch.
There is a lot of emotion and very little info associated with Summer Alarm Sales, and everyone has their own opinions. That's ok!
