How can I find people who need a security alarm system for their home or business?

[money raker]

I work for ADT Security Services.
My job is to go out and knock on peoples doors and find those who are interested in a free alarm system for their home, with installation include. There is a $99 activation fee and they have to pay monitoring fees of about $30-$50 per month.

How can I find local people that are searching for something like this without having to knock on doors. I really want to generate sales without having to knock on doors.

More like people calling me interested to join instead.
I want to generate 2-4 sales per week.
Please help.

Thank you in advance.

[blokh]

Use SPEED PPC to generate campaigns on Google Adwords creating adgroups for local cities around you ... bid on some high volume keywords (you can use Google Adwords keyword tool to get keywords) and put up a landing page with the information about the products you sell, prices, installation details, etc and your phone number where you potential customers can contact you.

Make sure you select a very local geographical location for your campaign on google so you don't get clicks from outside your service area.

I think this would help get some traffic ... unless you are a total newbie in Internet Marketing .. if you are, I am sure there will be warriors that can help you setup this campaign for a small fee.

my 2 cents !

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Try Mailing List - Sales Leads , Telemarketing, Business, Consumer - GoLeads (not an affiliate link)

[money raker]

since i don't have a website yet, and i don't know how to build one myself, about how much money will i need to invest including the website, the creation of the website, and google campaigns.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Personally, if I were in your place, I wouldn't bother. I think you'd be much better served by cultivating local leads offline.

[money raker]

like what should I do?

[Steven Carl Kelly]

See above. If I were in your shoes, I'd use a local lead generating system to start with, like GoLeads (which I linked, above). Again, that's my take on selling this particular product (alarm systems).

[money raker]

and what do I do with the leads?
call them? show up to their house?

there is no way for the people who are looking for me to find me?

Try setting up a Kiosk in a local mall and raffle them off.

When I was 18 years old I sold Protection One alarm systems and all of my leads were generated from a Kiosk that was outside of Home Depot.

Just make sure you disclose everything up front.

You don't want people thinking that the entire package is free. Point out that they are only getting free equipment, not free service.

Done right, you can make a killing doing this.

Treat it like you would a website. Build it up... get it on autopilot... move on and set up another one somewhere else.

[Rob Whisonant]

Does your local paper have a police blotter? Every time you see a home break-in listed, contact them!

Also check with your local police or sheriff department and find out what homes where broke into each day. You may have to buy the incident reports but usually they are only a few dollars each.

Re's
Rob Whisonant

[Rob Whisonant]

Originally Posted by money raker

and what do I do with the leads?
call them? show up to their house?

there is no way for the people who are looking for me to find me?

What you are trying to sell is a PUSH technology. You have to contact them. If you are looking for a PULL technology (they contact you) you need to find a new career.

If I think I need an alarm system I am going to look in the Yellow Pages or visit my local Radio Shack. I'm not going to search the web.

Re's
Rob Whisonant

[jayden.fellze]

Hi,

To generate more sales,you may have to strive a bit hard with advertising your product. You can try putting up an ad in the local newspapers or magazines, offer a nominal discount in the prices, and you can, as an initial offer, provide a free service for a specific period of time, like for 6 months or 1 year. This might attract the viewers and also you can write blogs or highlight the benefits of a security system. These might work out for you if your products are genuine and are really worthy of the money the customers pay. This will spread words and you may find more orders coming through. Try and let us know.

[money raker]

Originally Posted by blokh

Use SPEED PPC to generate campaigns on Google Adwords creating adgroups for local cities around you ... bid on some high volume keywords (you can use Google Adwords keyword tool to get keywords) and put up a landing page with the information about the products you sell, prices, installation details, etc and your phone number where you potential customers can contact you.

Make sure you select a very local geographical location for your campaign on google so you don't get clicks from outside your service area.

I think this would help get some traffic ... unless you are a total newbie in Internet Marketing .. if you are, I am sure there will be warriors that can help you setup this campaign for a small fee.

my 2 cents !

will this work.
I went on google and typed in ADT and other keywords that people would type in clicked on a couple of the ad words on the side. It seems like they generate leads through their site.

do you think they actually make sales?
and if they do, can I create this success too?

thanks for everyones input

I think I'm going to try posting ads in the local newspapers too, and in classified ads. Also in magazines it would be great.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Yes, you can copy their model.

Also, have you tried Craigslist?

[money raker]

Originally Posted by faxinator

Yes, you can copy their model.

Also, have you tried Craigslist?

I posted about 3 ads on craigslist but no one has contacted me or emailed me about it.

I personally don't have experience in adwords, making websites, the landing page and all. about how much would it cost to have someone do all that for me.

[money raker]

Originally Posted by marcanthony

Try setting up a Kiosk in a local mall and raffle them off.

When I was 18 years old I sold Protection One alarm systems and all of my leads were generated from a Kiosk that was outside of Home Depot.

Just make sure you disclose everything up front.

You don't want people thinking that the entire package is free. Point out that they are only getting free equipment, not free service.

Done right, you can make a killing doing this.

Treat it like you would a website. Build it up... get it on autopilot... move on and set up another one somewhere else.

what exactly is a kiosk?
is it those things where they fill out their information to win cars, free memberships and other stuff?

[blokh]

Originally Posted by money raker

will this work.
I went on google and typed in ADT and other keywords that people would type in clicked on a couple of the ad words on the side. It seems like they generate leads through their site.

do you think they actually make sales?
and if they do, can I create this success too?

thanks for everyones input

I think I'm going to try posting ads in the local newspapers too, and in classified ads. Also in magazines it would be great.

Yes, it will definitely work, I don't see a reason why.

Here is how it works - You don't even need a website, but you do need a place where you can post all this information, so head over to wordpress.com and create a free blog for your business. Explain everything like what products are available, how much do they cost, how much for the implementation etc and do put your PHONE NUMBER on each page and make it prominent - THIS IS YOUR ACTION OBJECT, anyone coming to your blog should call you if they need your service, you can also setup a contact form or a get a quote form but the phone number should be visible.

Then you head over to SpeedPPC, create adgroups and campaigns for keywords that you think your target customers can search for. Do a keyword research on this too and get the keywords that you think will bring you customers. Review of Speed PPC at http://www.raakesh.com/speedppc-review

Then take the adgroups from SpeedPPC and go to google adwords, set this campaign up but make sure your geographical location should be limited to the area that you (can) service. So if you are located at zip code 07740 and you can only cater to people upto 10 miles away, setup your geographical preference to 10 miles from your zip code. This way people more than 10 miles in radius won't see you ads, hence you wont get traffic from places you don't service.

Then start your campaign and monitor it very closely. Sometimes lose broad match keywords can cost you a lot of money, so I would say start with $10 or $20 a day budget and keep watching your traffic. Run these ads for a week and see how many calls do you get. Make sure you have enough keywords and clicks to support the stats. The average conversion rate is 1:100 which means for every 100 people who visit your site, might end up calling you or converting into a sale. So keep trying new keywords, key phrases etc. to be able to exhaust your daily budget. This is something that needs some knowledge and experience, but once you get started, you will get a better hand of it.

It should work ... the key is getting the right keywords that have a search volume and can bring in customers to you, so Good Luck with this ...

Once I launch my product Long Tail Magic, you can use that to get the actual search terms that your visitors are searching for and you can use this information to lower your advertising costs and increase traffic for your daily budget. If you are interested follow my sig to my site and signup for the newsletter, I will be communicating with you regarding that product and other's that I own from there.

[lexilexi]

I disagree that people looking for an alarm system will not search the web. Of course they will.
But be prepared to think out of the box a little. People are looking for SOLUTIONS, not PRODUCTS.

A good place to start is to get into the mindset of the people who would want your product. The problem they are trying to solve is home security, and they just want to get the job done so they can forget about it.

I would recommend first of all creating a web site with some free content. This might be for example articles such as "ten simple mistakes people make that leave their homes vulnerable to intruders".
By doing this you create value in the eyes of web users, and you also provide a way that you can be found through organic search. Then of course you can create pages for your products and your offers.

Then of course there's PPC advertising but again, don't only go for keywords like "alarm system", investigate keywords like "home security".

It sounds as though your product follows an unusual sales model and that you will need to do some education of your prospects and develop brand awareness before they are ready to buy. In other words... some products and services are already known. Everyone knows what roto-rooter does, and when they need them. There has to be some form of demonstration - and if this is not a knock at the door, then a web presentation is good way to go.

Maybe create video content and post it on youtube / embed on your web pages? People love video. You could feature the system and show what it looks like when installed or something.

Another possibility is to use online directories in order to contact businesses via email or phone.

Anyway just my ideas, hope that helps. All the best.

[Resale Rights Ninja]

try craigslist

[Kristi Lane]

Are you an independent contractor or employee of ADT? I'd be surprised if they don't have fairly strict rules regarding how you can advertise on their behalf. If you haven't already, I'd suggest checking with their legal department before spending any time or money.

Kristi

[Chris Lockwood]

Originally Posted by Rob Whisonant

Does your local paper have a police blotter? Every time you see a home break-in listed, contact them!

Also check with your local police or sheriff department and find out what homes where broke into each day. You may have to buy the incident reports but usually they are only a few dollars each.

You might also try the local newspaper. Many of them have a crime section where they list things like that- some may give the exact address, some say something like "1200 block of Elm St." I would think anyone living near where a break-in occurred would be a good prospect.

Just curious, if you work for ADT, how do they suggest you find customers? Really, any homeowner who doesn't already have a system is a prospect, and most of those have signs or stickers indicating that, so it's easy to find the ones that don't have an alarm.

[ShayRockhold]

Here is what I would do:

• Start a blog about home safety tips.
• Put about 10 posts on there with different tips (if you can't do it, hire someone).
• Sign up for getresponse.com so you can have a mailing list. Offer a freebie for them to sign up (free tips or a safety checklist - something).
• Submit an article to your local (the smaller, the better) paper with tips on how to keep your home safe this holiday season. Don't make it a sales letter. Put 10 tips for holiday safety or something like that - then mention about how break-ins rise during the holidays.
• At the end of the article, direct them to your blog. Your contact info should be on the blog. (You can include your phone number in the article, too.)

Wait for the leads to come in, plus you will be building a list of local people who are interested in home safety. Send out an email once a month to these people about any specials you have, plus provide free info for them, as well.

Hope that helps.

[money raker]

Originally Posted by Kristi Lane

Are you an independent contractor or employee of ADT? I'd be surprised if they don't have fairly strict rules regarding how you can advertise on their behalf. If you haven't already, I'd suggest checking with their legal department before spending any time or money.

Kristi

I am an independent contractor.

[WARRIOR_USA]

Have you tried Home Improvement | Home Repair | Home Remodeling This is how I found system installer for my house. You should give it a try..

[Killer Joe]

I used ADT for years in one of my businesses.

Here's a tip...most localities require new businesses to file a DBA (Doing Business As) in order to conduct legitimate business, or open up a business banking account.

Part of the requirement of filing a DBA is to post a notice in a local newspaper and have it run for several weeks.

Once you file that notice you are inundated with offers from every smart marketer in the local area. My advice is to be one of those smart marketers.

Scan all the local papers and contact those new business owners and sell them the benefits of using ADT.

Business owners are an easy sell. And once they sign up it will be for the life of their business, in many instances.

I loved having ADT cover my butt.

KJ

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by money raker

I am an independent contractor.

I notice no one has answered your question about how much it would cost to get a website built for you. It depends on a lot of things - you could get a decent minisite, which is a one page site, for about $100-$150. However I don't know if that's what you need.

If you get someone to upload a wordpress blog for you and custom design it, it would be easy for you to regularly upload content, which would help you rank better in the search engines.

If you start a thread in the main forum and say "I need someone to design a website for me" you should get a bunch of responses. I would recommend Ryan Leisure or Karl Warren, both of whom are on here and have excellent reputations and I've worked with them.

I completely sympathize with not wanting to go door to door. Whenever I've bought an alarm system, I found a local alarm company in the yellow pages; if someone knocked on my door honestly it would freak me out.

Are you only able to sell in a local area? If not, if you did article marketing using sites like ezinearticles you could use the articles to direct people to a website which talked about the advantages of your alarm system.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Angie's List.

[Rich Rollend]

I personally would hold off on spending a lot off money until you find out if you have a demand for your product in your area , since you don't want to travel to far. I would check police report stats, make a flyer with your information on it [amount of break ins, price, free estimates,senior discounts, ect.] have like 500 flyers printed up, ask a high school student if he wants to make a quick $20.00 have him go around and stuff mailboxes. just a thought.

[aaaball]

Word of mouth is best. You have something great for people--free installation.

All you need is a couple of satisfied customers, and you can ask them to spread the word.

I saw a guy sign up three people for installs at our daycare because he told people what he was dioing--and it was FREE.

[money raker]

I really appreciate everyones input.
I wish I could make a couple of sales first to invest in my marketing.

:[

but ill stick it out

[Chris Grable]

In addition to the police blotter.... look for marriage and birth announcements. Those folks are experiencing the sort of life changing event that will make them cvalue security a little higher.

[Maria Gudelis]

Money Raker - in addition to the IM strategites...

...you could send out postcards (direct mail) with a compelling ad copy message to 'get secure' mentioning how with the economy getting tougher, crime rates go up...(goodness, some friends of mine in Sacramento were recently robbed in a very nice neighbourhood where they would have never imagined that before)

...and that message with your irresistable offer of 'FREE installation' - call now for a free consultation - should get your phone ringing.

I've used ADT before and like the service - your target market neighbourhoods - if postcards are too $$ for you - then go for bright color flyers handing out door to door.

You could also offer FREE seminars on 'How to Keep Your House Secure in Todays' Society" or Shay's advice "home safety tips" ...at your local library or ??? and set yourself up as an expert in this topic (in addition to the blog idea to set yourself up as an authority in this)

Good luck!

[mythriver]

There are more ways to skin a cat (figuratively speaking ). In addition to knocking on doors, you may want to identify your target market, such as new homeowners who just closed escrow. You can reach many households by advertising your services by sending out mail or flyers (junk mail from the homeowners' point of view). You can obtain mailing lists by purchasing or renting the lists from mailing lists vendors. Try to Google "Mailing lists" or "Mailing services" to find the mailing lists vendors.

You can also try to advertise in local paper and PennySavers.

Don't forget the time tested "Word of Mouth." If you belong to a community or social group, such as a church, let the members know that you are in this business, and would like to help them with your service, and show them how your service can benefit them. Some owners don't like their security alarm providers, and may be just waiting to be contacted. I would also suggest that you approach your prospects with the view that they already have a system, but that you could provide them with a superior service even if it is the most expensive system of them all. Homeowners would rather buy a relatively expensive alarm system from a reliable provider than just any alarm system.

Also remember to ask for a referral from each person with whom you have built some rapport. Always leave one or two business cards with the prospect and ask them to give them to their relatives or friends who may be in need a security alarm system.

Last but not least, request a list of closed, inactive or deactivated accounts from ADT Security Services and use the list as your initial lead. This marketing strategy is mostly used by insurance agents. Your goal is to make an appointment to speak with the homeowner, offering to review the information and suggest ways you can help them to upgrade or reactivate a dormant system.

To your success!