Winning the security work buyers pay more for.
Help to win more of the monitored systems, maintenance and commercial contract work that security buyers value, in the years before a sale.
For owners three to four years from a sale, so new contracts have time to renew and show in the accounts.
Led by Martin Dugan, Head of Deal Origination.
Start with Buyer-ready presence if the online basics need attention. The growth marketing service is set out below.
What you get
- An agreed view of which contracts would do most for the business, measured on profit as well as turnover.
- Research into the commercial premises, managing agents and facilities teams that buy monitored systems and maintenance.
- Patient, direct approaches, made quietly and in your name.
- Growth paced to the engineers and officers you have.
How it works
A free first conversation
With Simon or Emily, about where the business is today.
Know where you stand
A valuation shows which parts buyers already value.
Choose the work to grow
The contracts that would do most for the business.
Make the approaches
Research, careful targeting and patient, direct approaches.
What we look at
Why the kind of work matters
Buyers separate the guarding book from the monitoring book before they price anything. A book of monitoring and maintenance agreements that renews each year tells a buyer the income carries on after you leave; a year of one-off installations tells them very little about next year.
That is why the programme's growth stage aims at the work buyers value most: monitored and maintained systems contracts, and commercial clients on longer terms.
The mix buyers look for
Manned guarding can be a sound business, but its margins are thin and its contracts come up for re-tender. Moving even part of the mix towards systems and monitoring changes how a buyer reads the whole company.
Spread matters as much as volume. New work that adds to one client's share can make the business riskier in a buyer's eyes, so growth is planned with the whole client list in view.
Choosing which work to grow
It starts with the book you have, contract by contract: which kinds of contract a buyer would value most, and where the business already has a foothold.
Timing matters. Growth work belongs three to four years out, because a buyer gives weight to contracts that have run long enough to show in the accounts.
Finding the right clients
Martin researches the commercial premises, managing agents and facilities teams that buy monitored systems and maintenance, in the areas your engineers already cover.
He makes patient, direct approaches to those prospects, without pressure and in your name, so new contracts come from conversations you chose to start. Martin's work is finding owners who are weighing up a sale before they list, and growth marketing applies the same groundwork to winning the work security buyers pay more for.
Reasons to talk
The move of monitored alarms off analogue phone lines onto digital signalling, and the protective security duties Martyn's Law brings for many venues, both give prospects a reason to review who looks after their systems.
New contracts are only worth winning if the team can service them. Growth is paced to the engineers and officers you have, so new work fills the diary rather than stretching it.
Growth a buyer can see in the accounts
More work only helps a sale if it adds profit. Nick works with you on lifting profit at the same time, looking at pricing, job mix and costs, so that growth adds profit rather than only adding work.
The two together give a buyer what they are looking for: income that repeats, from a spread of customers, at a margin that holds up.
What you'll need to have ready
- A list of your current monitoring, maintenance and guarding contracts, with their renewal dates.
- Your recent accounts, with monitoring, maintenance, installation and guarding income shown apart if you can.
- Your view of what the business does well today.
What happens after
Nick then works with you on lifting profit so the growth shows in the accounts, and later on a business that runs without you. See every stage of the programme.
Questions owners ask
When should growth work start?
Three to four years before a sale, so new contracts have time to renew at least once and show in the accounts a buyer will read.
Who leads it?
Martin Dugan, Head of Deal Origination.
Does it commit me to selling?
Buying a preparation service does not commit you to selling, or to selling through Reads.
Start with Buyer-ready presence if the online basics no longer reflect the business. Growth marketing remains available below, once the foundations are in order.
Start with where the business stands.
The free calculator gives you a starting figure for the business as it is today.