CEO of Zeus Fire & Security Speaks at Fall DMP Executive Dealer Roundtable
Richmond, Virginia – DMP, a manufacturer of intrusion, access control and fire alarm systems based in Springfield, Missouri, hosted its 2022 fall Executive Dealer Roundtable last week at the Omni in downtown Richmond, Virginia.
The event highlighted a great line up of speakers and topics, including:
- Marketing and branding: Presented by Jeremy Bates, President of Bates Security in Lexington, Kentucky, and Ken Kocher, President of Force Security in Manassas, Virginia.
- Setting your company apart by using The Monitoring Association’s IQ Certification Installation Quality standards: Presented by Tim Creenan, President of Amherst Alarm, Amherst, New York.
- How to operate your business at peak performance: Presented by industry finance and valuation expert Barry Epstein, president of Vertex Capital.
- How to consistently deploy 6 or 6,000 systems and keep the installs going smoothly: Presented by Don Fruhwirth, Director of Product Management at Interface Security Systems in Earth City, Missouri.
The most valuable session, as rated by the event’s attendees, featured Scott Elkins, CEO of Zeus Fire & Security in Paoli, Pennsylvania. Elkins presented two sessions, anchoring the first day and kicking off the second to share excerpts and concepts from Jim Collin’s best-selling business books: Good to Great, Built to Last and Great by Choice.
According to Elkins, selections from these and other of Collins’ books creates a ‘common language’ for teams. This common language allows for a shorthand for leaders communicating on opportunities or issues which not only aligns your company on the values and strategy that you have selected to guide your decision-making but saves valuable time and provides focus on topics by quickly assessing and determining the best approach to execute your solution. The first in the series of Collins books, Good to Great, has attained long-running positions on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Business Week best-seller lists and has sold over 2.5 million hardcover copies.
Elkins has had the opportunity to hear directly from and speak with Collins on several occasions, and he gives Collins high praise on his series of bestselling business books.
"Collins has provided me and my business with this common language that I have used throughout my career to clearly and effectively communicate what is most important to achieving our organizational goals. This becomes even more important to us as we continue to scale our organization with a nationwide footprint,” says Elkins, who has just taken the helm of Zeus Fire & Security which has quickly grown and includes the national account provider Universal Atlantic Systems based in Philadelphia, Alert Alarm Holdings based in Hawaii, and SMG Security based in Chicago.
DMP’s Executive Dealer Roundtables, hosted twice a year, is celebrating its 10th year in 2023 and will take place in San Diego, CA in the spring and St. Augustine, FL in the fall. While the event includes speakers from DMP, it focuses most importantly on presentations from dealers, allowing executives to share best practices with each other.
“I attended the DMP Roundtable as a new dealer and found tremendous value in not only learning more about DMP and getting to know the DMP team better, but also in the overall networking with other dealers and talking about how DMP helps their businesses. Plus, the opportunity to talk with my counterparts about other pain points in their businesses and what they are doing to overcome the various obstacles is always time well spent.” said Melissa Brinkman, CEO of Custom Security, Rochester, Minnesota.
“Our RMR from access control has grown dramatically the past few years and this is a direct result of networking with other dealers at a (DMP) Roundtable event. Where else can you talk to your competitors (and fellow DMP dealers) about how they're growing their businesses and dealing with the challenges we all face as alarm dealers.” added Gene Earhart, Partner-President, Wellington Security Systems, Minneapolis, Minneapolis.
The annual roundtable meetings are just one of many training and networking opportunities for DMP dealers. DMP also hosts its annual Owners Forum with presentations focused on ways dealer owners can continue to grow their businesses. DMP’s Dealer Award recipients are also honored at the annual event, hosted the day before ISC West in Las Vegas.
“I've had the wonderful opportunity to attend six consecutive Executive Roundtables... I always learn, I'm always challenged, I always make new or strengthen existing relationships with other owners and I always grow. So, despite our always busy selves, why wouldn't you want to invest in yourself, your company, your now and your future? I will. Can't wait to see you all again this February in San Diego.” says Chris Hill, COO of Sentry Alarms, Monterey, California.