Rich Thompson, president of The Standard Alarm Company, knew he had to do something about capturing his piece of the residential market in Huntington and the surrounding neighborhoods of West Virginia. He just couldn’t sit back and let another day slide without a comprehensive plan to bring in more business in the burgeoning home market.

“I drove down the streets of the neighborhoods and kept watching the ADT yard signs going up,” said Thompson, who is president of the company. “I didn’t want to think I was missing an opportunity to build my business,” he said.

Thompson is a traditional installing dealer who was doing more commercial work than residential. It wasn’t that he was having a hard time finding business, but he wanted to get a bigger slice of the residential pie. He signed up in January to become part of the Smith & Wesson (S&W) Security Services Authorized Dealer Program, offered by NationWide Digital Monitoring Co. Inc., Freeport, N.Y. NationWide Digital is a division of The New York Merchants Protective Co. Inc., a well-respected iconic industry company founded by Hyman Glass in 1910. Account monitoring for the S&W program is handled by NationWide’s central station.

“The program has given us a new direction and energy we didn’t have before,” Thompson continued. “It’s new business; business we didn’t have before. I really like the fact that with the S&W program I own the accounts and don’t have to sell them. I maintain a stake in my own business.”

9 out of 10 familiar with S&W

NationWide formally launched the program last year, banking on the success of bringing the Smith & Wesson brand name to security. And so far, Wayne Wahrsager, president of New York Merchants Protective, has been dead-on with the impression the program is making in the marketplace.

“Smith & Wesson has a 156-year reputation and in a 2004 brand awareness survey some 87 percent of respondents knew of the name,” said Wahrsager. “We know this brand awareness will help dealers get into more homes so they can get more sales,” he said. “We want dealers to keep their accounts,” he continued. “This is not an account acquisition program. This is about dealers building their recurring revenue.”

The very first dealer to sign up with the program was Technical Systems LLC, Mesa, Ariz. Bill Riley, operations manager, said despite the current challenging economic times the company pledged to stay focused on new growth opportunities.