Running your own business brings things that make us happy, things that upset us and things that just annoy us to the hilt. One of those annoying things is cold-calling, both receiving and making. It’s kind of a catch-22. We hate to receive marketing cold calls, but it becomes a very useful tool for us to acquire new customers. This is where our story begins.
But before we delve into that, who is your narrator for this story? My name is Nicholas Rice, a locksmith of 12 years as of this writing. Most of my experience to date has been institutional work. In 2022 I opened my own business, doing dual employment, still with my hospital as an income anchor while I build the business.
Back to my story, I was working on some of my auxiliary services, in this case visitor tracking by Threshold Security (TS). TS has some amazing products from simple log books, hall passes, sign out cards, and customized visitor passes that self-expire with a large VOID that bleeds through overnight. The particular product I was selling this day was their digital visitor kiosk/software, that scans a visitor’s driver’s license or ID card and makes them a self-expiring badge. This stops visitors from using yesterday’s name badge today.
I called a small local school district and spoke with the secretary gatekeeper to find out if the superintendent would be receptive to a marketing cold call. To my surprise, the gatekeeper transferred me directly to the superintendent. From here I knew I had but moments to either make a good impression or get disconnected. So I quickly decided upon an apology! After a quick introduction, I apologized for making an ‘unwanted cold marketing call for something you probably don’t want, but would you like to hear about it anyway?’
After a brief pause, the superintendent laughed and said she would be happy to hear about it, citing that she cannot decline a product that she doesn’t know about. We set an appointment for later that day after the students had left.
During our meeting, I showed the superintendent the visitor tracking products we could offer to improve school security, and she was interested. Afterwords, we took a walk around the high school, where we talked about other services we might deal with: lockers, keys, classroom locks, etc.
It was here when the superintendent told me she was currently in talks with a hardware supplier to supply new door locks on her classrooms and didn’t know if that was ‘too big a job.’ I inquired about what she was being quoted and if she cared for a competing quote. The classrooms currently use a Sargent Integra 7600 ‘mini’ mortise lock, with knobs on a Russwin keyway.
As it turns out the door company was quoting, in my opinion, woefully inadequate hardware: Big Brand Grade 2 classroom function, non-lockable from inside the classroom, masterkeyed Schlage C.
The issue was the school wanted several things that I, as a security professional, realized didn’t meet their functional needs. Yes it meets the legal requirements, but that is the lowest level we should focus on. The school wanted:
1. Works with their existing master.
2. ADA compliant
3. lockable and unlockable choice from inside classroom.
4. Indicators
5. Fast and easy emergency locking
Well, the Big Brand locks quoted only did #2. That’s the problem; it only met one of their five wants. I wanted to show how they could get all their needs, and many of their wants met.
A good friend and colleague told me many years ago, we are not just tradesmen, but educators in our trade. We need to make sure our customer understands the ‘Why’ of what we are offering. Because the superintendent already had some ideas of what she wanted, I knew I would have to educate this educator on some details, such as why she should hire a locksmith, why my hardware suggestion is better than the other and why brand and warranty is important.
I realized that this school, having less than 100 students, would have budgetary constraints that larger schools wouldn’t. I knew my prices would exceed the door company just supplying them, especially as I was offering to install, not just supply. My go-to brand for cylinder lockets has always been Marks, but I wanted to give options.
I offered the school these three options:
Option 1: Schlage ND Classroom Intruder with Indicator Trim: $1300 per door, which I knew was out of their budget, but I wanted to set a ceiling for continued talks.
Option 2: Marks 195DB Classroom Intruder: About $400 per door. Has no indicator but lockable from inside by key.
Option 3: Marks 175AB Entry: About $200 per door, doesn’t have an indicator, but easy to lock from inside with thumb turn. But I discovered a monkey on this.
As said above, quality and warranty are very important. With high enough quality, you are less likely to need to replace hardware, and a good warranty means if something fails out of the ordinary, you want it covered. One thing I love about Marks USA is their lifetime mechanical warranty. So I sat down to talk about quality, function, warranty, and prices with the superintendent.
Option 1 was tossed almost as quick as she laid eyes upon it; then we discussed options 2 and 3. The superintendent opted for option 3 because of cost constraints. I felt confident in this hardware, having used Marks hardware for many years. And due to the very low number of students, I calculated the much lower level of abuse they could inflict.
This is where my Monkey comment comes into play. I know Marks warranty from discussions over the years; however I had never read it fully (it’s short), nor had I noticed a note at the very bottom. “Additionally, the company will not warrant ANS A156.2 Grade 2 lever product installed in educations facilities and student housings.”
Well this is when my ego hit me in my gut. I had touted their lifetime warranty, so should something fail, there is a very low likelihood that they would have to shell out more funds in the future. So now I was stuck with an ethical dilemma, risk my contract and let them know or not. After a weekend of prayerful thought, I decided I would come clean with my customer. As Dave Ramsey has said “Never come into my office and leave your monkey,” and what a monkey did I have. So I came up with five options to solve this Monkey
1. Install the Grade 2, and IF a warranty issue comes up, I obfuscate where they are installed.
2. Install the Grade 2, and IF a warranty issue comes up, I eat the cost for life.
3. We can change up to a Grade 1 Marks, raise the price by just cost difference.
4. We switch to a brand I have never used that is Grade 1 and has alright reviews, and I eat the price difference.
5. They can cancel due to feeling I have ‘bait and switched’ them.
After discussion, the superintendent tossed out number five on the spot, and any trust issue was removed by me being honest about my mistake. The Superintendent opted for option 4, so we switched up for LSDA 5000 Lever sets, entry function. For those unfamiliar, LSDA is a house brand for IDN Hardware, and the warranty as given to me is: “If it breaks call, we’ll make it right.” So, I felt it was a good compromise to the Marks 195 I would have sold in option three.
Part 2 of this article will cover the installation.
Nicholas Rice owns Nick’s Lock and Key, serving Battle Creek, Marshall and Coldwater in southwest Michigan.
