As I get older and look back, I often think of the early days of Pennington & Trim. I remember getting in my 1985 Isuzu pick-up truck and just starting driving. I was mainly a new construction alarm guy only at the time. Each day I’d have to go out and find a house that was under construction and it would have to be in the stage that was ready to pre-wire. If the Sheetrock had already been put up, it meant I’d have to hire someone to help me post wire the house since I was a one-man operation.
Detective Work
I often would find what was potentially a good prospect. That’s when some investigative work would start. It’s not like there was a sign in the front yard saying this house is built for the Jones Family. If you would like to reach them to inquire about your particular services they can be reached at this number. No, you had to find electricians, heat and air, plumbers, or just about anyone who would talk to you and answer your questions to try and find out who you could call.
Cell phone needed
Just when you had a break thru and you were lucky enough to get a name and a number you had to go to your truck and drive to the nearest payphone. Sometimes these homes would be in remote areas and you had to drive for miles just to get to a payphone. Then you had to hope you had changed. We really take for granted these days how much easier life is with our cell phones with a built-in computer, calendar, and even Siri to answer our questions.
The Sales Pitch
I would call the homeowner and most times I would get an answering machine at their house. If I was lucky enough to reach the homeowner I would have to say who I was, who I was with, and why I was calling. I would often get to talking so fast about why they needed a home security system and why they needed to pre-wire it during construction. I guess I was just so excited to actually talk to the homeowner.
Who are you?
There’s nothing like spilling your guts for 3 minutes only to have the homeowner interrupt you and say, “now what did you say your name was?” and “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of your company!” “I’m really not interested”! You drive around for hours. You finally find a house that’s a good prospect and ready to be pre-wired. You do your due diligence and detective work and actually, find out who the owner is and get a good phone number. You are so excited to actually reach them on the phone only to be shot down because they’ve never heard of your company.
Give Me The Gold Star
Even though like anything in sales you’ll be shot down and told no, there was nothing in the world better than doing all that work and actually convincing the homeowner they did need an alarm, they did need to pre-wire it during the construction stage, and most importantly convince them even though my company was less than a year old I was the guy for the job. I would leave that job with a sense of accomplishment on many different levels.
Fast Forward 26 Years
Nowadays, we are one of the largest alarm companies in Mississippi. Pennington & Trim has become a household name in the Jackson Metro area. We get many calls where a homeowner says, “yes, I’m building a house in Madison County and I need someone to give me a quote”. If they only knew…but I remember when.