Are you getting the most from residential markets?
December 11, 2012
Last year the majority of NAID conference attendees overlooked what turned out to be one of the best sessions at the event. To be fair, it was not really their fault. This session was added at the last minute and it was held at 6:30 a.m. in the morning. That’s right, 6:30 a.m. In fact, it was a two-part session, held at 6:30 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
Typical european house
Nonetheless, the session exploring the residential market for secure destruction did attract about 30 hearty souls. Without exception, they ranked the session among the most valuable at the conference. Several people expressed to me that it was the most valuable session they ever attended at any NAID conference.
Even with 30 plus years in this industry, I heard creative and innovative ideas at that session that bowled me over. I found myself saying, “Holy moly, that is brilliant. I can’t believe I haven’t heard of anyone doing that after all this time.”
Several of those sharing ideas had been so successful pursuing the residential market for shredding that, taken as a whole, it was one of their top five customers and was far and away the most profitable. With this in mind, you can understand why I am so excited about hosting a similar session at NAID 2013. At a time when competition for commercial accounts has turned cutthroat, the residential market represents a vast, untapped reservoir of millions of small accounts no one is chasing.
Sure, it is high hanging fruit but capturing it is worth stretching a bit. My goal is for this session in Nashville to dramatically change attendees’ perspective on this market. For the most part, it is just sitting there, waiting for you to recognize it.