ACS Security is proud to support the career journeys of our employees. For this blog post, we are featuring two of our sales consultants: Manny Kourkelian and Henry Martinez, who started out as technicians and made the transition to sales.

Manny Kourkelian

Manny Kourkelian worked as a technician for about 5 years, was promoted to Installation Manager and finally decided to transition into sales. He made the switch because in his words, “I was confident I could walk into any building or facility and be able to engineer an alarm system and know exactly what it would take to get it done.”

“Being a technician has allowed me to carry over skills that help me envision how to get an installation done. This translates into confidence with the client and an ingenuity that helps me stand out from other sales experiences the client may have had in the past. Utilizing attic space, crawl space and even sidings on homes to get wires from one location to another is usually half the battle with any installation. Once that is secured, the rest is muscle memory with the installation and programming aspects of being a tech. This leaves the client feeling like they are in capable hands…that’s because they are.”

Manny’s top security tips:

• Make sure your home is nicely lit up, burglars hate bright homes
• Utilize old security hacks, like a dowel in the sliding glass door frame, to slow burglars down and force them to enter in a way that the alarm will be triggered
• Utilize window locks for sliding windows. This prevents the window from being opened further than where you set the lock
• Secure your electrical box with padlocks, combination locks, etc.
• Do not post on social media when you plan on leaving out of town; instead post about your trip after you return
• I always recommend Video Shield. With the service soon to be available on Wi-Fi cameras, it will be a staple in every customer visit I have. 

Henry Martinez

Henry worked as a technician for 25 years before making the transition to sales. He decided to go into sales because he had gone as far as he could as a tech and sales provided more opportunities for growth. Plus, he found that he really enjoyed designing and engineering custom systems.

“Whenever I meet with a client, I always tell them that I have 25 year’s experience as a technician so that they are aware that I have a complete understanding of how our products work, and how they are installed, etc. This allows me to know exactly what I’m talking about since I have installed almost everything out there. I can anticipate any issues that might come up and can make recommendations and point out any vulnerable areas of the client’s property.”

Henry’s top security tips:

“Lighting! Add as much exterior perimeter lighting throughout your property. Intruders like to hide in the shadows so make your home less vulnerable to them. Use Smart Home devices to operate your lights. Another security tip I always tell my clients: don’t leave packages unattended in front of your home for long periods of time. Use our patrol services to move packages out of sight. 

The products I most recommend to my clients are ACS Video Shield and Outdoor Early Detection.”