Timeless Business and Building Strategies

Building a Fire and Security Empire: The Benson Systems Journey W/ Eric Benson

• Tony Johnson

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Eric Benson shares the journey of Benson Systems, a family business that evolved from a garage startup in 1986 to a thriving 75-employee operation specializing in security, fire alarm, and sprinkler systems in Arizona. 

• Father started Benson Systems in 1986 from his garage as a security contractor
• Expanded into fire alarm and suppression systems over the years
• Built a 55,000 square foot facility in 2004 that serves as their headquarters
• Company now employs 75 people including 40 field technicians
• Services major clients like Gilbert Public Schools and Arizona Cardinals
• Primarily focuses on commercial projects with 85-90% direct-to-owner business
• Access control systems have evolved from key fobs to mobile phone access
• Currently implementing EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) to structure business operations
• Shifted from reactive to proactive sales with dedicated outbound sales team
• Technology integration capabilities connect cameras, access control, security systems, and fire alarms
• Gilbert Public Schools project integrated 5,000+ devices into a central monitoring system
• Retail clients benefit from heat-sensing cameras that track customer movement patterns
• Multiple software systems create integration challenges both internally and for clients

Looking to elevate your security, fire, and life safety systems? Contact us to learn how our integrated solutions can protect your business while providing actionable insights through the latest technology.


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Tony Johnson:

Welcome to another episode of Timeless Business and Building Strategies. Today we are with Eric Benson of Benson Inc. They do security, fire and life safety. Eric, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, excited to be on. So, eric, can you give us a little historical reference on your company?

Eric Benson:

Sure, give us a little historical reference on your company. Sure, my father started it in 1986 here locally in Gilbert Arizona. He started it out of his garage, grew up as a technician in the field and decided that he could do it better and started Benson Systems. So back in 86, he was originally just a security contractor doing cameras, access control, integration, and over the years he kind of morphed into bringing on fire alarm first and then eventually brought on all the suppression, side sprinkler, special hazards, all that. And then in 2004, we built this corporate building that I'm in today still. It's a 55,000 square foot facility that we house our warehousing and our training and our office staff. I mean, at one point he had multiple offices throughout the country, but in 08, the crash, he kind of brought everything back to Arizona and then probably around what was it? When I was 21,? So it was 2011,.

Eric Benson:

After college I've been working here full time since then. I've been originally a warehouse manager, I've done technician in the field, I've done our operations management, I've done our service management, I've been our controller, I've done our operations management, I've done our service management, I've been our controller, I've been our CFO. So I've kind of done a little bit of everything and as of what. Almost three years ago I took over as CEO and I'm kind of running the helm now. So we've kind of just focused in on our security and fire protection since then Mainly commercial way back in the early days when he did some residential, but we're mainly commercial today. So we have customers like Gilbert Public Schools, arizona Cardinals, that that type of subset of customers.

Tony Johnson:

So that's a quick history. Fantastic set of customers. So that's a quick history, fantastic. So people understand that aren't in tune all the way. Eric, could you explain what access control covers?

Eric Benson:

Yeah, so usually for our customers access control is entry and exit to their building through used to be key fob, but nowadays we're even doing it to where it's like mobily on their cell phone. They don't even need to pull it out, they just wave their hand. Um, so why do they do it? I think most of the time it's either from a safety standpoint, not allowing certain people to get in, sometimes it's a convenience standpoint, uh. Sometimes it's, uh, a kind of a bottleneck to force people to go through an entry and exit. So they usually have cameras also tied to it. It's better for easy use.

Eric Benson:

Larger customers in the old days were having to give keys to people that have access control, which they would lose the keys, they would have to rekey the door. It made a very slow and manual process that access control fixed. So there's a lot of integration that goes with it as well, tied to other systems. Usually when we install an access control you have to tie it into the fire alarm because it needs to unlock when there's a fire alarm, you know. So it allows the firefighters to come in. So that's kind of high-level overview of what access control and what our customers use it for.

Tony Johnson:

Perfect. Yeah, you know. Basically we get the access control, fire alarms and the sprinklers all work in conjunction. So you know you guys are running the full gamut. A lot of times you'll have fire alarm companies that handle the security and fire alarms and then sprinklers. Only Do you guys still do sprinklers?

Eric Benson:

Yes, we do.

Tony Johnson:

So you guys are running the full gamut, so that's quite an operation. So how big is your team?

Eric Benson:

We're probably 75 people 75 people. 75 people 75 with, with probably 40 of those being technicians in the field and the rest either office staff or sales staff awesome, all right.

Tony Johnson:

So I I like to dig in a little bit on business understanding, if that's okay with you first, and then we'll get a little more in there. So you've bounced around. As you stated right, you were a controller, cfo, a technician in the field, running different departments. So, as you got all of that knowledge, where did you find your strongest suit? What were you best at in those areas?

Eric Benson:

You know I like to say I also have an older brother in the business as well that works with me. Him and I are a good fit. I've always kind of not that I dislike the operations side side, I just never found an interest in it right and more of a sales business side of like strategic, you know, businesses.

Eric Benson:

There's some other things that we used to do, uh that since I took over we kind of stopped doing and I kind of refocused. At one point we were in Californiaifornia. I brought us out of california. So more of the strategic business development. Um, we're like where the company's going and I've always loved the sales side.

Tony Johnson:

Uh, for sure so we what we call that, and I don't know if you operate on eos, but so we would call you the visionary and your brother sounds like the integrator, right uh, brought on eos last year, by the way.

Eric Benson:

Oh, fantastic, so we're. We're not quite through our first year yet, but so far we're loving it, and what you said is exactly right yeah, so you know, and those are where you get the synergy of a strong partnership.

Tony Johnson:

So sounds like you and your brother are running the ship and, you know, staying in your lane, deferring all technical questions to your brother Operational and process questions would be handled by his brother on where it's going, the vision for the future, what they're pursuing, setting the vision and the clarity for everyone in the company on where they're going. So that is fantastic, eric. So, being that you guys are one year in, that is awesome. Are you guys self-implementing this or do you have an implementer working with you?

Tony Johnson:

We have an implementer that I got introduced to. She's been fantastic, awesome, yeah. So having an implementer really fast forwards the process significantly. So always if you can afford to hire one, it's well worth it. So have you guys got your full vision traction organizer complete?

Eric Benson:

Yes.

Tony Johnson:

And do you guys hold weekly L10s? We do.

Eric Benson:

Right now it's just the leadership team. I have not got it out to the rest of the company yet. Just the leadership team.

Tony Johnson:

Sure, that's awesome. And how big is your leadership team?

Eric Benson:

As I'm sure you're aware, eos kind of makes you go through things that I think is healthy but sometimes intense. So we've had to work through some positions in the leadership team and right now it's just my brother and I right now.

Tony Johnson:

So Okay, and are you two meeting every week?

Eric Benson:

Yeah.

Tony Johnson:

Okay, all right, that's interesting. So we've been running it my company four years. So we, and yet the leadership team you know you don't want, you want to keep it at the most seven and below, what a lot of times happens in a smaller company and you want, you know, to be very careful. Eric's talking, they got 75 people. He's only at two and there's nothing wrong with that. The most important factor whenever you're starting with the OS is you don't want to bring in too many people, and if you're a company of 10 and you're bringing in seven of them as the leadership team, that's a problem having to exit some of these people and I think it's you know it speaks that you guys are very carefully considering everything as you're rolling this out. So that is, that is fantastic. Now, have you, when you're saying you guys have a VTO, have you rolled out your VTO to your company? Not, yet you have not rolled that out. Okay, when do you plan on doing that?

Eric Benson:

We have our first State of the Union, that address to the company scheduled next month, so everything's kind of starting next month scheduled next month, so everything's kind of starting next month.

Tony Johnson:

Oh, that's great. Now, when you guys have done this and I know you're saying that, you know the leadership team is tricky Do you guys use any trait profiling surveys for your team member to establish their strengths and weaknesses, to facilitate their position and right person, right seat?

Eric Benson:

You know it's funny you bring that up. I recently joined a group called YPO last year as well here locally in Arizona, part of a chapter, and inside of YPO they're known as forums. So I'm with like seven other people and we just had our forum retreat and we did like business presentations and they all talked about this on how they use these certain personality tests. We do not do that, but man, it opened my eyes with them explaining it to me. Like you are now, I would love to implement it. We do not today.

Tony Johnson:

Okay, yeah. So one that we use is called Culture Index. Now there's Predictive Index, culture Index, myers-briggs there's a large variety of them. Culture Index is great, and why we use it is it not only predicts the person by their traits, but it also puts something within it where you can continually do it. To existing employees it's got a secondary measurement which will tell you how they're feeling in their workplace, can tell you if they're in alignment or out of alignment, tells you if they're stressed and they're happy and engaged with their job, or disengaged, meaning that they might not be happy, overly stressed, looking for another job. So it's a good thing to gauge as you're moving forward. But it sounds like you guys are on the right track and that's great. Eric, that's awesome. So that is very interesting. Now, size wise, you've got 75 people, 40 in tech. So what is your structure of your company? Do you guys have a full organizational chart? Accountability chart?

Eric Benson:

Yes.

Tony Johnson:

And does everybody have one role is for one person, no overlap. Have you guys got all that? Yes, that is awesome.

Eric Benson:

My older brother's name Corey, so Corey and I are wearing multiple seats, so him and I are in multiple seats, but everyone else is in a single seat.

Tony Johnson:

That's awesome. Yeah, just to speak to what he's saying. So, even so, you've got one person, one role, and you want to build out that org chart with all the roles and responsibilities, and it might have 30, 40, 50 other seats that you guys don't have anyone to fill, as you're a growing company in any company really and so someone has to do those roles. And so, yes, as Eric's saying, you might be in multiple seats, that's OK. So, yes, as Eric's saying, you might be in multiple seats, that's okay. You want to have everything established for, when you grow, to have those seats assigned and someone to be able to fill it in eventually as you offload things that, as you grow, you get overwhelmed with. Well, eric, it sounds like you guys are rocking and rolling, so let's go a little bit into your business and find out more about your guys' business and what you're pursuing and what you're doing. So could you give us a quick rundown of the best project you're working on right now?

Eric Benson:

Open projects.

Tony Johnson:

Or one up and coming or just finished.

Eric Benson:

We're working with. I have not been given the liberty to say the company name yet, but we are working with a national brand that we're getting very close. That is like a headquartered here in Phoenix. That is like a headquartered here in Phoenix and if this first project goes well, then the goal is to perform this security work nationwide and all their satellite offices. So that's a really amazing job we're working on. One job that we actually are just finishing is Gilbert Public Schools did an RFP where like 100 and some companies showed up originally I think 35 submitted a proposal, then they went down to 12 to do presentations and then did the final three and we made it all the way and got awarded and that was a really big statement job for us.

Eric Benson:

It was upgrading the whole entire district and, for those people that don't know, gilbert Public Schools is one of the larger districts in Arizona. They have 45 schools with like another five or six facility buildings. So it was a very large project that they entrusted in us that we pretty much designed on our own and implemented over the last three and a half years. It took us to get done with that project, but that was, you know, 12 million right there alone. So that was a really big statement job and you know, one of the things that I've been really working on and and I'm sure other people that have to have a family business is taking over trying to go to the next level is, I think, is probably understanding. This is my father's been in business here locally since 86. Our name is out there. He's very well known we're.

Eric Benson:

What I like to say which is I hate saying but it's the truth is that we're kind of successful despite ourself. We get people that would call in and we're just handling inbound. That would call in and we're just handling inbound. So one of the biggest things that I've had to fix is more of an outbound sales, business development and marketing structure that we're actually going after stuff. Before it was just kind of like we would just handle inbound and people would just call and I did not have a company set up and ready to actually do some real outbound Like.

Eric Benson:

We have a sales staff, but most of them has been account managers that have just been handling accounts that we've had and keeping up with them. So that's been the biggest thing that I've been working on is, you know, I hired a sales development rep and I split up the sales team. One account manager brought another one of my sales girls over to be our account executive to only focus on outbound, and it's been interesting to get that thing set up and do it properly. But we've had massive success. Some of the more important things we're working on right now has come from this group that I would not have had if I didn't create this group. So that would be the number one thing that I had to fix is we needed a more sustainable sales staff and I also think in today's environment, like you know, I think companies are going to have to do some form of this, or I don't know if they're going to make it in today's environment, with how technology is and trying to find new opportunities technology is and trying to find new opportunities.

Tony Johnson:

Wow, Now is the majority of your work direct to owner. Or do you guys also work for GCs?

Eric Benson:

That's another unique thing. I was just at a happy hour and most of these other executives I talked to said their business through contractors is like 85%. We're quite the opposite, I would argue we're probably 85 to 90% direct end user. You know we have a large service department which is kind of unique here With other competitors of ours we have a big. You know we're probably 250,000 a month in reoccurring revenue and that that all credit to my father. I mean that's what he's focused on his whole career.

Eric Benson:

Is it's much, I don't want to say easier, but if you know, and it's it's easier for our world because if, if you know, if people know, like a lot of ours is deferred submittal anyways. So even if we were working with contractors, we're in a unique position that they look to us to make the fire protection designs and the security designs. A lot of the time security is not even involved in the contractor. That's usually direct to owner. So for us we have not gone after new construction a ton. From my standpoint we could grow fast if I said, oh, let's's go out. But that's not our core, that's not our culture. We want to be a company that goes direct in user and really a lot of companies survive off the jobs. The jobs are a nice benefit for us, but really for us it's like we want to service this company customer for the next 30 years. Like I, have lots of customers my dad originally cold called back in early 90s that we still have today. That, to me, is where the value is, so that's what we focus on.

Tony Johnson:

Perfect. So just to break this down a little bit for what Eric is saying in case you are not quite understanding so when you get the fire sprinkler, the security system put into a building and the building is complete, that's then monitored by a company, which was where his reoccurring revenue is. So what he's saying is they have built up a large, so that's where the direct to owner comes in. He's built up a large collection of people and they have serviced their accounts very well, which is why they've been able to have a long-term relationship built, because if you don't service it, there's 10 other people trying to come in and take over your service package. So you have to be competitive at that and you have to be responsive, not overpricing and gouging people, and that's how you maintain long relationships, and so building that up over the years is great. Another thing that you said that often happens, I know, in our market is for sure.

Tony Johnson:

The fire sprinkler designs are rarely thrown into a CD set from an architect and engineer. They'll do everything but the sprinklers. So then you have to go to someone like Eric and they bid the job as a basically a design build. They'll do the design, they'll submit, and it's kind of a anomaly in the project where it's kind of it's included in the scope but it's not in the drawing and and everything is put back on your type of company. So just to break that down for everybody a little bit more um, that is great. I want to get back. I'm trying to go back to some of my notes here. As you were going over so many cool tidbits, I wanted to catch a couple of things. One, if I could, just so someone else who's looking at this would understand you know you're just in Arizona and you said you were working on with a national brand, have satellite offices, have satellite offices. What would be your plan for being able to service and work someone? National satellite offices Are you. Could you go through that for us so someone would understand?

Eric Benson:

Sure, we have a couple of national accounts now and most of the time it's on our security side, not our fire protection. You know, we kind of look at it. They're both valuable. And if I had to look at our next 10 years, I keep telling my team our biggest opportunity is going to come from our fire protection side. Because if I ask the market, like people know us as a security integrator, I'm trying to fix that and make us into one of the largest and best brands when it comes to fire protection. But we're just not quite there yet.

Eric Benson:

But fire protection is kind of like a commodity. Nobody really loves to spend money on fire protection. Obviously it's needed per code. Nobody has an option. So it's more of a commodity. It's a different sales process. It's a different sales cycle than our security process. It's a different sales cycle than our security right, security is very few times you have to have it, very few. So most of time it's an option that the owner, like we have to go sell, like why they? We think this is gonna help your business, make you money, maybe help you with insurance, whatever the reason is.

Eric Benson:

So we we do a lot of and we don't do a lot of like data cabling, um, wire pulling, um. We don't do a lot of that. A lot of our competitors that's a bulk of their business we like to focus on, like the server, the end, the end product, the cameras and the integration to make it work with all the other systems in the building. So when companies come to us, they're they're taking our value. Like we have a bunch of guys we have guys, have been here for 20 plus years. I have all the certifications, so they're paying us to trust us to make sure this integrates properly.

Eric Benson:

So in that sense we have agreed that hey, like we're going to have travel and they value our services so much, we make an agreement that they're paying for these things, um, and we travel. That's usually what happens. But there's also been some times where we've had a, a national brand with like a couple hundred locations and it was more of a service level agreement and what we've done there, which all the big boys do, like the biggest conglomerates in our space. They do some work but they sub out to companies like Benson's of the world and all the local markets. We kind of done that in the past too, where we've we've hired on different brands and the other markets. So we've done a little bit of both, but most of the time it's I'll pay for whatever, because I trust you so much. Just make sure this is done properly, and that's what we're kind of talking about with this opportunity.

Tony Johnson:

Oh, that's fantastic, Something I want to touch on that you just brought up, which I think is extremely important. When we talk about, you know, looking forward to the future and business success, the technology is moving at such a rapid pace. At this moment, integration is critical. Understanding integration between softwares and communication between softwares is, to me, one of the most important facets, where I feel like a CTO is almost going to be running companies here pretty shortly. You know, the chief technology officer is probably going to be one of the most important roles in business in the next three to five years, in my opinion, and it's based upon the crazy amount of different technologies and how these things communicate and integrating them together and even with AI's help. It's it's a massive undertaking. So could you tell us a little bit about integration? What are you guys integrating? What are some of the components you're putting together and working and having them work and communicate?

Eric Benson:

Like Gilbert, for example, the original RFP was just cameras and it led into access control, which led into security, which led into fire alarm, which is kind of like an amazing use case Not many people even kind of understand, and I can't fault them. I mean, some of our competitors don't even truly understand what is possible, let alone how do we expect our customer to understand it. But, like Gilbert, we have our cameras integrated with the access control. The access control is integrated with the security and the fire alarm monitoring and it's all. On one day we built out a security operations center for them, which they have multiple TVs in a room that we built out that he has. They have two security staff monitoring and everything. All these think of them as like touch points, like devices come up into the central pane that one of our manufacturers called a Vigilon does a really, really good job. Could you imagine someone trying to look at 5,000 devices? It's kind of impossible. So they have this system that kind of turns red when you have a alert that'll pop up a certain device and if a security alarm goes off, then they have a camera tied to it that'll give them a snippet video of where that device is is going off. So that took a lot of integration from our programmers at the end of the job lots that's that pulls in all these.

Eric Benson:

We can bring in the ems system as well. There's a you. You could almost do anything nowadays and, as my father said back when he started, that was very difficult, it's almost impossible, and a lot of it was being done over phone line and it was like very antiquated In today's environment. You can almost connect anything. You're talking thermostats, ems, you know anything and everything that you can control and really bring it into a point to where the end user can actually use it Right.

Eric Benson:

A lot of times what we say is like if we find that difficult to work, how do we expect our customers to work right? A lot of times what we say is like, if we find that difficult to work, how do we expect our customers to work it right? If we can't make it very simple for them, then we almost can't sell it. We can't expect them to be the absolute experts. That's what they're paying us for. So some of these systems today make it quite amazing what they can do and a lot of time is during our sales process we're having to educate people like really you can do that Like all the time. Like the biggest one really lately is retail, is like these cameras can focus in on heat sensing to where people spend the most time in these retail stores so they can put their best product or whatever they want to do in certain areas of the store. It's like pretty amazing what these things can do now.

Tony Johnson:

Oh gosh, that's amazing. Yeah, that that is really you know you're getting. You're breaking it down to the functional reality of what these people are using for, and that's just it, to speak to what you're saying. When you're understanding these technologies and how to take advantage of them, that's how you lead as the forefront of your industry. So it sounds like you guys are doing a great job on that. That's awesome. Yeah, now what? I would say? Another piece of the integration how me, as a general contractor, looks at it. We're using upwards of 11 different softwares right now, getting the different softwares to communicate, integrate together and, you know, push pieces across different platforms. It is overwhelming, you know. And then technology is moving so rapidly that it is hard to uh, maintain one, because you get far with one, then it's outdated, you've got to upgrade to the next one and it's going so quickly it's just hard to keep up. Now I wanted to go back to one thing. Now you've said you've gotten more into outbound sales, into outbound sales With your outbound sales procedures. Do you guys use CRMs?

Eric Benson:

We do. We didn't before, right, but we, yes. Before I put a bunch of investment into this, I brought in an outside consultant that I met. I really wanted to do it right, because everyone has ideas, uh, but to actually deliver on it and get success from it is a whole different other thing, uh. So I brought, trust me, there was a lot of things that I did not know. I just know this needed to happen. So, uh, yeah, I brought in someone to kind of help set it up. And then eventually I'm at a point to where my team internally is at a point where we can run it, and eventually I'm at a point to where my team internally is at a point where we can run it.

Eric Benson:

But there's so many softwares that I'm learning over the last year. That makes things so much easier. But, to your point, right now I'm using three softwares that don't really talk to each other. So the SOP I had to put together is quite intensive. So, to your point, like we have the same same problems internally obviously not with our cameras and access, but like our business platforms, we're having the same I don't want to say problems, but the same um, challenges, concerns, and right now ai is being thrown at all of us like there's this for that, there's this for that, and it's like a little bit overwhelming, to the point, to your point, like you almost have to have someone internally that can digest all this and figure out, cause there's also a lot of things that people say they can do. It doesn't really do it. That's a lot. There's a lot of that. That's happening too.

Tony Johnson:

Right, yeah, well, that's what we're thrown in, so you'll get one software. You'll and then be told oh no, no, no, no, this software integrates better, so you would need to go to this one. It communicates better with the software. And then you'll catch yourself. Well, I just got to manually do it twice because none of them work right, and to get them done right. So it does become overwhelming. But I did love how you said you didn't know what needed to happen. But you just know it needed to happen, which is typical visionary. Right, You're bouncing all around, you got 50 ideas. Somebody's got to put this together. I just know it'll work, so that's fantastic, all right, well, man, I'm so thankful that you were able to come on.

Tony Johnson:

It sounds like you guys' business is doing great and I always recommend for any entrepreneur, any business owner, getting involved in any type of mentorship group or forums that you can go. I'm in GoBundance, I'm in Vistage, you're in what was it? Ypo, which is another one. You're in what was it? Ypo, which is another one. There's tons of them out there. There's Chief Executive Network, so I would always recommend anyone getting involved in those in order to get with other entrepreneurs and business leaders for ideas and different ways to grow your business. Eric, thanks so much for spending the time to come on with us today. We sincerely appreciate it. Thank you All right. Have a great afternoon, guys. Thanks so much.