Guardian Dealer Program Review

Overall:B+
Multiples: A-
Coverage: B-
Reputation:A
Ease of Working With: B+

The Good:

The Guardian dealer program has an excellent mix of high dealer satisfaction, high multiples, large coverage area, and impressive software offerings for its security dealers. They are privately owned and do not have to answer to investors looking for a quick return.
They are also very flexible when it comes to available equipment and price points, and offer funding daily instead of weekly like most other security dealer programs.
Guardian also has a special program for home builders, so if you work with home builders you should strongly consider Guardian as an alarm dealer program. They also have a unique equity builder program which helps dealers finance accounts to keep in house and grow revenues.

The Bad:

Guardian is a relatively small security dealer program in terms of producing dealers, although they have a large footprint. Their largest dealer produces more than half of the total dealer business, and their top 5 are responsible for close to 90%. This can be both good and bad depending on your perspective, but the one large dealer they have is a master dealer and carries a lot of sway. There is a good chance that unless you are producing more than 20 accounts monthly, you would get shuffled underneath this master dealer.
Guardian has branches that some dealers could potentially have to compete with. They are also on the slow side when it comes to signing on, so be patient if you choose Guardian.

The Ugly:

This one has more to do with customers. A strong preference for 5 year contracts that contain a 5 year auto-renew clause is the most customer unfriendly policy I’ve seen in a long time. Selling that clause is not an easy pill to swallow.
Pick them if: You want to have a large footprint and a very long term relationship.
Stay away if: You can’t consistently produce volume