The top SDM 100 companies reported that the market in 2023 — whether they deemed it average or excellent — was largely defined by a few key factors: inflation, an emphasis on video technology advancements and the continuing workforce shortage.
Looking at this year’s SDM 100 report you might be tempted to think that the majority of the top 100 security dealers had a fantastic, boom year in 2023. And as an aggregate, they did. Numbers were up across the board, with total RMR increasing 7 percentage points over last year, to $714 million, the highest number since 2016. Total annual revenue increased 8 percentage points to its second highest amount in a decade, also behind 2016. Residential and non-residential sales revenues increased by 33 and 10 percentage points, respectively. Profits were also up by 6 percentage points. Even total annual subscribers, which had been slowly declining over the past several years, bumped up by 2 percentage points.
But these numbers, as good as they are, don’t show the whole picture. While a healthy number of those who added comments to their surveys indicated 2023 was strong, many others described it as average, or even declining, particularly in light of higher interest rates and inflation in 2023. Yet, most of these companies posted increased profits and RMR even if they indicated it was a weaker overall year. How did they do it?