By Doc Rogers
Bodyguards need to plan strategically in order to achieve long-term career success. Obtaining BG assignments can be highly competitive; you should strive not only for optimum client protection, but also client loyalty. Client loyalty is when your clients come back because you are the best BG choice. You must provide a superior service, the best possible price, with the shortest lead-time. Let’s take a closer look at these three basics.
1. Service. Exceptional bodyguard service starts with good professional training for yourself and hiring the right people for the BG team. Carefully select BG team members who are loyal and discreet. They must have a commitment for delivering extreme levels of BG service with relentless focus in a well-disciplined and methodical manner. Having a highly-skilled BG team not only trained in protective skills, but also in excellent customer service, care and professionalism. This will provide your clients with superior service and your BG team will achieve a higher level of performance.
2. Price. The corporate bodyguard sector has been facing a big shake-up as corporations work at trimming costs. With corporate executives traveling less and with a declining protective budget, concentrate on helping them ensure BG affordability. This means maximizing your services without lowering your price. You can do this by providing complementary country briefs, fast-track passport access at airports, and other low-cost, high efficiency services. You should build your success with superior performance beyond your clients’ expectations.
3. Lead-Time. “Lead-time” is the amount of time between the clients placing an order for BG services and the receipt of the BG services ordered within a certain geographical location. Examine how you are organized and how you operate so you will not miss any global BG opportunities. You need to move swiftly to capture these opportunities and be ready at a moment’s notice. If you don’t have a passport, I suggest you get one now. If you go to a certain country on a regular basis requiring a visa, make sure it’s never expired. The world is unpredictable and ever changing.
The only constant should be your BG service dependability and reliability for your clients with rapid deployment. Also keep tabs on the potential downfall of BG manpower shortages and over commitment. Avoid this by careful and deliberate pre-planning, as well as cultivating professional associates around the world.
By following these simple procedures it will allow you to answer your clients call with confidence for today’s high tempo BG assignments in the global economy and success at the highest levels of bodyguarding.
Keep safe and God speed
Doc Rogers is the author of Corporate Executive Protection – A Manual for Inspiring Corporate Bodyguards and president and CEO of International Corporate Executive Protection Ltd. Doc has earned a Ph.D. in Security Administration from Southwest University and he is SE Asia’s leading expert on executive protection and corporate security. To learn how to make a full time living as a corporate bodyguard visit the websites below for more information
http://www.trafford.com/Bookst/BookDetail.aspx?Book=182707
http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Executive-Protection-Inspiring-Bodyguards/dp/1425135927
http://international-corporate-executive-protection.com/order.asp
Thank you Doc….you really inspiring me to make more experiencing on my journey very well…
Hi Ben, Thanks for the comment! Yes, if more individual bodyguards and EP firms put service first, they’d become an emerging force in our industry. Keep safe.
Doc, I agree with you 100%. I’m glad to see you put service as no.1. That is what is sorely missing, not just in the security industry but in the business world in general. Doing the little things really makes a difference in how your clients view you.
Ben