Maker of armor and shields seeks more consistent revenue DeWITT — Defenshield, Inc. decided to change its sales tactics by placing a different set of boots on the ground early this year. Now the 10-year-old DeWitt–based company, which manufactures bullet-, blast-, and fragment-resistant armor and shields, is laying out a path to march toward consistent 20 […]
Maker of armor and shields seeks more consistent revenue
DeWITT — Defenshield, Inc. decided to change its sales tactics by placing a different set of boots on the ground early this year.
Now the 10-year-old DeWitt–based company, which manufactures bullet-, blast-, and fragment-resistant armor and shields, is laying out a path to march toward consistent 20 percent annual-revenue growth.
“We went from hiring salespeople and trying to teach them the [defense] market to hiring military folks and teaching them sales,” says Collins White, the company’s president and majority owner. “It’s really redefined where we’re going. It’s making a big difference.”
In the last six months, Defenshield hired two military veterans to work in sales positions. And it would like to hire two more veterans for similar positions in the next six to eight months.
Sales employees with military experience seem to have more credibility when they sell to branches of the armed forces or other players in the law-enforcement industry, White contends. He also believes former military members, who typically have experience living in other countries, give the company a better chance to increase its sales in overseas markets.
“A lot of these guys have traveled,” White says. “It makes these guys more culturally aware than they could be under any other circumstances,”
Outside the United States, Defenshield has clients in eight countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Mexico, Singapore, Greece, the United Kingdom, and a “Pacific Rim” country White declined to name. Domestically, its clients include the different branches of the U.S. military as well as other government agencies like the Secret Service and FBI.
White predicts that the new veteran sales force will help the company double its revenue in 2012 to about $5 million. After that, he targets 15 percent to 20 percent annual revenue growth for up to 10 years.
Growing sales at that rate will require some other expansions at the company. White expects to hire several administrative and engineering staff members, bringing the company up to a total of 15 employees. It currently has 10 workers, and it will have 12 after it hires for its two remaining sales positions later this year.
All but one of the firm’s employees are based in Syracuse. It has one part-time worker in Idaho, who handles selling to the Air Force.
Early in the year, Defenshield also took on more space at its headquarters, which it leases in a building at 14 Corporate Circle in DeWitt. The company enlarged its footprint to 10,000 square feet from 7,500 square feet before. It leases the space from DeWitt–based Oliva Cos.
Additionally, the firm has a small branch office in Washington, D.C. to help it sell to different agencies of the U.S. government. A Syracuse–based employee typically uses that location, which does not have its own dedicated staff, about three weeks a month, White says. He is leaving open the possibility of hiring a full-time salesperson in the nation’s capital, but says he has no firm plans to do so.
Defenshield is also trying to introduce new products for different markets in order to help reach its growth targets. For example, it is coming out with a new piece of armor and ballistic glass that can be mounted on a ship’s rails to defend against pirate attacks — equipment that could be useful for the commercial shipping industry, White says.
Diversifying its customer base will help Defenshield weather dry spells in military purchasing, he adds.
“We’re not recession proof,” White says. “When Congress cuts the budget or they do contingency budgets, interim budgets, the military understands what that means, and they don’t spend. We’ve had $5 million years, and we’ve had $900,000 years. It’s important for us to even that out and show consistent growth year to year.”
White, an 11-year Air Force veteran, founded Defenshield in 2002. He owns 85 percent of the firm, while vice president and chairman of its board of directors, Richard Husted, owns 14 percent. Other minority owners hold the remaining 1 percent, according to White.