During a recent new hire orientation I was asked one of the most important questions in any small business: Why do clients choose to do business with Intelligent Access Systems?  The answer is something many people I run into fail to articulate clearly about their business.  Thankfully for me, I’ve had many opportunities to polish my elevator pitch but it’s a good thing to continue to practice it.

The truth is that our clients choose to do business with IAS because they trust that we will always do the right thing.  Don’t get me wrong we’re not perfect and will make mistakes.  However, there are some significant differences between “doing the right thing” and “doing things right.”  The most important being that people who “do the right thing” do whatever is necessary when they don’t do something right.  When you approach every situation with this in mind you have the opportunity to become a trusted partner with your clients.

Since I have been a part of IAS, this has always been the motto.  I think I can speak for Jack Johnson and the rest of the team at IAS with this statement.  If you understand how IAS got to where it is today, you can understand why we embrace that motto.  Every office that IAS opened was a bootstrapped small business with a vision.  I know this because I was involved in starting all of them except the Atlanta office, but I’ve been around the company long enough to know how Jack started the Atlanta office too.  Each of the employees that founded the IAS offices had to build the business one customer at a time and focused on never losing a good customer.  We all understood and still understand the value of a good customer so we do everything we can to become that trusted partner who they can count on to help them make their business better.

It is my belief that our core values are the cornerstone of our success.  No reason to go into our core values as you can read them on the website, but it’s safe to say that these core values are what we live.  While they were not formalized on paper until a couple of years ago, they were being embraced as we opened each branch office.  Today, Intelligent Access Systems has grown into a much bigger organization than it was in 1991 when Jack started the Atlanta office.  We are a growing organization, but we still stand by the same principals as when we were bootstrapped and pretty much insignificant.  Our capabilities and regional presence has grown, but not because of a major sales campaign; because of word of mouth for the most part.

I think people choose to buy from Intelligent Access Systems because of who we are and not because of price or size.  Customers can always find someone bigger or smaller to partner with and can usually find someone cheaper if that is what they are looking for.  We’ve got great people at IAS and we are consistent with that we do.  We continue to invest in and develop the great people of IAS and we continue to grow as an organization.  To me, it seems that what we are doing is working so there is no reason to reinvent or change it.